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Who Is To Blame For Friar Lawrence's Death

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The play Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is plagued with death and misfortune. A very controversial topic is who is to blame for the unfortunate deaths of Romeo and Juliet, however any educated mind can easily see past the ‘smoke and mirrors’ and see that Friar Laurence is obviously the killer in disguise. Everything he has done has paved the way for Romeo and Juliet’s life to come to an untimely death. Even that he didn’t know that his actions could lead to fatal consequences, he was being too careless, such as when he married Romeo and Juliet only thinking that it would end the feud between the two families and also when he devised a plan without thinking what would happened if he failed. Friar Laurence could be seen as being heroic when attempting to end the fighting between the families by allowing Romeo and Juliet to marry each other. This is possibly the most foolish action that the friar could have taken because he married them, neglecting the consequences while he had paid all his attention to the ambitious goal of ending the feud. For example, …show more content…

Friar Laurence confessed everything at the end of the play to the Prince after Romeo and Juliet’s death so doesn’t that mean the friar is guilty? Friar Laurence said to the Prince “And if aught in this miscarried by my fault, let my old life be sacrificed some hour before his time unto the rigor of severest law” which means he was willing to be killed as the punishment of what happened. He is clearly guilty because no one else would offer their life as punishment if they have not done anything wrong and they would fight to prove that they are innocent, however the friar did not do that, but rather asked the Prince to kill him if it was found to be his fault. The friar’s confession proves that he is guilty because only a guilty person would be able to confess since they have secrets they want to

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