Friar Lawrence of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare, concerns two
lovers, from two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues.
Throughout the story, many characters contributed problems leading to
the deaths of the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Many, who know the
story of Romeo and Juliet, would conclude that the deaths of Romeo and
Juliet are caused by the wrongdoings of Friar Lawrence, one of the
main characters in the play. However, Friar Lawrence is not to blame
for the tragedy. Although his ideas did not work out as planned, his
intentions are honourable. He shows responsibility and honesty when he
continuously tries to help Romeo and Juliet work out their problems
until the end, and when he offers to sacrifice his life, after
explaining everything that had happened. Friar Lawrence also
demonstrates that he is quick to react and would perform the necessary
actions anyone would perform if they were in the same position. Other
factors caused Friar Lawrence's plans to go awry, including the
plague, and the lack of time to think things through.
When Friar Lawrence marries Romeo, son of Montague, and Juliet,
daughter of Capulet, his only intention is to restore peace between
the two households. The Capulets and the Montagues continue on with
the age-old hatred and envy between one another. Friar Lawrence first
learns of the love between Romeo and Juliet when Romeo came to him:
Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet;
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine,
And all combin'd, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage (II.iii.57-61)
As Romeo tells the Friar whom he loves, he also asks him to marry
them. Initially, Friar Lawrence thinks it is particularly early for
them to marry for they had only met the night before.
However, Friar Lawrence decides that Romeo and Juliet's marriage could
create a bond between
the two households so he chooses to proceed with the ceremony.
Friar Lawrence in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "We still have known thee for a holy man"
I think that Friar Laurence was to a large extent responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. However, several other factors contributed. and we can not solely blame one person. The circumstances, time period and characters need to be taken into consideration. & nbsp
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's first authentic tragedy. It is about two lovers who commit suicide when their feuding families prevent them from being together. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot; but some have the plot revolving around them. While the character of Friar Lawrence spends only a little time on stage, he is crucial to the development of the conclusion of the play. It is Friar Laurence’s good intentions, his willingness to take risks and his shortsightedness that lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Lawrence wants to marry Romeo and Juliet in hopes their love for one another will end the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. He schemes and has the characters believe it is out of his love for Romeo and Juliet; as in their eyes, he is a fatherly figure. He is an older man who should be out to help the citizenry of Verona, but being egotistical, he uses Romeo and Juliet for his personal desires to end the feud between the families. Him being egocentric has the Friar make rash decisions in situations that he had not planned for. When the Capulets and the Montagues come together after the death of their children, Friar Lawrence says, “Her nurse is privy; 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.” (V.iii.266-269). The Friar explains Romeo and Juliet’s love story and the reasoning behind their secret marriage and why he went through with marrying the star-crossed lovers. He does not say that his rashness is to be blamed for their children’s death, but turns to the Nurse’s knowledge of the secret marriage. Friar Lawrence is showcasing his rashness by outing the Nurse’s role in the marriage and not taking blame for the deaths, but has the Prince decide his punishment. He wants to blame another character with the knowledge of the marriage to make it seem as though he is not to be blamed. His
Youth and Age Should Friar Lawrence and the Nurse have been more careful about the way they encouraged Romeo and Juliet’s love? To what extent does Shakespeare present them as being to blame?
In the story,Friar caused many reasons for the death of Romeo and Juliet. He starts by making her drink the potion and marrying them thinking he was going to help but it made matters worse he too did not help Juliet when she was dying he just left. Friar Lawrence is a good friend of the Montagues. He was an advisor and friend to Romeo, and when they asked him to marry them, at first he denied them,but soon after that he accepted their mariage because it was going to be a pure marriage, But the marriage made the situation worse because they were rival families and of course they won't accept the marriage between the two rival families.
The story of Romeo and Juliet was filled with a tragedy caused by two feuding families with an end of death. But could the fatal demise of these two been averted if one character had played a better part. This character is Friar Lawrence a man of the church renowned for his power of healing. When the lovers turned to him he married them, gave both advice in their ties of need and supplied a plan to bring them back together. But was the Friar responsible for such a crime and when they both lay dead was the blood on his hands.
Friar Lawrence was sympathetic and impatient with the two that it eventually led to their deaths. Friar Lawrence marrying Romeo and Juliet and not telling anyone was inconsiderate, he didn’t care to tell the families; before or after. He believed that if he married Romeo and Juliet the feud between the Capulets and Montagues would end saying: “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” (2:3:91-92) Not telling anyone led to Capulet wanting Juliet to marry Paris sooner which resulted in her asking for the potion. Friar Lawrence is also to blame as he is the one who caused Juliet to appear dead. When Juliet arrived, and threatened to stab herself is she had to marry Paris, Friar Lawrence gave her a potion to make her appear dead for 42 hours then she could leave with Romeo. Friar Lawrence showed that he is impatient when he rushed everything and didn’t wait to see if Romeo received the letter instead he gave her the potion. When she drank the potion and Romeo came to see her, he assumed she was dead and drank a poison and fell dead at her side, after awakening Juliet sees Romeo dead beside her and takes his dagger and says “O happy dagger, this is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” And plunges the dagger into her stomach and too falls dead with her beloved Romeo. If Friar Lawrence hadn’t been so sympathetic with marrying the two and hadn’t been impatient when it
To start with, Friar John was shown to be quite irresponsible with the task he was given by Friar Laurence. Although the latter was the person who came up with the rash plan of feigning Juliet’s death and informing Romeo as the story goes on, it was not his fault the lovers ultimately died in the end. Friar John, however, was clearly given the task of delivering the vital letter to Romeo, to which he did not fulfil. To him, it was not at the top of his to-do list, and he instead resorted to helping out a fellow friar. He knew that the message was urgent, yet he did not make a big effort to get it to Romeo in time. Because of this, Romeo was not fully informed of the “plan”, and he decided to kill himself along with Juliet, resulting in their
In contrast to common characteristics of a cleric, conformist and conservative, Friar Lawrence advocates freedom over following rules in society and always try to solve issues using the most risky methods. This is illustrated when he plans out Juliet’s death, “then as the manner of manner of our country is, in thy best robes, uncover’d on the bier, thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault where all the Capulet lie.” (IV.ii.109-113). He indirectly plays an influence to the tragic ending even though his primal motive intends to unite the lovers and offer citizens a peaceful town. As opposed to playing their ordinary roles in society, Friar Lawrence devises plans and encourages Romeo and Juliet to pursue forbidden love under a risky circumstance in order to turn his notions into reality. Friar Lawrence’s dialogue informs Juliet of the plan illustrates his part in causing the tragedy, “Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then it is likely thou wilt under a thing like death to chide away this shame,” (IV.i.72-74). From secretly marrying the them to sending Romeo to take Juliet’s virginity, he is informed about Romeo’s approaching banishment and the notorious reputation which will follow Juliet permanently. However,he continues to cover the mistake by creating the facade of Juliet’s death. This is illustrated in “All this is I know, and to the marriage he nurse is privy,” (V.iii.265-266). Friar Lawrence challenges conformism to pursue liberty, serves to liberate the forbidden love of two youngsters from opposing families but only earns a tragic fruition for his
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.
Friar Lawrence is responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s stronger affections for each other because he married them and therefore binding their love. Friar Lawrence also came up with a risky solution to get Romeo and Juliet together for the rest of their lives without anyone knowing. However, it consisted of faking Juliet’s death and Romeo did not know she was not actually dead, but alive. Friar Lawrence’s messenger did not tell Romeo the plan in time because Romeo had already heard of Juliet’s death and had gone to her tomb to die with her. Friar Lawrence is responsible for the star-crossed lovers’ death because of his miscalculated
Friar Lawrence plays an integral part in the action and plot of Romeo and Juliet by secretly marrying them, and giving Juliet the idea to fake her own death. Romeo and Juliet meet in the Friar’s cell for their marriage and the Friar says, “Come, come with me…For, by your leaves you shall not stay alone, Till Holy Church incorporate two in one.”(II.vi.35-37). The Friar marries the two in hopes “to turn [their] households rancor to pure love”(II.iii.99). The Friar is the binding power between Romeo and Juliet, by helping them be together. Without the Friar, Romeo and Juliet would have a difficult time trying to meet in secret with each other, but because of him, they are able to get married. Ultimately, the Friar’s wishes of ending the feud between the Montagues and Capulets are fulfilled, but the reason of their reconciliation being the death of their children. The deaths of Romeo ...
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.
However, Romeo and Juliet were influenced by several sources to help maintain their love; one of them being Friar Lawrence who had a major involvement in both their marriage and the plan for Juliet to avoid marrying Paris and instead reunite with her true love. “In one respect I’ll assistant be,...” (Doc C- A2,S3 ). This is a line from Romeo and Juliet ,which is spoken by Friar Lawrence to Romeo when he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet. At first look it can be argued Friar Lawrence didn’t know he was marrying the children of sworn enemies until the quote is continued. “...For this alliance may so happy prove,To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” (Doc C- A2,S3 ) This is the continuation of Friar Lawrence’s line where he confirms he does not only know who he will be marrying, but also how willing he is to marry them in the hope it will