Responsibility In Romeo And Juliet Essay
Thumbs Up for Responsibility
Most teenagers try to blame others for their problems and attempt to justify themselves as faultless. Some teenagers blame their teachers for undesirable grades in order to escape the responsibility and consequences of their poor work ethics. Shakespeare disapproves how teenagers act and applies this idea in Romeo and Juliet when he portrays characters like the Montagues, Capulets, Prince and Friar Lawrence as people that deny responsibility. Similar to the teenagers, these characters consistently blame fate for events in the story. Thus, Shakespeare depicts fate as a scapegoat to assert that people use fate to avoid the responsibility of their actions or inactions. Specifically, Shakespeare depicts …show more content…
A person aware of a plan to commit a crime will receive punishment just as severe as the person who committed the crime. The characters think that fate prevents them from taking action and punishes them for inactions. After the Montagues and Capulets see the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, the Prince declares that fate punishes the families for the brawls, and punishes him “for winking at [their] discords” (Shakespeare 241). The Prince believes that fate decided to punish him by killing “his dear blood”, Mercutio (Shakpeare 129). This suggests that the Prince uses “[the] [heavens]” as a scapegoat so he can comfort himself by the thought that he did not directly cause Mercutio’s death. Unlike the Prince, although Friar Lawrence blames “lamentable chance” Friar Lawrence made an effort to try to send the letter to Romeo regarding Juliet’s fake death (Shakespeare 231). But when Friar Lawrence finds out that Romeo never received the letter, Friar Lawrence thinks “unhappy fortune” prevented the delivery (Shakespeare 219). Despite his age and knowledge, Friar Lawrence acts just as irresponsibly as the teenagers Romeo and Juliet when Friar Lawrence blames fate for events caused by him. Friar Lawrence has power to carryout Romeo and Juliet’s scheme and the Prince has power to stop the duels between the families yet both characters blame fate when they
Most teenagers try to blame others for their problems and attempt to justify themselves as faultless. Some teenagers blame their teachers for undesirable grades in order to escape the responsibility and consequences of their poor work ethics. Shakespeare disapproves how teenagers act and applies this idea in Romeo and Juliet when he portrays characters like the Montagues, Capulets, Prince and Friar Lawrence as people that deny responsibility. Similar to the teenagers, these characters consistently blame fate for events in the story. Thus, Shakespeare depicts fate as a scapegoat to assert that people use fate to avoid the responsibility of their actions or inactions. Specifically, Shakespeare depicts …show more content…
A person aware of a plan to commit a crime will receive punishment just as severe as the person who committed the crime. The characters think that fate prevents them from taking action and punishes them for inactions. After the Montagues and Capulets see the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, the Prince declares that fate punishes the families for the brawls, and punishes him “for winking at [their] discords” (Shakespeare 241). The Prince believes that fate decided to punish him by killing “his dear blood”, Mercutio (Shakpeare 129). This suggests that the Prince uses “[the] [heavens]” as a scapegoat so he can comfort himself by the thought that he did not directly cause Mercutio’s death. Unlike the Prince, although Friar Lawrence blames “lamentable chance” Friar Lawrence made an effort to try to send the letter to Romeo regarding Juliet’s fake death (Shakespeare 231). But when Friar Lawrence finds out that Romeo never received the letter, Friar Lawrence thinks “unhappy fortune” prevented the delivery (Shakespeare 219). Despite his age and knowledge, Friar Lawrence acts just as irresponsibly as the teenagers Romeo and Juliet when Friar Lawrence blames fate for events caused by him. Friar Lawrence has power to carryout Romeo and Juliet’s scheme and the Prince has power to stop the duels between the families yet both characters blame fate when they