Are Romeo and Juliet victims of their families' feud?

Answer 1

People spend a lot of time arguing (or being forced to argue in school) over who is At Fault for Romeo and Juliet's death. It's a silly argument any way you cut it. Of course the existence of the feud necessarily shaped the events that followed, in two particular ways. First, it convinced Romeo, Juliet and the Nurse that the love affair had to be kept secret. If he wasn't convinced that Capulet would shoot him on sight, Romeo would have gone right after the party straight up to him just like Paris did and said "Look. I'm the only son and heir of Montague--I'm a pretty good catch for your daughter. And what's more, we've talked and I love her and I'm pretty sure she feels the same." Capulet was not the kind of man that would force Juliet on Paris when she preferred another suitable man, but he didn't know that she preferred another guy because she was afraid to tell him. Again, Friar Lawrence agrees to marry them in an irregular way just because he hopes this will reconcile the families, then (in one of many cowardly and irrational acts he does) does not tell the families about the marriage at a time when it might have saved Romeo and Juliet's lives, because he is afraid that Capulet will be angry if he does so. And the reason Capulet would be angry is because of the feud.

Of course, Capulet shows in Act 1 Scene 5 that he is actually kindly disposed towards Romeo. It is quite possible that he might have welcomed him as a son in law. It is the non-Capulets such as the servants Samson and Gregory and Tybalt (who is not a Capulet, being the son of Lady Capulet's brother as we find out in Act 3 scene 1) who are actively pursuing the feud.

This is the second way in which the feud shapes the plot, by giving a reason for the antagonist Tybalt to be an antagonist. He is all for fighting Montagues, as he says in act 1 scene 1 ("Peace? I hate the word as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee"), so when he finds a Montague crashing the party in Act 1 Scene 5 he calls for his sword. Capulet tells him to shut up and not spoil the party, but Tybalt will have his fight with a Montague whether Capulet likes it or not, and so, as we hear in Act 3 Scene 1, he sends a letter challenging Romeo to Romeo's house and goes cruising the town looking for him.

Tybalt's feud driven mission to fight with Romeo, together with Mercutio's equally feud driven desire to enter that fight results in both of their deaths and disaster (and extremely apt word, since "aster" is the Latin for "star", so "disaster" means "star-crossed") for Romeo. It gets him in trouble both with the authorities in the person of Prince Escalus who banishes him, and with Lady Capulet, who takes the death of Tybalt as her own personal family feud. To console Juliet she reveals that she has plans to murder Romeo in Mantua in revenge for Tybalt's death, making it well-nigh impossible for Juliet to make a clean breast of things at this late stage. The feud here has moved on and become a feud between Romeo and Lady Capulet's family.

Ironically, Mercutio, who is so keen to defend the Montague family honour, is not a Montague any more than Tybalt is a Capulet. And as a footnote another non-family member, Paris, will choose because of the feud to believe that Romeo has come to Juliet's grave to desecrate it, and will make himself an instrument of the supposed Capulet wrath, insist on fighting Romeo and die in the process.

So, if you ask are Romeo and Juliet victims of the feud, a sensible answer is that there are a lot of factors which play into their tragedy. It is foolish to try to isolate one of them and say "look, this is the sole reason things went wrong for these kids". And there can be no doubt that if you removed the background of ill-will between the families, the story would not have turned out so unhappily. It is a necessary if not sufficient factor.

Answer 2

Consider these lines from II, ii (the balcony scene): "Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to-night; it is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one can say it lightens." Her doubts and fears are expressed there. It is debatable what exact consequence of the suddenness of their love she fears. Is she worried that their passion will wear itself out and they will tire of each other? Or that she may have misjudged Romeo's character? Or that they will make a mistake and reveal themselves to their families because of their haste? Or that the whole idea is a bad one which they will abandon if they wait long enough to come to their senses? Since we know from having read the play (or even the prologue!) how things are going to turn out, the answer to whether they will overcome these difficulties depends on which difficulties you think Juliet is thinking about.

Answer 3

At the end of the play, both Juliet and Romeo died, so they weren't able to overcome the problem. But who can say how it would have ended up if things hadn't happened the way they did?