The end of this story is always the most talked about. Romeo and Juliet are two immature children who kill themselves just to be with each other (just crazy!). How can you love someone you have only known for a few days? The relationship between these two is based off of lust more than love because the attraction is superficial, they do not know each other well enough to be in love. This is shown earlier in the story based on Romeo's relationship with Rosaline; once he realized she wasn't interested in him, he fell out of love with her very quickly,and once he saw Juliet he was immediately in love with her.
If there is anyone to blame it would definitely be Friar Lawrence. Romeo and Juliet were young and looked to Friar Lawrence for help; however, the Friar ended up getting them both killed. The Friar should have been more of the voice of reason instead of coming up with a plan that could go wrong in so many ways. He could have hidden Juliet until Romeo could come for her instead of staging her death. Communication was much more difficult back then so the fact that the letter didn't make it to Romeo isn't all that surprising. Also if he had made it to the tomb quicker then he would have intercepted Romeo and been able to explain the situation before he drank the poison.
Friar Lawrence even got Paris killed in the process of this plan. Paris was one of the innocent ones in this story. He was minding his own business, going through the proper procedure to marry his wife. Romeo just came in and stole Juliet. I do not agree with arranged marriages but given the time period it was pretty common. Paris was just collateral damage in the mess of events that surrounded Romeo and Juliet's short-lived love story.
Lastly, the matter of the two families. How can the feud end so quickly after years and years? I guess both of the families new the feud was pointless but were just keeping it going because it was almost a tradition? The death of both of their children may have finally forced them to admit that neither side really knew the reason for the feud and they just decided to end it. Once again this is a side of the story where Shakespeare leaves out details because they aren't as important to the main plot of the story. What happened after that night? Did Friar Lawrence get arrested for assisting in the "murders"? Just a few questions that are left unanswered by Shakespeare.
I definitely agree with your post and your picture is funny! That picture describes what happened in Act 5 perfectly. Friar Lawrence could've helped the situation, instead he got both Romeo and Juliet killed. Everything could have been avoided if he had come up with a better plan. I also agree with the fact that the death of Romeo and Juliet could have been avoided if both families resolved the reason why they disliked each other in the first place. Side note: Why fake your own death though? I thought that was ridiculous. Both families wasted all that time having a dispute about something that was probably irrelevant during the death of their children. I guess Shakespeare wanted to leave us questioning the play.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, especially about the feud ending. It's like they died and then everyone else was like "Okay we can stop fighting now I guess". They were fighting to a point where they couldn't even remember what they were fighting about, so how could they just decide to get along so quickly?
ReplyDeleteI think you're absolutely right that Friar Lawrence played a huge role in both Romeo and Juliet's death. A lot of this is his fault. The feud ending bothered me just a little bit, because they knew that the fight wasn't worth it, but they didn't get that soon enough.
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