My Regret
I did what I did because I had to. Romeo wanted her and she loved him. I married them because I once loved another so. When Romeo visited me after he attended the Capulets party uninvited, I knew that there would be no changing the way he felt. I was amazed how quickly his love for Rosaline vanished just as quickly as he fell in with Juliet. I said to him:
"...young men's love, then, lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes..." *
When he came to me and pleaded for me to wed him and Juliet, I could not refuse him. I saw his eyes, pleading. Who would forbid their child to be with the one they loved? So I agreed.
He reminded me of when I was young. I loved a beauty myself. She was Evangaline, the moon of my night. She had the fairest hair and the bluest eyes, like that of the blue birds wings in flight. I could not make her mine as I was called to God before my eyes set sight on her. I still dream of her, though it was many years ago. So when Romeo came and asked me this favour, I remembered how I felt about my Evangaline.
So I married the young couple. A Capulet to a Montague! Who would've thought it possible? I married them, and in truth, I thought nought of what their kin would say.
Then Romeo killed Tybalt. Why did he commit such a crime? Now there was no way at all for the two young couple to be together.
Later, Paris arrived. I knew that Juliet was betrothed to him. It was not a problem, until now.
"On Thursday, sir? The time is very short." *
I said to Paris when he declared the wedding date.
After the young Paris left, Juliet came rushing in. She spoke to me of how her father wanted her to marry Paris. She and I both knew that she could not wed him. Although Romeo was banished he was still her husband. So I devised a plan, and I admit that it was not at all well thought through. I gave her a potion which would make her seem dead for forty eight hours. I did not think of any consequenses. That is a mistake I will will always regret. After she took the poison up to her chamber, I sent a messenger to Romeo telling him of the fake death Juliet would enact. It was not until the messenger returned and claimed that he could not find the young Montague that I began to panic...
When it was time for Juliet's funeral, I found that my conscience was deeply troubled. I do not know why. The time came for me to wait next to her for when she awoke among the dead. I was shocked to find Romeo there, dead. Lying alonside his wife. There was a dagger in her young body. I wept.
Their funerals were the saddest I have ever attended. I look back and know it was all my fault. They trusted my counsel and I thoughtlessly gave them what they wanted without thinking through the consequenses. I know now that I am responsible for their deaths.
"Miscarried by my fault, let my old life be sacrific'd, some hour before his time, unto the rigour of severest law." *
*All quotes were made by Friar Lawrence
THALIA, ENGLISH, 2010