Suicide In Romeo And Juliet

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Many stories are known throughout history for their messages and moving stories, however few are as timeless as The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet develops a classic love story retold many times throughout literature and film. The storyline is of two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who come from feuding families and take their lives instead of living a life without each other. Romeo and Juliet’s suicides bring an end to the age old feud between the two families. However, the events leading up to their suicides are not completely their own doing. Many factors play into their suicides, however mainly the rash decisions of Juliet’s father, Capulet, are to blame for Juliet’s actions leading up to her death.…show more content…
From the very beginning of the play it is clear to tell that Juliet’s relationship with her mother is distant at best, Juliet’s true mother figure is the Nurse. This is seen in the beginning of the play when Lady Capulet asks the “Nurse, [to] come back again./ I have remembered me, thou‘ hear our counsel” (I.iii.9-10). Lady Capulet realizes that she needs the nurses help just to talk to her own daughter showing how their relationship is similar to the bond between a mother and child. This magnifies the situation when Nurse remarks that she “think[s] it best [Juliet] married with the County./ O, he’s a lovely gentleman!/ Romeo’s a dishclout to him” (III.v.230-232). At this point Nurse is the only member of her family that is aware of her marriage to Romeo and knowing that Juliet would be dishonoring her marriage with Romeo, causes this suggestion even more putrid in Juliet’s eyes. This suggestion is a turning point for Juliet. As her final source of companionship and support that she has left. She is completely abandoned since “for Juliet[,] this is an act of betrayal, which transforms her affectionate if ribald nurse into a figure of evil” (James 118). The Nurse is perceived as a figure of evil because it shows her intentions are in line with her fathers; the Nurse is aiming to marry her off to the most suitable husband without her consent. This…show more content…
Capulet has no regard for anyone’s happiness other than himself, not even his own daughter and abuses his power as a patriarch in order to benefit himself. Juliet’s depressed mental state is a result of his careless actions. Juliet might not have wanted to take her life or run away had she not been so depressed to begin with as it would be much more uncommon for a person in a healthy state of mind to feel the need to commit suicide or run away from home. Capulet’s disregard for his daughter out of fear for her being unable to produce an heir ultimately resulted in the same outcome. Although Romeo and Juliet did commit suicide their blood is on so many other hands. Nearly every character in the play can be argued that they have the blame. In truth their situation that caused their death was a perfect coincidence between many factors, yet still certain characters had contributed to their death in more meaningful and effective ways. Capulet is truly at fault for their deaths because his actions tipped the scale from a slightly unstable situation to a
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