In the story, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo is the architect of his own doom. The inevitable death of Romeo and Juliet was caused by Romeo's traits: he is impulsive, he is immature, and he is sad and depressed mostly because of his desire to love and be loved.
Firstly, Romeo's impulsiveness and hastiness lead to his death because of three reasons: Romeo rushing his relationships, Romeo rushing his marriage to Juliet, and rushing his death with getting the poison from the apothecary. The first example of Romeo showing his impulsiveness and hastiness is when Romeo rushes his true love from Rosaline to Juliet as stated by Friar Lawrence, 'Holy Saint Francis what a change is here, Is Rosaline whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken' (Romeo + Juliet, 2. 3, 65-67). Friar Lawrence is saying that Romeo is rushing all of his relationships and one of his relationships will end up a disaster if he keeps rushing his relationships. Soon after this scene, the Friar warns Romeo not to rush getting married to Juliet but Romeo ignores him. This is evident in the text when Friar Lawrence says, 'Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast' (R + J, 2. 3, 94). Friar Lawrence saying these words are warning Romeo not to rush everything or he will fall flat on his face. This also foreshadows Romeo's death because him rushing his marriage means he also rushes other important decisions in his life. Lastly, Romeo rushes his death asking the apothecary for the poison to kill himself after he heard one rumour from Balthasar that Juliet died. In the text, Romeo asks Balthasar, 'Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?' (R+J, 2. 3, 32). Romeo is asking Balthasar if he has any letters from the Friar because originally the Friar planned to send Romeo letters if there was any bad news in Verona. Although there were no letters Romeo still rushes to the apothecary after hearing this rumour of Juliet’s death to buy poison to kill himself. Romeo is impulsive and hastily makes decisions from rushing who his true love was, rushing his marriage with Juliet, and finally rushing to his death with getting the poison from the apothecary.
Secondly, Romeo’s immaturity lead to poor decisions which eventually lead to his death. First, his immature way of dealing with anger led Romeo to kill Tybalt, Juliet's cousin; his immaturity in his feelings are shown when Romeo made love to a person of the Capulets without knowing her name and finally his immaturity in not telling his or Juliet’s parents that they were getting married. Firstly Romeo's killing of Tybalt, Juliet's cousin which was out of his immature anger which in turn caused him to become banished. This is evident in the text when the Prince says, “If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of peace' (R+J, 1. 1, 86-87). This was foolish and immature of Romeo because he had not thought about the consequences of what the Prince had said about being executed if there was another fight. Secondly, Romeo made love to a person of the Capulets without knowing her name and after he kissed her he knew the family's hatred for him would increase. This is demonstrated in the play when Romeo says 'Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is my foe's debt' (R+J, 1. 5, 117-118). In this quote, Romeo’s immaturity is shown as he did not think of the consequences that he just kissed an enemy capulet without knowing her name as he had literally just met her. Lastly, both Romeo and Juliet did not tell their parents that they were getting married so the Capulets set up a wedding for Juliet even though she and Romeo were already married. Juliet says 'O, bid me leap rather than marry Paris, from off the battlements of yonder tower.' (R+J, 4. 1, 79-80). When Juliet said this, she is saying she would rather die a gruesome death than marry Paris. This statement also foreshadowed her outcome because in the end she saw Romeo dead and killed herself right away. Again Romeo’s immaturity thinking of marrying Juliet without thinking of the consequences of secretly marrying from an enemy’s family. These three examples: Romeo's killing of Tybalt, Juliet's cousin which was out of his immature anger, Romeo making love to a person of the Capulets without knowing her name, and Romeo and Juliet not telling their parents that they were getting married, demonstrate how Romeo’s immaturity lead him to foolish actions that ended up costing him his life.
Finally, Romeo had a strong desire to love and to be loved and when this could not happen, it made him extremely sad and depressed. There are three examples showing that when his desire of love was not met, it made him sad which ultimately led to his suicide. First, his extreme feelings of being in and out of love for Rosaline, his feeling that execution would be better than his banishment from Verona, and finally when Juliet died he thought his life had no meaning. Firstly, Romeo cried over Rosaline saying that she would never love him, and was heartbroken that she never loved him back but shortly thereafter, Romeo sees Juliet and states,'Did my heart love till now?' (R+J, 1. 5, line 50). With this quote, Romeo is saying that he has never found true love before even though the day before he was crying his love over Rosaline. These dramatic mood swings demonstrate that when Romeo could not love or be loved, it made him sad and depressed. It is this sadness that led to his death. Secondly, Romeo thought that execution would be better than being banished from Verona. An example from the text of this is when Romeo says 'Ha, Banishment? Be more merciful say death for exile hath more terror in his look more than death do not say banishment' (R+J, 3. 3, 12-14). Romeo is saying he would rather die than be banished from Verona. In the end, when Romeo was banished from Verona, he thought that he could no longer be loved and this made him sad and depressed. For this reason he would rather die than be banished. This is another example of Romeo’s deep desire to love or be loved and when this could not happen, he would rather be dead. Lastly, when Romeo believed that Juliet was dead, he thought that his life had no more meaning. This can be seen in the text when Romeo says, 'For I come hither arm'd against myself' (R + J, 5.3 65). When Romeo thought that Juliet died, he brought different weapons and poisons so he could kill himself as he no longer had Juliet to love. Therefore, these three examples show that Romeo became sad and depressed when he could not love or be loved. It was this sadness and depression that led to his death.
In conclusion, in the story Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo was the architect of his own doom and the main cause of both his and Juliet’s disastrous deaths because he was impulsive in everything he did, he was immature and finally, his sadness and depression when he could not love or be loved anymore.
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Romeo’s role in their fate in Romeo and Juliet.
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