In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the person who is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths is Friar Lawrence, the priest. It is his fault because he is the one who marries them thinking it will fix everything, he is the one who makes the plan that falls apart, and it is a lot his fault that the plan fell through.
It is Friar Lawrence’s fault because he is the one who marries Romeo and Juliet. He thinks that marrying them will end the feud between the families. In act 2 scene 3, Romeo comes to Friar Lawrence’s cell to ask if he can wed him and Juliet. Friar says, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” Friar thinks if Romeo and Juliet wed the Capulets and Montagues will stop fighting and start loving each other. This is not a good decision because if the feud doesn’t stop, which it doesn’t, Romeo and Juliet will still be married, and will make more fighting than before.
Friar Lawrence is also to blame because he is the one who designs the pan that ends up falling apart. His plan was for Juliet to say she would marry Paris, then pretend to die with a special sleeping potion, then tell Romeo of the plan and when Juliet wakes up, they will run away together. In act 4 scene 1, Juliet is very upset because Romeo is banished, her father is forcing her to marry Paris or else she is thrown out into the streets, and her nurse thinks she should also marry Paris. Juliet says she’d rather kill herself than marry Paris, so Friar tells her, “If, rather than to marry County Paris/ Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself/ Then is it likely thou wilt undertake/ A thing like death to chide away this shame/ That cop’st with death himself to ‘scape from it/ And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy.” This is Friar telling Juliet that if she’d really rather die, than if she dares he will give her the solution, which is to pretend to die, which is a bad plan because if one thing goes wrong then everything falls apart.
Then it’s Friar’s fault because the plan fails. First what happens in act 5 scene 1, Balthasar sees Juliet being buried and tells Romeo, “Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument/ And her immortal part with angels lives.” Then, once Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, he leaves from Mantua and goes back to Verona, before getting the letter telling him that Juliet is not actually dead, (and buys poison.) Then he breaks into Juliet’s tomb and sees Paris and they fight and he kills him. Then in act 5 scene 3, Romeo drinks the poison and says, “Here’s to my love (drinking) O true apothecary/ Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” Then after Romeo dies, Juliet wakes up and tells Friar Lawrence who came to take her away to go on without her. Then she wants to drink the poison but Romeo drank it all so Juliet says, “Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger/ This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.” So since all this went wrong, instead of his plan working, they both end up dead.
All in all, the whole catastrophe of Romeo and Juliet, the person responsible for this is Friar Lawrence. It is his fault because he is the one who weds the two of them thinking it will solve the long lasting grudge between Montagues and Capulets, he is the one who schemes the whole plan to have everything work out, when everything turns out the exact opposite. Some faults may fall on other characters, but the Friar has the most responsibility of the heartbreak of Romeo and his Juliet.
