Death In Romeo And Juliet

Perhaps the most widespread love story is that of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The story details the encounter, the love, and the death of the two nominal characters. As the “pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”, Shakespeare leaves the reader wondering if the death was necessary (prologue.6). The story is full of twists, and turns, but one can’t help rooting for the young couple in spite of the inevitability of their deaths. The play incites the question: was the death of these two characters necessary, or could there have been an alternative, in which they lived happily together? In order to fully address this issue, the couple’s potential should be examined as well as the couple’s reality. Although it seems that the couple could’ve lived happily ever after (given the right circumstances), Shakespeare appeases his audience by denying them the reality of the couple’s fate, had they lived.
The first glance into the couple’s potential is seen at the …show more content…
Friar Lawrence is mostly interested in helping Romeo and Juliet in order to stop the feud between their families, and change their “households' rancor to pure love” (2.3.92). Because of his focus and dedication to working out the feud, he seemingly does anything to help. After his plans start going haywire, he continues to do whatever he can, which includes hiding Romeo at one point (3.3). Even more extremely, as he was a friar, he was dedicated to the couple’s cause enough to lie for them, outright, and tell Juliet’s family that she was happy in heaven (4.5). The friar, if no one else, can be thought of as a physical manifestation of the sort of dedication that the couple had to success, and was actual evidence that the couple had some help through good and bad times. He had more dedication to their relationship than anyone else, and the only thing that broke up his dedication was their

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