Friar Lawrence A Fool Essay

How Friar Lawrence Seems to be a Wise Sympathetic Priest and a Meddling Fool

From background knowledge of social traditions at the time, the audience know w that the parents of the youths are much "removed" from their children. They are seldom around when their children experience trouble and this is probably why both Romeo and Juliet choose to confide in the Friar instead. It was tradition for the parents of a young girl to arrange her marriage for her, at an early age of around 14. Generally families married their daughters into wealth, it was not a case of the children falling in love, it was more being ‘put’ in love by their parents. Many of the parent’s decisions were made without consideration

He thinks of the consequences of the Romeo’s actions, and is able to see that "by doing damned hate upon [himself,]" Romeo will "slay [Juliet, his] lady" with grief. Therefore it can be seen that Friar Lawrence discourages Romeo from rash and violent behaviour, unlike Mercutio and Tybalt. This emphasizes his peace-loving, wise nature and level-headedness.

Despite this evidence saying that the Friar is a wise, sympathetic man, there is also evidence throughout the play to suggest he is a meddling fool. An example of this would be in Act two, Scene three, where Romeo appears at Friar Lawrence’s cell begging him to marry him and Juliet later that day. Friar Lawrence at first seems against this and points out to Romeo that only yesterday he was deeply in love with Rosaline and it could not have been true love if Romeo had already forgotten her and moved on to another girl who he hardly knows. The Friar assumes Romeo’s love is again only one of ‘courtly’ love, not true love:

‘Holy saint Francis what change is here!

Is Rosalie, whom thou didst love so dear,

So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then

All this evidence can result in the audience believing Friar Lawrence to be eith wise and sympathetic or a meddling fool. Perhaps more evidence is mostly there to support the fact that the Friar is sympathetic and wise. Although his schemes did not work out as planned, his intentions were honourable. He had hoped to restore peace to Verona’s brawling streets and "turn [their] households’ rancour to pure love" through the "holy act" of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, which was the reason why he consented to the act to marrying them. However, Fate, "a greater power than [he could] contradict… thwarted [his] intents."

Friar Lawrence’s character only appears to be foolish sometimes because he usually appears in major scenes, in which he is faced with many difficult situations in which he has to think on his feet, and so maybe he does not have enough time to consider the problem and come