Reprehensible Sins in Romeo and Juliet
Religious authorities are perceived as holy icons that distribute
words of blessing and wisdom to others. They most definitely do not
perform sinful actions nor violate rules. These authorities are idols
that people admire because they are respectful, considerate, and play
many different roles in the lives of many people. In William
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Friar Lawrence does not demonstrate
the characteristics that are admired in a religious figure. Though he
does things to help someone in need, Friar Lawrence is disrespectful,
selfish, and violates regulations. Additionally, because of his poor
actions, he jeopardizes many conflicts and tribulations in the play.
Thus, Friar Lawrence does not deserve to hold the title of a religious
authority.
A disrespectful priest is like a beauty losing her exquisiteness. They
are not worthy of admiration. Any religious individual who is
disrespectful does not demonstrate the qualities of an idol. In the
play “Romeo and Juliet,” Friar Lawrence is perceived as a
disrespectful priest because of his agreement to marry Romeo and
Juliet. This disrespect is shown when he says, “But come, young
waverer, come, go with me.” “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be”
“For this alliance may so happy prove” “To turn your households’
rancor to pure love.” (Shakespeare Act II, Scene iii, 96-99) This
agreement from Friar Lawrence shows that he is disrespectful to the
Montagues and Capulets because he is marrying them without their
consent. Though he hopes that this will join the two houses together,
it is still impertinent to hide this marriage. Friar Lawrence isn’t
even definite that this alliance will actually follow through.
Additionally, Romeo and Juliet are still young and oblivious to true
love. Therefore, it is unreasonable for him to push the marriage and
defy their parents. Moreover, even though Friar Lawrence is aware that
his actions are immoral and dishonest; he still attempts to follow
through with these foolish plans. Thus, this demonstrates how Friar
Lawrence is a disrespectful authority and does not deserve to be a
The Friar frequently encourages Romeo and Juliet to lie and sneak around. However, as a religious leader, Friar Lawrence should be teaching Romeo and Juliet about honesty and obedience. When Romeo is banished, the Prince tells him to leave Verona right away, but instead of leaving, he visits the Friar. When Romeo is crying about his punishment, Friar suggests that Romeo stays in Verona until the sun rises when he says, “Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed. Ascend her chamber. Hence and comfort her”(151). In this instance, Friar Lawrence is not only encouraging but telling Romeo that he should lie and go against the rules. As a religious leader, or even just as a human being, Friar Lawrence shouldn’t be telling Romeo to break the law. After
Friar Lawrence is a fallacious mentor. This is seen when he agrees to secretly marry Romeo and Juliet. “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.”(2.2.35-37) This was an ill-conceived decision because the families are unaware of this so it will not actually break the tension between the two rival families. This creates dishonesty and unfaithfulness to their families which evidently ends tragically. When Friar Lawrence married Romeo and Juliet he inferred that the feud between the families would end; however, this was not the case because they kept it a secret. “This shall determine that.” (3.1.28) Romeo challenges Tybalt to a fight to the death even though Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and they are married. This proves that Friar’s plan was faulty and unsuccessful because there is still great conflict between the two rival families. Friar’s unhelpful mentoring is shown when he agrees to secretly marry Romeo and Juliet and when he wrongly infers that the feud between the families would
In Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence plays a dominate role in the eventual death of Romeo and Juliet even though he is not on stage for most of the play. There are basically three major parts that lead to the tragedy; the marriage, the plan, and the inevitable deaths in all which Friar Lawrence plays a vital role.Friar Lawrence plays an essential role in the marriage of young Romeo and Juliet. At Romeo’s request Friar Lawrence states, "In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households to pure love" (Act 2 Scene 3.) Friar Lawrence believes that this holy marriage would bring the Capulet family and Montuague family closer together, for he anticipates that the families will stop hating each other and be peaceful. His attempts to make the marriage of Romeo and Juliet are admirable but poorly planned.
His advice to Juliet to fake her own death is a result of her love for Romeo, and the fact that the Friar can’t stop her from marrying Paris, will lead her to the violent act of killing herself. Friar Lawrence’s character is a representation of the idea that love can lead to irrational decisions and violent actions. In conclusion, Friar Lawrence is obligatory to the action, character development, and themes of Romeo and Juliet. Without Friar Lawrence, the steps leading up to the tragedy at the end of the story would not have been possible, along with the strong characterization of Romeo.
The first reason Friar Lawrence should be punished is because, Friar kept secrets from everyone but Romeo and Juliet. One of the secrets that he kept from everyone was when he married them. “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.”(I.vi.35-37) In other words, Friar is telling Juliet that she needs to go so then he will come up with another plan for things, for what he desires them to do
In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence has a major role. As a member of the Order of St. Francis, a group of wise and generous priests, Romeo and Juliet trusted Friar Laurence completely, turning to him for advice, and solutions. He was there throughout Romeo’s and Juliet's lives; he married them, came up with a plan to keep them together, and was a friend throughout their tragedies. However, Friar Laurence’s rash action in marrying Romeo and Juliet, his shortsighted plan for rescuing Juliet from an unwanted marriage to Paris, and his fear of committing sin all contributed to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
First of all, the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence, who married Romeo and Juliet, foreshadows the probability of his continuity to take even more insincere measures in manipulating the consequences faced by the young lovers. The Friar carries out an erroneous act of secretly marrying them under the church’s license without manifesting it in the public and encourages them to deceive their parents by keeping their relationship to themselves. He then agrees to marry Juliet and Paris, a county, and plans on faking her death, in order to avoid the marriage instead of revealing the truth about Romeo and Juliet right away. “I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,/On Thursday next be married to this County.” (4.1.49-50) In short, various incidents in the lives of Romeo and Juliet, controlled by Friar Lawrence’s cowardice result in undesirable circumstances.
When one looks closely at the story of Romeo and Juliet, one will see that it is a story with many ethical aspects. The first ethical concern was the two feuding families. How moral is it to hate someone only because they have a certain family name? This all come from a time period when people were fairly focused on religion, which teaches us not to hate. I also question this because I think it is ironic that both Romeo and Juliet seem to be fairly religious, since the first person Romeo went to for help was Friar Lawrence, and a few scenes in the play took place in or around the church. I think that this hatred is especially bad in the case of the Capulets and the Montagues, because I was always under the impression that the families had been feuding for so long that no one really knew why they hated each other anymore. This was the beginning of the problems for Romeo and Juliet. They had a moral decision to make. Should they stay true to their families, and deny their love, or should they stay true to their feelings and disgrace their families? In order to resolve this dilemma, Romeo turns to Friar Lawrence, who perhaps could be seen as the most moral character, to begin with. Because he was a holy man, he was the most logical confidant of anyone in the play. People see men of the cloth as reliable and a good source of advice. Of course, Friar Lawrence has every intention of helping the two lovers, also hoping that he could reunite the feuding families. However, unbeknownst to him, everything he will do throughout the play will have an unnerving consequence. No matter what he did to correct what he had done wrong, it only drug him deeper into trouble. Who ever would have thought that by marrying the two young lovers, he would have caused all of this heartache for the families, and really for all of Verona? No one ever considered the fact that two young people wanting to get married would have affected the entire city. Friar Lawrence was only trying to be a good friend and ally, but everything he did just ended up backfiring for him.
Friar Laurence’s involvement in the marriage of Romeo and Juliet has caused a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet thought that they fell in love, but the Friar should have known that they were just kids and they were really 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: Therefore love moderately: long love doth so, too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” When he says this, he is giving Romeo a warnin. Also, Friar Lawrence should have known at the time, that Romeo was loving with his eyes and not with his heart. For example, Romeo was in a relationship with Rosaline, before marrying Julliet. Inonclusion , the Friar did not have the expierence to know that they were kids.
Friar Lawrence didn’t think of what was lawfully right, but of the destiny of two people, that were very important to him. He cared for them, and wished Romeo and Juliet well. He valued them as his own children. It goes to show that Friar Lawrence was human, also, and not perfect, since no one can be perfect.
A friar of wisdom and great power is an abuser of the power he holds; a friar the citizenry turn to thinking he is there to be welcoming, but he is vain. Friar Lawrence has good intentions to help others yet his actions show that he is truly impulsive and naive. The Friar shows his, “lies, schemes, misleads, falsely sanctions, and performs funeral obsequies for a being he knows is not permanently dead--and, as we can tell, he has no the slightest twinge of conscience about all of this” (Mackenzie 1). He is also blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. He manipulates the characters to believe his actions are to help the star-crossed lovers be happy, however he has ulterior motives and uses his powers against the lovers. In William Shakespeare’s
When Romeo goes to Friar Lawrence, Romeo’s mentor, he is not sure he should marry these two adolescents. He finally agrees because he thinks it will end the feuding between the two families. But, when he is actually going through with it, he begins to have second thoughts. Friar cries out, “So smile the heavens upon this holy act/ That after hours with sorrow chide us not!” ( 2. 6. 1-2) If he is truly worried that he will be punished for this later, he should have stopped right there. Instead, he married them. This overreaction leads to lying and death in scenes to
From his first entrance in the play we are given the impression Friar Lawrence is a moral person, yet his demeanours may have exposed his personality to be that of a more devious nature. Therefore he was protecting himself, from repute.
While at first he is optimistic about the match, thinking it may help unite the two warring families, it is later very evident that Friar Laurence doubts the rightness of the decision. His doubts is first expressed in Act 2, Scene 6 while he and Romeo are waiting for Juliet's arrival. This is obvious when Friar exclaims “So smile the heavens upon this holy act that after-hours with sorrow chide us not!” (Act 2 Scene 6 Line 1 and 2). Friar Laurence is saying that he hopes the heavens, or God, will approve of this secret union, and not reproach them later for the union by giving them sorrows. One reason why he doubts the marriage is the right thing to do is because he recognizes that Romeo is far too young to really understand what love is. Friar Laurence rightly sees that their love is really just intense passion and infatuation that is likely to end, as we see in his lines, "These violent delights have violent ends and in their triumph die, like fire and powder" (Act 2 Scene 6 Line 9 and 10). Hence, both of these passages help prove that Friar Laurence's decision to marry them was not the best one. Furthermore, we know that his decision to marry the couple helped lead to their deaths because, had Juliet not already been married when her father insisted that she marry Paris, Friar Laurence would not have also made the decision to fake Juliet's death in order to help her out of the mess, a decision that leads to Juliet's real death, as well as Romeo's. One thing that we see Friar Laurence do that is unusual for a member of the priesthood is act deceptively. Friar Laurence deceives the parents of both Romeo and Juliet by marrying their children behind their backs. However, marrying them was not the most prudent decision for a priest to make, regardless that he did it under the best intentions of uniting their warring families. It may have
In Act 2 Scene 3 Romeo turns to Friar Lawrence for advice and the Friar agrees to marry them stating, “For this alliance may so happy prove / to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” The Friar is saying that he will agree to marry them with the hopes of ending the Capulet/Montague feud. In reality the Friar’s good intentions cause the exact opposite. The hosti...