What Caused Their Death: Romeo and Juliet Saanvi Kunisetty

 What Caused Their Death: Romeo and Juliet

Saanvi Kunisetty

A quick spark in the sky along with a thundering boom- that’s what lightning is. It’s bright and enthralling while it lasts, but very short-lived. Similar to this, Romeo and Juliet’s love is the joining of two beautiful souls, but is ended very quickly with their demises, due to the violent family feud they are living within. In the piece Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet’s deaths are caused by the incessant and seemingly endless family feud. Romeo and Juliet knew that the conflict between the Capulets and Montagues ensured that their love was forbidden, and had to keep their love a secret to prevent themselves from being separated for loving their “enemies”.  

In order to prevent the exposure of their love to the fighting families and risk being driven apart, Romeo and Juliet had to formulate risky plans that involved many dangers, including death. One such plan involved Juliet drinking a potion that would only make her look dead. Before drinking the potion, Juliet expresses a multitude of worries and emotions, saying “what if it be a poison which the Friar Subtly hath ministered to have me dead” (Shakespeare.4.3.25-26). Regardless of the worry that the potion might kill her, Juliet then goes on to drink the potion anyway, saying “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink! I drink to thee” (Shakespeare.4.3.59-60). In order to escape the wedding with Paris that Lord Capulet had planned for her, and be with Romeo, Juliet acquires a potion from Friar Lawrence that will supposedly make her look dead to her parents, so that her marriage may be canceled. Juliet has many fears, and is well aware that this potion may actually kill her. Yet, she is willing to take this risk for her love, Romeo. The only reason she had to take this path of detouring her marriage with Paris was because she could not confess to Lord and Lady Capulet about her love for Romeo, because she knew that due to the family feud, they would disapprove of it, and may even kill Romeo. The action of Juliet taking the poison is what causes the misunderstandings of her faking her death, Romeo killing himself for it, and then Juliet killing herself. Hence, when Juliet takes the poison that might kill her in an effort to hide her love from the cruel hands of the family feud, it is irrefutably demonstrated that the feud is what caused the later deaths of the star-crossed lovers.

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet’s deaths are due to the ongoing family feud that prevents them from revealing their love to others, in fear that they might be separated, hurt, or killed. Fear can be the most deadly disease of all. It strips us of our confidence, ability, and will to face our problems, and keeps us running away instead of toward solutions. In order to develop relationships and bonds with others, it is crucial that we do not instill fear in others. Only in the absence of fear will the other person be able to be honest and truthful with us. A lack of honesty may cost us opportunities, friendships, and even our own lives.