Decisions in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

The tale of Romeo and Juliet is filled with many tragic deaths, but there is a reason for such a tragedy to befall our two star-crossed lovers. In the tragedy novel, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, two lovers during the Renaissance period are faced with many obstacles in their love. The Capulets and the Montagues have had a longstanding feud, with Romeo and Juliet at the heart of it all. The two lovers get to each other a step too late and both end up dying, ending the feud that last plagued Verona for years. Romeo and Juliet’s teenage behavior, along with Friar Lawrence’s creative plans for the secretly married couple led to the couple’s death.

Romeo is a teenager who makes rash decisions that he cleans up poorly. Right after the couple’s secret marriage, Benvolio and Mercutio find themselves in a standoff against Tybalt, Petruchio, and other Capulets. When Romeo gets to the scene he sees both Mercutio and Tybalt in the middle of a fight. Not willing to see both of them get hurt, Romeo irrationally decides to get in between the two of them. Tybalt seeing this opportunity stabs Mercutio and runs away with the rest of the Capulets. After Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt he furiously asks Romeo “Why the devil came you between us?/ I was hurt under your arm” (Shakespeare 3.1.98-99). Romeo, by coming in between the clashing sword allowed for Tybalt to unfairly stab Mercutio right under Romeo’s arm. After Mercutio dies Romeo is filled with rage, unable of controlling his emotions, Romeo kills Tybalt exiling himself from Verona. When Romeo arrives at Juliet’s tomb, he cannot control his grief and immediately decides that he “will stay with [Juliet], and never from this palace of dim night [will he] depart again” (Shakespeare 5.3.106-108). After seeing Juliet’s seemingly dead body he does not think to investigate it even for a second to find what may have killed her or if she was even dead. His grief clouded his judgment making him kill himself when only a minute or two behind, Friar Lawrence was rushing to get to the tomb to explain to Romeo. Juliet, being equally as irrational as Romeo, kills herself leading to the final death of the couple.

Juliet was an innocent thirteen-year-old teenager until she met Romeo, making her more impatient and irrational. After her marriage to Romeo, she continually hides the fact of her marriage from her parents. This means that her parents continuously still are trying to get Juliet married to someone like Paris. Because Juliet has not explained to her parents that she has already married Romeo, her father is forcing her to go “with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or [he] will drag thee on a hurdle thither” (Shakespeare 3.5.154-155). If Juliet would have told her parents that she was already married to Romeo, her parents wouldn’t have been so forceful in marrying her to Count Paris. And because of how desperate she was in not marrying Paris, she confronts Friar Lawrence saying “Give me, give me!/ O, tell not me of fear” (Shakespeare 4.1.122)! She immediately drinks the sleeping vial without thinking about any of the consequences of taking the sleeping vial. This rash decision and the situation Juliet was put in led her to drink the vial on the day of her wedding unaware that it would cause Romeo’s death. Friar Lawrence, the one who orchestrated the marriage and the plans for the star-crossed lovers also leads the couple to their deaths.

A close friend of Romeo’s, Friar Lawrence, comes up with creative plans to help Romeo and Juliet with their marriage and love. Friar Lawrence is a friendly Franciscan Friar who is a close friend of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo comes to ask Friar Lawrence about his marriage to Juliet, Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that one shouldn’t obsess too much over love, but then he says “Young waverer, come, go with me, In one respect I’ll thy assistant be” (Shakespeare 2.3.89-90). Although Friar Lawrence tells Romeo to not be so hasty with love, he is being hasty in marrying Romeo and Juliet. By marrying Romeo and Juliet so early on Friar Lawrence increases the problems they have to face among their 2 families. A letter telling Romeo that Juliet drank a sleeping vial was never delivered to him because Friar John was “sealed up [within] the doors and would no let [him] forth” (Shakespeare 5.2.11). That letter was one of the huge deciding factors in Romeo’s death. If Friar Lawrence took it upon himself to personally make sure a letter that important got to Romeo, then Romeo might’ve never died. At the end of things, Friar Lawrence, Romeo, and Juliet all made decisions that inevitably led to the death of the two star-crossed lovers.

Romeo and Juliet’s rash teenage actions are intensified with Friar Lawrence’s instantaneous plans leading ultimately to their deaths. Although the long-standing feud between the Capulets and the Montagues can be attributed to many unfortunate deaths. Inadvertently the trio made many poor decisions that they built upon with more rasher ones. Understandably, Romeo and Juliet made some poor decisions because of them being teens, but Friar Lawrence and his enthusiasm to try to keep the couple together push them closer and closer to their deaths.