Jared Candelaria
Ms. Maniglia
English 10-h
February 8, 2014

Responsibility

Responsibility is defined as the state or obligation of having a duty to deal with or having control over an action, event, person, or object. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the idea of responsibility for the tragedy at the end of the play is explored. In the play, many characters contributed indirectly or accidently to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence is responsible because he believed that it was a good idea to keep Romeo and Juliet’s relationship a secret from each other’s respective families. The two lovers themselves, Romeo and Juliet, are also responsible for their own demise for acting upon their love far too quickly, their decision to hide their affection from their family, and ultimately taking their live over the fact that their respective lover was dead.

Friar Laurence, serving as the advisor to Romeo and Juliet, is shown to be partially responsible for the tragic deaths of the young couple for believing and choosing to keep their relationship a secret. When Romeo came to the Friar and asked him for his consent to marry Juliet, he said: “Oh, she knew well. Thy love did read by rote that could not spell. But come, young waverer, come, go with me, in one respect I’ll thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (2.3. 88-93). From this statement, Friar Laurence apparently believed that he was doing the right thing, as he thought him marring Romeo and Juliet would end the feud between their two families. He did this despite, Romeo having only met Juliet a few hours early and had again only fallen with a girl over her looks as he did with Rosaline. Since, Friar Laurence didn’t inform neither person’s respective parents of their relationship and marriage and instead chose to remain secretive of it, this