Period 4 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare’s tragedy
Romeo and Juliet is full of death and despair. This is
the basic structure of such forms of literature. But who is to blame for the death of the stars of the play, Romeo and Juliet?
It is very clear that Tybalt is to blame because of his neglect to stop the first fight in the play, his attack on Romeo, and the chain reaction that ensued following those events
. In fact,he is not only responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, but also his own death along with Mercutio, Paris, and Lady Montague’s death as well. In the first scene, the servants of the Montagues and Capulets continue their feud with the third brawl in the streets in recent weeks
. Benvolio and Tybalt emerge as the leaders of each sides. Benvolio responsibly offers to stop the fight, yet Tybalt ignores his request and even continues to fuel and intensify it. This rowdy behavior is seen again a couple scenes later when he spots Romeo at a Capulet party and immediately wishes to attack him. Lord Capulet seems to suppress Tybalt’s anger momentarily when he disallows Tybalt to ruin his party, but in the following scenes, it reemerges. Tybalt does decide to exact his revenge on Romeo for his attendance at the
Capulet party.
Romeo does not want to fight his tedious newlyrelated brotherinlaw, so Mercutio gallant ly jumps in to defend Romeo’s honor. It does not take long until
Mercutio is bloodied and as we later find out, dead. Romeo, infuriated by his best friend’s passing, springs into action and kills Tybalt. Soon, the Prince discovers these details, and Romeo is exiled. So far, two deaths, and the exile of Romeo can be blamed on Tybalt’s persistent urge to fight, but wait, it gets much, much worse. The effects of Romeo’s exile effectively kill four more characters along with the two already dead, totaling six for the story. Upon