In the story of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s famous play, the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet, die in the end by the contribution of the other characters, not only their own. The input of the characters such as Lord Capulet (Juliet’s father), Tybalt (first cousin to Juliet and nephew to Lord Capulet), Friar Lawrence (Franciscan priest) and Prince Escalus (prince of Verona) will be explained.

Lord Capulet is a big benefactor to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. When Romeo attended the party of the Capulet’s, Tybalt went to attack Romeo because he hated all Montagues. His uncle, Lord Capulet stopped him, telling him the Romeo is a well mannered gentleman by what he heard from the other citizens of Verona. If Tybalt attacked Romeo, he would have been banished instead of Romeo. This means that Tybalt would not have killed Mercutio, therefore Romeo would not chase after Tybalt.

Paris is a friend of Lord Capulet and when he set his eyes on Juliet, he asked Lord Capulet if he can marry her. At first, Lord Capulet declined, telling him his daughter is too young to get married but Paris finally convinced him and a party was held for Juliet to marry Paris. If Lord Capulet refused, the party would not have been organised and Romeo and Juliet might not have met.

Tybalt goes looking for Romeo, intending to attack him, but Mercutio defends Romeo and gets slain. Romeo then went after Tybalt to avenge Mercutio. Tybalt was slain and Romeo was banished as a result. Juliet cries for the loss of her cousin’s death and Romeo’s banishment. At this time, Lord Capulet announces that Paris and Juliet are to get married in the same weak, Thursday. This restricts the amount of time Juliet has to escape her father’s declaration. This gives little time to plan and think about the plan on how to run away to Romeo.

Friar Lawrence would have to be the biggest contributor to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths other than their own. At first Romeo wanted to marry Rosaline, but she did not love him. This made Romeo depressed and Friar Lawrence told Romeo not to think about Rosaline, as his friends had. Romeo then went to the Capulet’s party, because Benvolio convinced him to. There he met Juliet and they fell in love. They organised their marriage, but Friar Lawrence refuses their marriage, because he thought Romeos love was not in the heart but in the eyes. He changed his mind, because he believed that if they got married it would unite both families together in celebrating their children’s marriage. His mistake in this is that they can not unite to celebrate their children’s marriage that they were not intended to know about.

Sometimes Romeo would ask Friar Lawrence for advice when he needed it and sometimes they were good. A mistake that he made was planning that Juliet to take fake poison to make everyone think she was dead and to put her in the tomb. When Romeo would come she would wake up and take her. The problem with this plan is that so much of it would rely on luck which they did not have.

After Juliet took the fake poison, everyone thought she had died and they put her in the tomb. Friar Lawrence then wrote a letter to Romeo explaining the plan. The imprudent thing Friar Lawrence did was hiring a messenger he could not trust to deliver the message in time. This letter is very crucial that it reaches Romeo in time or he will think Juliet is actually dead and suicide. The messenger ended up being too late and Romeo has already heard from Balthasar that Juliet was dead. What Friar Lawrence should have done was to wait at the front entrance of the tomb were Romeo will be entering and make sure Romeo knows of the plan.

If Prince Escalus banished Benvolio for the first quarrel told in the story, Romeo would not have gone to the Capulet’s party, which Benvolio convinced Romeo to go to. If Romeo had not gone to the party he would not have met Juliet. Also, he did not banish Tybalt at the same fight. If Tybalt had been banished from Verona, he would not have known that Romeo went to the party and would not have gone after him, causing Romeo to be banished.

However, Romeo and Juliet also make a contribution to their own deaths. Romeo does many things such as agrees to go to the party when Benvolio convinced him. He also seeks revenge when Tybalt killed Mercutio. If Romeo left him Tybalt would have got banished instead of himself.

Juliet also contributes to her and Romeo’s death by not thinking of pretending to agree to get married to Paris when he demands that of her. If she had, he would have not lost his temper and shortened her time. She also asks for Friar Lawrence’s help to escape, who got the idea about the fake poison.

To conclude, most of the characters contribute to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths including their own, but they did not do this consciously, meaning they did not realise at the time what their actions might lead to. Romeo and Juliet were fated to love and die together, their deaths were providential.