Romeo Montague: Guilty or Just a Lover?

Romeo, a symbol of love and devotion, a naive but bold young man who because of his
deep love has fallen into the consequences of his own actions. Carefree Romeo finds love and
marries the next day he meets his true love. However, his impulsive manners made him
vulnerable and led to innocent people dying. Without thinking he committed to spend the rest of
his life with a girl she just met knowing she was a Capulet, which also shows how blindly in love
Romeo was with Juliet. Romeo is mostly to blame for their tragic deaths because he was
irresponsible and acted expressively. In other words, Romeo is responsible for the deaths of
Romeo and Juliet.

The son of Montague and Lady Montague. A young man of about sixteen, handsome,
intelligent, and sensitive. Though being impulsive and immature, his idealism and passion make
him a likable person. Romeo had a lot of choices throughout the situation, but ended up acting
without forethought since he was so blinded by love
that his actions didn’t matter in the moment.
It all started when Romeo decided to attend the masquerade ball at the Capulet’s.
At the ball, Tybalt recognizes Romeo and is furious, this makes him want to fight him.
This night is when Romeo and Juliet first met, and it was love at first sight. “What lady’s
that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?” the first words Romeo says when he
sees Juliet for the first time.
This shows that even after Romeo had his heart broken, he still managed to be
influenced by his heart when he saw Juliet, instantly falling in love with her beautiful
appearance, completely forgetting about Rosaline, Romeo’s old failed love.
Romeo taking Juliet out of the ball to be with him could be another example of
him being too impulsive and acting from what his heart said instead of his right mind.
After Romeo is forced to leave the party, he goes back to look for Juliet and Juliet
basically asks Romeo to marry her, in which Romeo responds with a romantic coinciding
conversation, and he goes to Friar Lawrence and asks him to marry them. Romeo then
pleads to Friar Lawrence “Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set on the fair
daughter of rich Capulet. As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine, and all combined, save
what thou must combine by holy marriage.” Although Friar warns him that he might be
rushing since he just was getting over Rosaline, he accepts.
After the priest agrees in an effort to end the rivalry between Romeo and Juliet's
families, he chooses to ignore any other consequences that might come after if the secret
marriage comes to light.
Each time Romeo approaches his relationship he is moving fast and being too
hasty. This is one of the tragic mistakes that led to his and Juliet’s downfall.
Although it might seem like the blame is leaning to Friar Lawrence’s actions,
Romeo’s actions later in his story indicate that he was the one to blame, since if he hadn’t
done the mistakes he did afterwards, neither him or Juliet would’ve opted to do anything
that they did.

Romeo being the impulsive man that he is, creates another conflict between the
families, Romeo later sees what the consequences of his actions are and, he cries about not
being able to see Juliet anymore, though still doesn’t recognize that he has been forgiven
of his death.
Tybalt tries to provoke Romeo to fight. When he refuses, Mercutio, Romeo’s best
friend, answers Tybalt's challenge. They fight and Mercutio is fatally wounded. Mercutio
before dying, he curses both men by his death that was caused by rivalry. “Help me into
some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses! They have made
worms’ meat of me. I have it, and soundly, too. Your houses!”. Romeo then avenges
Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt. By consequence, Romeo is banished from Verona,
which prevents him from seeing Juliet anymore.
Romeo was so infuriated by Tybalt killing his best friend that he acted out of what
he thought was right so he could avenge Mercutio. Another example of Romeo acting
before thinking what might happen if he kills Juliet’s cousin.
This shows that Romeo is responsible because if he had not killed Tybalt, he
wouldn’t have been exiled from Verona, and Juliet wouldn't need to fake her death so they
could be together. Which would eventually lead to both their deaths.
After all what happened, Romeo is ultimately responsible for committing suicide,
which lead Juliet to do the same thing. But at the end of this tragic story, their love could
not happen because their families were enemies. By loving each other they would be
betraying and dishonoring their families, and they knew that. Overall, they all showed
many flaws such as Romeo, his biggest flaw was falling in love easily. If he had never
fallen in love, they would’ve never died. And even if it was a bad thing for them to pass
away, in the end it helped the two families to stop their rivalry, which was an honorable
sacrifice.