Who is mainly responsible for the tragedy that befalls Romeo and Essay

Who is mainly responsible for the tragedy that befalls Romeo and Juliet - Essay Example It combines heavy elements of comedy and tragedy, of classical and medieval tragedy, to create a groundbreaking and long-lived piece of art that continues to have tremendous influence in our culture as a well-known reference point. Nevertheless, the ingredients for tragedy are all there: the untimely death of the protagonists, the death of a young love, and a solemn prologue proposing that a sacrifice must be made to reconcile two feuding households. This foreboding preface to the play’s action gives the sense that its outcome is fated, and that those ultimately responsible for the sacrifice must be guilty by some standard of cosmic justice. Strangely enough, however, all primary characters of the play add to the price that Romeo and Juliet must pay for the love they share. Fate plays an instrumental role throughout Shakespeare’s work. In Romeo & Juliet, he places his audience in a position to observe their fate as the plot action unfolds. The audience is told that their story is one of â€Å"a pair of star-cross’d lovers† who â€Å"take their life†. Knowing this is their fate, the audience watches as their fates are realized. Our emotional connection with the character injects us with hope that the prophecies will be broken, and characters will alter their paths to the ending. However, the play unfolds as if under the direct control of destiny, and the audience is left questioning the existence of free will in such a world. When we look at how the plot of Romeo & Juliet is constructed, we see a plethora of well-placed factors that help drive its protagonists toward their untimely deaths. The Friar’s letter never arrives to tell Romeo that Juliet is not really dead; the protagonists are born to feuding families; Juliet is being forced into an arranged marriage; and so on. All of these make the outcome of the story seem inevitable, and, quite frankly, fated. In many ways, Romeo and Juliet are the victims of the