We have several contenders for the prize of chief responsibility for Romeo and Juliet's death. First, the lovers themselves could be said to share some blame: within days of falling head over heels in love, they are planning marriage. Perhaps they could have slowed down? Perhaps they could have thought through their decisions a bit more clearly? But young love is rash and idealistic, heady and sweet: can that be most to blame? Given the...
We have several contenders for the prize of chief responsibility for Romeo and Juliet's death. First, the lovers themselves could be said to share some blame: within days of falling head over heels in love, they are planning marriage. Perhaps they could have slowed down? Perhaps they could have thought through their decisions a bit more clearly? But young love is rash and idealistic, heady and sweet: can that be most to blame? Given the circumstances, such as the prospect of arranged marriage for Juliet and the response of the families should any hint of the lovers' affections emerge, who can really blame the two for seizing the day as quickly as possible?
What about Friar Laurence? Should he be blamed for enabling these lovers? Perhaps, but he seems more a tool of their desires that anything else, meaning if they hadn't found him, they would have found someone else to help them out. Plus, his heart was in the right place, as he wanted to end the feud (with that he does succeed).
In the end, I would side with Shakespeare that the feud itself was the undoing of the lovers, though rather than calling it "fate," or the "stars," today we might call it an example of systemic evil:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
In the end, the "system" that decreed that the two families be in a perpetual feud, grinding up the lives of young people (we remember others killed beside Romeo and Juliet) bears the chief responsibility for the young lovers' fate. It was the feud that did it.
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