People Who Betrayed Juliet In Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Notice whenever Juliet seeks for help, the people close to her tend to always let her down? Why is that? Aren t your friends or family members suppose to be the ones who are always there for you, and never let you down? Well not in Juliet s case. You see, Shakespeare, the author of Romeo & Juliet wrote the story in a way that Juliet a main character in the story, whenever seeks for guidance from her friends and family members, especially when she needs it most, is always betrayed or let down. In the following paragraphs, I will explain how, Lady Capulet, Friar Lawrence and Romeo betrayed her, and how this caused Juliet to make the wrong decisions in her life. First of all, Lady Capulet is Juliet s mother. A mother is suppose to be close to her daughter, and is the person who knows and understands Juliet the most. But in this case her mother is the first person to let her down. For example, when Lord Capulet made the decision in act three scene 5 that Juliet should marry Paris, her mother stood up for that decision even though she knew that Juliet didn’t want to marry Paris. I think her mother should of been on Juliet s side, because she’s her mother and she has experience in marriage and should know marrying someone you do not like is not a good idea. Also, another betrayal by Lady Capulet is that she teaches Juliet to judge men by their money, their social rank and their appearance. For example, she recommended Paris to Juliet because he is rich, good looking and on the Capulet s side. This is not good. Because Juliet really does love Romeo, and when her mother says things like that, it really makes Juliet upset, because Romeo is not rich, and their family hates her family and vice versa. These points show how shallow Lady Capulet s character is. This prevents Juliet to ask advise from her mother, and cannot get guidance from her. Secondly, Friar Lawrence is the second person who betrays and lets-down Juliet. As you already know, Friar Lawrence is a priest and he was the one who agreed to marry Romeo to Juliet. Friar Lawrence let s down Juliet in two ways. The first way, was not all his fault, but he could of prevented it by just giving more effort. For example, when Friar Lawrence and Juliet agree on the plan to temporarily make Juliet look dead (act four scene 1), Friar Lawrence wrote a letter to Romeo telling him what was really going on. Well, Romeo did not get that letter on time, so he ended up killing himself because he thought Juliet was dead, and when Juliet woke up she killed herself because Romeo was dead. Friar Lawrence should of tried harder to get that letter to Romeo, like personally trying to give the letter to him, or to tell his friends like Balthazar to tell Romeo about the plan, or at least following up on the letter himself to make sure he got it or not. Another betrayal by Friar Lawrence is at the end of the story (act 3 scene 5). When Friar Lawrence and Juliet are in the tomb, after Romeo killed Paris, then himself, Juliet awakens. Juliet awakens, and asks where Romeo is? Friar Lawrence without answering her, hears a sound and tells her the watch is coming (act 5 scene 3 lines 158). Friar Lawrence is scared because he hears someone coming, and doesn t want to be caught. So he leaves, and Juliet doesn t come along, so she s left all alone. This is where he betrays her. Friar Lawrence should not of agreed to leave Juliet all alone. Because then Juliet wouldn t of killed herself when she saw Romeo dead. Instead Friar Lawrence only cared about himself, and ran out of the tomb immediately when he heard someone was coming.

Thirdly, the last person you expected betrayed Juliet, which was Romeo. As you know Romeo and Juliet were teenagers when they got married. But they claim they were supposedly mature enough to get married. I believe Romeo betrayed Juliet because he was immature, yet he claimed to be mature. And because of him being immature the story would of ended in a better way. To begin with, he let her down by getting into a fight with Tybalt (act three scene 1). This fight started when Tybalt killed Mercutio, and Romeo was just dealing with his feelings of vengeance towards Tybalt. If he really felt true love for Juliet he would not of killed Tybalt, because he should of known the consequences would be such that he would not see Juliet anymore and Juliet would feel different towards him because he killed her cousin. Another betrayal by Romeo was that he committed suicide. He killed himself to show his love to Juliet. A person does not have to show his love by killing himself after his or her lover is dead? By killing himself he would only show his love to the people still alive, which is not important because what you really want to do is show your love to your lover, not friends or family members still alive. But you can t because suicide is a big sin and you will go to hell for it. So what s the point? They won t see each other again if one or both goes to hell, or one goes to heaven. This is a betrayal by Romeo, because Juliet is forced to kill herself. If Romeo didn t kill himself, I doubt that Juliet would kill herself. As a result of Juliet being betrayed a few times, it influenced her to make wrong mistakes which lead her to her death. If it wasn t because of Lady Capulet and her father forcing her to marry Paris, she wouldn t of made a plan with Friar Lawrence to make herself look dead. And if only Romeo controlled his feeling against Tybalt, he wouldn t of killed him, which lead to his banishment. Also if Friar Lawrence cared less about his own reputation, he would of stayed in the tomb with Juliet, and probably could of prevented Juliet s suicide. Therefore Juliet s death is evident that it is partially Lady Capulet s, Friar Lawrence s and Romeo s fault.