The tragedy’s final failure comes down to timing, not malice: Romeo arrives at the tomb minutes before Juliet wakes. Consider how many separate points of failure lead to this: a quarantine delaying the letter, Balthasar’s incomplete information, and Romeo’s decision to act immediately rather than verify what he’s been told.

Juliet’s suicide, by contrast, is not based on a misunderstanding — she wakes, sees Romeo dead beside her, and chooses to die rather than live without him, using his dagger since the poison is already gone. This asymmetry (Romeo dies from a mistake, Juliet dies from a clear-eyed choice) is often discussed in analyses of the two characters’ development across the play.