Friar Lawrence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Friar Laurence is to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Friar decided to marry Romeo and Juliet, to attempt to mend the feud between their families. As the play continued, Friar Laurence had provided dangerous medicine to Juliet, leading to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Because of mishandling the medicine and marrying Romeo and Juliet Friar Laurence is to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

Additionally, Friar Laurence’s actions contributed to the suicides. In the play, Friar Laurence marries Romeo and Juliet secretly, because their families are in an eternal feud. This shows that Friar Laurence took an action that was not truly right. Neither of the families agreed to this marriage. Juliet’s family even tried to arrange a marriage for her after she secretly married to Romeo. The friar knew the marriage of Romeo and Juliet would not be approved by

Romeo kept on forcing the idea upon him, so he marries them hoping that their marriage would end the Capulet and Montague feud, even though he did not ask for the parents’ consent. He displays his hope when he says, “For this alliance may so happy prove / to turn your household’s rancor to pure love”(Act I, Scene 4, Lines 91-92). Friar Laurence kept Romeo and Juliet’s relationship secretive, making the situation worsen. Later on, the Friar shows that he has regrets about the marriage. The Friar feels that, “Violent delights have violent ends / And their triumph die… too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” (Act II, scene 6, Lines 9-15). The Friar senses that the wedding is happening too quickly and doubts his decision. He had the potential to prevent the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, but his decisions led Romeo and Juliet to do reckless actions under his ideas. Friar Laurence’s thoughtless decisions led to the deaths of Romeo and

Friar Laurence simply influenced Romeo’s decision, it was ultimately Romeo and Juliet's decision to carry on with the marriage. In addition, Friar Laurence was put under immense pressure to marry the two lovers to promote peace or to stop the marriage and not be part of such a sinful act. Friar Laurence's inability to execute the most crucial aspect of the plan puts him at fault for the death. After being banished from Verona, wedding plans for Paris and Juliet being to start. Juliet has forsaken her love to Romeo, and decides that her marriage will be done with only one person, which is Romeo. The Friar promises Juliet that he will reunite them and they can live happily by telling Juliet “Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall hem come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua” (4.1.114-117). The Friar begins to tell Juliet that his plan is foolproof, and it will help them escape safely into Mantua where they can live happily ever after. As the play continues on into act 5, Friar Laurence begins to send out his letter to Romeo. However, Friar John comes back to Verona and tells Friar Laurence “I could not send it—here it is again, nor get a messenger to bring it thee” (5.2.14-16). Friar Laurence is most to blame because he is unable to perform the most vital part of the plan. If Friar Laurence knew that the letter

Even though Friar Laurence was aware of Romeo’s prior love for Rosaline, he quickly accepts Romeo’s newfound love for Juliet. Instead of continuing to urge Romeo to slow down, he soon forgets his initial opinion and gut feeling and encourages Romeo's unrealistic ideals even more. He also gives Romeo a false sense of hope that by being with Juliet they can end their family’s feud. Friar Laurence later tells Juliet, “Come, come with me, and we will make short work...till holy church incorporate two in one” (2.6.177). Friar Laurence personifies the church, or marriage, stating that it will make them one, continuing to mislead them into believing that their relationship can overcome their family’s dispute. After Romeo is banished for murdering Tybalt, Friar Laurence tells him, “Go; get thee to thy love as was decreed… but look thou stay not till the watch be set, for then thou canst not pass to Mantua, were thou shalt live, till we can find a time to blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, beg pardon of the Prince, and call them back with twenty hundred thousand times more joy than thou went’st forth in

In William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet, there are numerous of dramatic purposes that the characters serve in the building of the story. One major character that stands out is Friar Laurence who is a wise and holy man respected by everyone in Verona. However, you should not let that presentation of him fool you. There are a variety of times Friar Laurence has committed sins of dishonesty and deception. The few but many dramatic purposes Friar Laurence has in Romeo and Juliet include: being a mastermind with medicine, peacemaker, and the main reason for Romeo and Juliet’s death.

Friar Laurence’s character flaws greatly impacted the end result of the play. The Friar should be punished for his poorly made decisions throughout Shakespeare’s story. His first mistake was when he initially helped Romeo and Juliet with the aid of the Nurse. Both Romeo and Juliet are children and their parents should be included in every decision made for them. The Friar married Romeo and Juliet in Act 3 of the play. “Till Holy Church incorporate two in one” (3.1.37) The marriage was the start of many issues. Such as Juliet’s inability to wed Paris, being a married lady. This led to Friar’s next choice of giving Juliet the sleeping potion—making her appear dead. “Take this vial, being then in bed,” (4.1.93) Giving Juliet the poison was the reason why so many characters had died in the end of Act 5 of the play. Paris had died fighting Romeo because he thought he was attempting to steal Juliet’s “dead” body. Romeo, ignorant of the fact that Juliet was not dead, killed himself. Juliet committed suicide because of her fiancé lying next to her lifeless. The poison given by Friar

“...Take thou vial, being then in bed, / and this distilled liquor drink thou off; / when presently through all thy veins shall run/ a cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse/ shall keep his native progress...” (Act 4, lines 95-99) This means the Friar has a plan to give Juliet a potion to make her sleep so deep that she will appear dead and will be put into the tomb and Romeo will be there when she awakens. Why is Friar Lawrence trying so hard to cover up this marriage when he did this marriage to try and make the feud between these two families stop feuding? This seems to be counterproductive and doesn’t make sense. They go through with the plan and then Juliet says this. “…Romeo, I drink to thee.” (Act 4, lines 59-60) She says this as she drinks the potion and falls asleep on her bed. The nurse finds her at first thinking that she is only sleeping but then touches Juliet to realize her skin is cold. The nurse calls Juliet’s parents and they also believe she is dead. The Capulets arrange a funeral and have her laid in the tomb. Romeo hears that she is dead and never gets the message that it was only a plan. He buys a poison and drinks it in Juliet’s tomb and kills himself in her tomb. Juliet sees him and stabs herself in the heart killing her.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is secretive throughout the story and it takes a turn for the worse when Tybalt and his friends confronts Benvolio romeo’s cousin and Mercutio Romeo’s friend whom are both Montagues. They get into an argument when Romeo joins his friends. Tybalt then tries to fight Romeo but Romeo does not want to because he is now his relative although Tybalt does not know this. This result in a sword duel between Mercutio and Tybalt resulting in the death of Mercutio. Romeo is enraged by this and kills Tybalt. Prince Escalus the prince of Verona is informed of this by Benvolio who tries to communicate it was Tybalt’s fault but Lady Capulet who is Tybalt’s aunt says he is lying to protect the Montagues. Just like that Romeo is banished from Verona which is where Juliet lives and if he is spotted their he will be killed. Romeo is devastated by the news and wants to kill himself but Friar Lawrence advises him to go live in Montua until things settle down and that he and Juliet will meet in secret. Another problem arises with Juliet. A wedding is planned for her and Paris.“Take thou Vial, being then in bed, and this distilled liquid drink thou off”(4.1.93-94). Friar Lawrence comes up with a plan for Juliet to drink a potion that puts her to sleep for a few days and makes the impression that she is dead. She will be put in a tomb and when she wakes up Romeo will get her and they

When a clearly disturbed and distressed Juliet approaches Friar Laurence and threatens to kill herself if what he tells her “speak[s] not of remedy” (4.1.68), Friar Laurence immediately offers her a “thing like death” to keep her from marriage (4.1.75). Juliet agrees and Friar Laurence gives her the potion that will make her “appear like death”, giving her family immense pain and overcomplicating his plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet (4.1.105). Friar Laurence’s third mistake was sending Friar John to deliver the letter to Romeo and trusting Romeo to stay in Mantua until he received news from the Friar. Friar Laurence knows that Romeo is emotional and earlier admitted that he “thought thy [Romeo’s] disposition better tempered”

Friar Laurence is responsible for the tragic, but avoidable, death of Romeo and Juliet. He went behind the two feuding families backs and developed a plan that killed the two lovers. To enact the plan, Friar Laurence willingly gave Juliet a vial of poison that helped her fake her death,“ Take thou this vial, being then in bed,/and this distilled liquor drink thou off” (IV.I. 93) and when she would awake from her slumber Romeo was supposed to be at her side, “Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift” (IV.I. 114) but Friar Laurence didn’t get the message to Romeo in time.

Friar Laurence had the greatest influence on Romeo and Juliet. The day after they met, the Friar married the couple, without parental consent. In this time period, parental consent was expected; the groom must ask the bride’s father’s permission. The Friar hopes to end the feud between the Capulets and Montagues by ignoring this rule and marrying the couple anyway. His plan of marriage fails at ending the feud and forces the Friar to devise more sneaky plans to hide his mistake. The issue is further complicated when Juliet is to be married to Paris promptly. The Friar’s very complex plan ensured that Juliet could not be married to Paris and that she could be together with Romeo. Juliet is the take a sleeping potion that makes her appear dead for fourty-two house/ The most important part of the plan is that Romeo, who is in Mantua, be informed to go to the tomb as Juliet wakes up. Friar Laurence doesn’t contact Romeo himself, so therefore the plan didn’t work. The Friar always intended to end the feud, but everything he did created a larger problem. The Friar’s good intentions lead to tragic results. Fate plays a major role because no matter how hard the Friar tried to make things better, they were destined to end poorly. At the end of the play the Friar realizes that the tragedy appears to be his fault, “I am the greatest, able to do the least, / Yet most suspected, as the time and place” (Rom. 5.3.223-224).

Due to the fact that the plan never reaches Romeo in time, Romeo thinks Juliet is dead. Friar Lawrence could have prevented this by informing Romeo of the plan himself. Because he sends a messenger, Balthasar, Friar has no knowledge if Balthasar even tried to deliver the news to Romeo. In addition to failing to spread the word to Romeo about the plan, Friar Lawrence is the only man who Juliet can turn to in desperate times like this. Juliet’s father is furious at her for disobeying him by choosing to not marry Paris.

Many people could say that the protagonists of the story Romeo and Juliet have side figures that act as their true parents that help them accomplish their goals in life. In this case, people identify Friar Lawrence and Romeo’s father and the Capulet’s Nurse as Juliet’s mother. By blood these people are not related to either character but many people say that the things they do for these children act “parent like”. Truly, in the book, Lady Capulet suggests that the Nurse mainly took care of Juliet as an infant and Romeo was guided by Friar Lawrence to be the best man he could be. Overall, I believe that Friar Lawrence and Nurse capulet are the “true” parents of Romeo and Juliet.

When Romeo expressed his wish to marry Juliet to the Friar he replied that, “For this alliance may so happy prove,” (II.iii. ###). Agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet, the Friar was hoping that the marriage would stop the families’ feud. Alas, his attempt was unsuccessful, as at the end of the play Friar Laurence tells of how after wedding of Romeo and Juliet, and partially due to its secrecy that it, “Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the city,” (V.iii.240), and how due to the confliction of the secret wedding and Juliet's planned marriage to Paris, “then comes she[Julliet] to me, And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean To rid her from this second marriage,” (V.iii.245). With the death of Tybalt, the banishment of Romeo, and the planned marriage to Paris, Friar Laurence's plan to stop the feud through love fell apart.