Duality Of Blame In Romeo And Juliet

The Duality of Blame Terrible things happen, that’s a fact, but when they happen, who or what is to blame? In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the famous star-crossed lovers end up committing suicide and dying in each other's’ arms. Almost every event in this play added up to this result, but the four major events- the two meeting, the two marrying, Romeo being sent away, and the fake death of Juliet and real suicides- are evenly split between the two causes, fate and personal choices. Because of this, the roles of fate and the choices of the characters both had aon equal impact on the characters from this play. Going in chronological order, the first main event, Romeo and Juliet meeting, was caused by fate. As with the entire play, a chain of events led up to that moment, which began with an illiterate servant who said, “God gi’ go-den. I pray, sir, can you read?” (p. 192). In this quote the servant and Romeo and Benvolio all happened to
It began with Mercutio and Tybalt almost jokingly fighting. Romeo, though, was worried and tried to end the fight, but instead inflicted more damage. When Romeo comes in between the two, Tybalt’s sword pierced Mercutio from under Romeo’s arm, delivering the blow that would cause the deaths of all of them. Mercutio said, “Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.” (p. 231), and Romeo responded, “I thought all for the best”(p. 231). This incident, at least, was an accident. Tybalt had not intended to kill Mercutio, but Romeo messed them up by trying to pull Mercutio away. Romeo didn’t intend for him to be killed either, he was just attempting to stop the fighting. Because Mercutio died, Romeo was filled with anger, and in order to avenge Mercutio, decided to kill Tybalt, which led to his banishment. Romeo demanded that Tybalt duel him, saying “And fire-eyed fury be my conduct