Romeo & Juliet - Who is responsible for there deaths?

Everyone has a theory about who was ultimately responsible for the untimely death of the young love struck couple, Romeo and Juliet. However, in my opinion, there is more than one perpetrator and I plan on presenting the many different options. Although there are many people that could be held accountable for the demise of Romeo and Juliet, we will ultimately leave the final decision up to you.

Perpetrator number one is the Apothicary. “put this in any liquid thing you will, and drink it off; and if you had the streangth of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight” is what the Apothicary said befor handing Romeo the poison that would be the death of him. Now, the poison is what officialy killed Romeo and because of Romeo’s death, Juliet commited suicide, howeverthere are reasons that Romeo

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The substance she received and drank put her to sleep for a lengthy period of time. But where did he get the concoction from and why did he have to give it to Juliet in the first place? There are actualy more then a few reasons that the Friar felt obligated to plot a plan and give Juliet the potion to drink, which brings me to the next possibility. Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet were trying to force Juliet into marrying a young wealthy man named Paris. He is the one that gave Juliet the sleeping concoction which caused the havoc ahead that you allready know about. Now you might say how could she have

caused the death of Romeo, but basically she did. Therefore, even though the Apothicary sold Romeo the poison, its not necessarily his fault. When Balthasar saw her and thought she was dead, he immediately reported to Romeo and you know what happens from there.

Perpetrator number 5, is the Capulet family. Balthasar diliverd the news od Juliets “death” to Romeo in Mantua, resulting in Romeo’s purchase of the drugs from the Apothicary to kill himself. This is why Juliet was forced to see the Friar because her parents could not know about her marriage to Romeo, a sworn enemy of the Capulet family.

Perpetrator number three is Juliet. went to the Apothicary that are the fault of others. Therefore, essentially it is Balthasars fault for the death of both Romeo and Juliet but there is still more behind the story so maybe Balthasar isn’t the culprit afterall. Really, you could pick any character in the story to blame for any given reason you could imagine, but try to think of it this way: no matter who you pick, can he or she really be held accountable for someone else’s action?

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. But even then, is it there fault for the suicides of the young couple, or does it go even further then this?

In conclusion, you could keep going back and back and find Benvolio and Mercutio at fault for taking Romeo to the Capulets party, or even Paris’e mother for giving birth to him.

Approximate Word count = 541
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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