The Role of Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet At the end of the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, the Prince of Verona says, “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” Throughout this star-crossed lovers’ tragedy, Romeo and Juliet’s grief and suffering can be blamed on a single person, Friar Laurence. His role was that of a trusted adult, who gave “good” advice to anyone that needed it; however, his helpful hints did not have the intended effect for those who followed it. Friar Laurence’s flaw was that he gave advice without thinking through the possible consequences. Friar Laurence agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet even though he knew Romeo had been in love with Rosaline. Just the day before …show more content…
His idea started off wrong when he had Romeo leave for Mantua. The Friar counseled Romeo, “For then thou canst not pass to Mantua; where thou shalt live till we can find a time.” Having Romeo leave town made the situation worse. Romeo had no way to hear the news of Juliet's marriage to Paris. He also was not able to understand that she pretended to kill herself, so she could be with him. Next, Friar Laurence wanted “to blaze your marriage” and “reconcile your friends.” He meant to tell the citizens of Verona about Romeo and Juliet's marriage and hoped that the marriage would reconcile the two feuding families’ long ago friendship. The Friar seemed to think that a marriage would bring everyone together; however, two kids who disobeyed their parents probably would not make each of their families happy nor end the long feud. Another problem was getting Romeo back to Verona. The Friar thought he could “beg pardon of the prince.” This was the least likely part of all his planning. If Romeo was to return to Verona, then the Prince would kill him on the spot. In this case, the Prince showed mercy and banished Romeo instead. The whole badly thought out plan ended with Friar Laurence idea to “call thee back with twenty hundred thousand times more joy.” The Friar thought he could send someone to bring Romeo back home after some time …show more content…
On the other hand, the Friar was a trusted, adult figure who was respected by both the Montague and Capulet families. This is inferred because Romeo and Juliet sought out the Friar separately for advice. Both Romeo and Juliet could not know the advice Friar Laurence offered would have such a harsh, unfavorable outcome, which resulted in their deaths. They put all their trust in the Friar’s counsel, and the Friar should be responsible for the
One of many reasons that Friar Laurence is to blame for the death of Romeo and Juliet is the marriage of Romeo and Juliet. Considering the marriage of Romeo and Juliet ended in death Friar Laurence is one to blame . In the text it states “Come, come with me, and we will make short work for, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone till holy church incorporate two in one.” This quote reveals the troubles Friar caused leading up to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Without the marriage of Romeo and Juliet the mishandle of the medicines would not have gotten out of hand leading to their deaths.
In the classic play Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence plays a major part. Romeo and Juliet trusted him entirely as he was the priest of their town. They turned to the Friar for help and advice at a few crucial points in the play. Little did these two lovers know that their decision to turn to Friar Laurence for help would eventually lead to their deaths. Friar Laurence was responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he married Romeo and Juliet, he was afraid of committing a sin, and because of his faulty plan for saving Juliet from a marriage to Paris.
Another mistake Friar Laurence made was trusting Friar John to send the letter to Romeo, and not even telling Friar John that the letter explained the situation of Juliet’s “death”. He is very careless, because he only tells Friar John how
I will ask Friar Laurence to act as a reliable and wise older priest would. He should report the Prince's ruling over Romeo's transgression with happiness, since banishment is truly preferable to death. Later on, he should be able to depict disappointment over Romeo's reaction to banishment, underlining that he is talking down to Romeo who is being extra unreasonable. Likewise, as Romeo continues to argue that he is worse off banished than dead, the Friar will appear impatient with Romeo's lack of appreciation over this "good news" that he brings. Also, the Friar will seem emotionally detached to differentiate himself from the excessively sensitive Romeo. He has to show what it means to be a sensible and calm adult. Nonetheless, as he hears from the Nurse how miserable Juliet is and how Romeo would readily kill himself over causing Juliet's pain, he would look like he wrangled his brains to come up with the best solution possible where people would not die. The Friar would then remain prudent and composed above all the immaturity and emotionality of Romeo.
Without even thinking about it Friar Lawrence's plan was a terrible plan just out of common sense as there were too many things out of the Friar’s control that could have happened. First, he has to worry if the potion even will work when Juliet takes it or even if she takes it at all. Then he has to worry about getting the word to Romeo about the plan which of course never happened. “But look thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua; Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.” (4.2.100-105). Here Friar Lawrence explains his badly thought-out plan. His impulsive acts and plans end up getting him in trouble and costing Verona to Young people's lives. His plans failed because he did not take his time and did not think of being more reasonable because his Solutions were completely unrealistic. In a way, Friar Lawrence could be seen as a little bit selfish. Friar Laurence's religion does not permit already married people to get married. This would mean that the Friar would be going against his oaths. Marrying Romeo and Juliet when Juliet already has an arranged marriage with Paris would have
There are many characters in the play of Romeo and Juliet that have important roles and unique characteristics. One of these characters is Friar Lawrence, a Franciscan monk who is an expert in plants and medicines. While the Friar does not appear in all parts of the play, he acts as an advisor to Romeo and Juliet and gets them married. Being an honest, trustworthy, and loving friend, Friar Lawrence helps keep Romeo and Juliet together while maintaining his character and not acting dual-sided or having a second nature. Throughout the later parts of the play, Friar Lawrence’s characterization remains consistent as he guides the two lovers through their troubles and eventually ends the family feud between the Capulets and the Montagues.
Friar Laurance marries Romeo and Juliet even though he believes that the marriage will end up in tragedy.
The Friar had good intentions when he married Romeo and Juliet, as shown in this quote, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love” (2.4.91-92). In this quote, Friar Lawrence explains his reasoning behind marrying Romeo and Juliet, he thought that by marrying the two, he could stop the feud. This did not work as no one told the rest of the families and the Capulets tried to marry Juliet to Paris. The Friar also failed to get the letter to Romeo that would have told him that Juliet wasn’t dead. If Romeo had received this letter, he would not have committed suicide in Juliet's grave when he returned to Verona. Also, if the Friar had gotten to Juliet’s grave any earlier, he could have saved both Romeo and Juliet. The following quote is from the final scene of the play, “Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / Be sacrificed, some hour before this time, / unto the rigour of the severest law” (5.3.271-274). In this scene, the Friar admits the part that he played in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. He volunteers himself to be punished for this, but the rest of the families and the Prince don't want to punish him. Although he meant well, Friar Lawrence’s actions resulted in the deaths of Romeo and
The Friar should have known that they were just kids and they were rushing into things. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence says, “These violent delights have violent ends. Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, and in the taste confounds the appetite”- Shakespeare. Also Friar knew that just a couple days before Romeo had his eyes set on Rosaline. The Friar knew that this was too fast, but he married them anyway. The Friar married Romeo and Juliet despite their parent wishes. The only reason the Friar married the two children was because he thought the feud between the two families would end. However, this did not go as planned. The Friar needed to find a way out of this chaos. This goes to show Friar Lawrence is the most to blame and put not only his life on the line, but also the lives of Romeo and Juliet.
One person who is to be blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is Friar Laurence. Although Friar Laurence is portrayed as a ‘good’ man – and seems to have/do no harm to the people of Verona – he is not completely blameless. In fact, Friar Laurence undoubtedly has the most blame for their death. In Act Two, Scene Three, Lines 90-95, Friar Laurence agrees to the marriage of Romeo and Juliet because Friar Laurence truly believes that if they were lucky enough, the two feuding households, the Capulets and the Montagues, would have their hatred between one another be turned into pure love. “O, she knew well/Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell./But come, young waverer, come go with me./In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,/For this alliance may be so happy prove/To turn your household’ rancour to pure love.” All Friar
Even though numerous characters in the play contributed to the death of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence’s irresponsibility and lack of recognition makes him most to blame. To begin, Romeo proposes the idea about marring Juliet, a member of the Capulet Family by telling Friar Laurence “Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich Capulet (2.3.57-58). Romeo has completely forgotten about Rosaline, and now has focused his love onto Juliet. The Friar agrees with Romeo. Friar Laurence's decision is irresponsible because he agrees with the idea of members of opposite noble families being married. By marrying Romeo and Juliet, Friar is acting like Lord
A large part of trying to accomplish his goal are the three plans he makes for Romeo and Juliet to be together. The first plan was the marriage. The second plan for Romeo to get a pardon from the prince for killing Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. That does not work out so Romeo consummates the marriage then says bye to Juliet before leaving to Verona. Juliet would then leave to Verona too. Friar Laurence does all this planning as the story goes on. If the plans are done correctly, it can lead to peace but if not, it can be dangerous and even deadly. He puts in much hard work and effort trying to make things go right. This is vital to have success. He has to make these plans off the top of his head as new problems arise. He knows how life threatening helping Romeo and Juliet
One of Friar Laurence’s major dramatic purposes in Romeo and Juliet is being a peacemaker. “For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households rancor to pure love (2.3.90-92).” Friar Laurence makes this statement thinking that if he married Romeo and Juliet, there would be peace between their families. However, the Friar already knew that Romeo and Juliet are not really in love with each other, but merely charmed by each other’s lust. “So smile the heavens upon this holy act that after hours with sorrow chide us not (2.6.1-2)!” Since Friar Laurence is known in Verona as being a holy man, he takes this marriage proposal as being a message sent from the heavens, and hopes that nothing unfortunate happens later. Soon after the marriage, Friar Laurence takes into consideration that the marriage he officiated between Romeo and Juliet was his own foolish idea and not a message sent from the
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
Throughout the whole story there is always a confusion for what the plan was or what the next step was. Friar Laurence was just trying to help Romeo and Juliet and when doing so it resulted in a lot of confusion. For one instance Balthasar was given the letter from friar Laurence. In that letter it contains the news that Juliet was alive. All Balthasar had to do was to give the letter to Romeo but of course something went something went wrong and Romeo never got the letter. That was one of the biggest confusion that caused a very big point in the play. Romeo went to go visit Juliet at the tomb because he thought she was dead. He was so devastated that he drank some poison to kill himself so he could be with Juliet. Just minutes later Juliet woke up from her coma and was alive, and by her was Romeo who was dead. If Romeo would have received the letter he would have known the truth, and Romeo and Juliet could have lived happily ever after. Except we all know in stories that there always is a problem in a story. In this particular story it resulted in much tragedy. All of this was caused because of the confusion brought in from friar Laurence. He didn't make sure that Romeo knew that, so in the end everything went wrong. This problem could have been avoided it friar Laurence would have made the plan more organized and made sure everyone knew what was happening before Juliet took the remedy.