Topic 6: 'The families are to blame for the tragedy.' Is this your view?
             The Prince held the feuding families, and their hatred for each other, responsible for the tragic deaths of their children:
             Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague?
             See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
             That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!'
             But was it entirely their fault? Their families' enmity and attitude towards each other did bring around these unfortunate turn of events, but Romeo and Juliet's hasty actions, their friends' good intentions gone wrong and fate's intervention also played a key role in their catastrophic end.
             Romeo and Juliet's problems arose from the hostility between the two feuding families. It was because of the hatred between their families that Romeo and Juliet had to conceal their love for each other, meet behind their families' backs and marry in secret. They knew, from the moment they found out that they were enemies by birth, that their love would be forbidden: 'My only love sprung from my only hate! That I must love a loathed enemy.' (I.v.137-140) It was because of the loathing between the two families that Romeo and Juliet went through so much pain and suffering to keep their love undisclosed.
             The Capulets and Paris' eagerness to marry Juliet also contributed to their troubles. Even though all Juliet's father wanted was the best for her, his constant pushing for her to marry Paris forced Juliet to panic and think irrationally: 'O bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,/From the battlements of any tower,/' (I.iv.77-78) Paris didn't help Juliet's situation much either. He was persistent in his pursuit for her hand in marriage and her love: 'So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.' Not only did Romeo and Juliet have to hide their love from their parents, they also h
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