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Romeo's impulsive decisions
Romeos irrational decisions
Romeo's fate and consequences
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Over many courses of history, plans play a major role, from ruling the entire world to an organized protest. These things only have two possible outcomes: success or failure. When a plan backfires, it’s considered to be a failure. In an everyday life situation, a student may have tried to complete an English essay in the form of plagiarism, thinking that he or she won’t be caught. However, when the teacher realizes that the paper is plagiarized, the student’s plan backfires and ends up failing English. In terms of history, there have been conspiracies that have failed such as assassination attempts, wars, and even taking over a country. The same can be said in Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, as well as real life, people can misunderstand the plan which causes everything to be backfired. As one small thing such as Friar Lawrence giving the potion to Juliet, it really changes the course of the two lovers’ lives forever! In Act 4, Scene 1, the small spark started in the hands and mouth of Friar Lawrence. As Juliet is sickened with worrying about her marriage with Count Paris, the Friar strikes a plan that he thinks is plausible: a potion to make Juliet look dead: Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone. Let not the Nurse lie …show more content…
In other words, Romeo doesn’t think twice about his own decisions and the certain consequences that will come after it. In addition, he didn’t go to Friar Lawrence to know about his entire plan for them to reunite in Mantua, which would have been a life changing situation for both Romeo and Juliet. As a result, Juliet wakes up from her potion, finds Romeo dead, and kills herself in the end. With small decisions such as the potion from Friar Lawrence and the misinterpretation of Juliet’s death by Romeo, they have indeed led to changing the course of the lives of Romeo and
The attempt that Friar Lawrence had made to fix up his wrong doings was a mistake and took a huge role in leading up to the two deaths. He had a second chance to come clean and tell the families the truth, but he chose to ignore that opportunity and came up with a plan that resulted in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. After Romeo had been banished, the plan that the Friar conjured up was for Juliet to take a potion which would make her appear dead.
Friar Lawrence's good intentions of marrying Romeo and Juliet to create peace with the two families is also to blame for the tragedy. The secret marriage does not help the feud at all it just results in the Friar having to make some risky decisions about the fate of Romeo and Juliet. His plan for Juliet to take the poison and the letters to be sent to Romeo ends up being fatal. If the Friar had not given Juliet the potion then Romeo would never had come back to Verona to kill himself.
While trying to help Juliet, the Friar gives Juliet a sleeping potion and says, “Let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber./ Take thou this vial, being in bed,/ And this distilling liquor drink thou off;” (IV.i.92-94). Friar Lawrence gives Juliet the sleeping potion in hopes it looks as though she is dead to get out of the upcoming marriage with County Paris. He tells Juliet to take the potion while in her room with no one watching and it will slow down her heart rate for forty-two hours. Days following, Juliet will awaken and Romeo will be there to come take her to run away. The Friar hopes for the best in the situation, but does not consider the drawbacks that could and will suddenly occur in his plan. He continuously tells Juliet what she wants to hear in this situation because she sees him as a fatherly figure and he sees her as his daughter. Before Juliet leaves the Friar, he tells her, “ ‘Thou hast the strength of will to sly thyself,/ Then is it likely thou wilt undertake/ A thing like death to chide away this shame,’ ” (Mackenzie 1). The Friar says that Juliet’s only option to get out of marrying the County Paris is to kill herself. His encouragement invokes the idea to Juliet to drink the potion. Trusting Juliet with a sleeping potion and the idea of killing herself showcases his rashness
When he says "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, / and hither shall he come; and he and I/ shall watch thy waking, and that very night/ shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua" (IV.i.116-119), his intention is clearly to comfort and reassure Juliet. Unfortunately, for all his good intentions, the play still ends in tragedy. Friar Lawrence is a man who is not afraid to take risks to help someone; as, in Act 2, Scene 6, when he marries Romeo and Juliet, he is risking his reputation as a Friar, so he can help the two lovers. Also, when he says, "Take thou this vial, being then in bed, / and this distilled liquor drink thou off" (IV.i.95-96), he is suggesting that Juliet drink a potion so that she might feign her own death and avoid marrying Paris.
Friar Lawrence advises Juliet to drink a substance before going to bed that will make her appear to be dead and unresponsive, but she will wake up within a day. This demonstrates unethical, immature and irresponsible behaviour, which leads to Romeo and Juliet’s death. “Take thou this vial, being then in bed./And this distilled liquor drink thou off,/when presently through all thy veins shall run/A cold drowsy humor, for no pulse.” (4.1.94-97) In this quote, Friar Lawrence instructs Juliet to lie to the Nurse and drink a substance before going to sleep, when the Nurse and Lady Capulet will wake her, she will appear dead; with the hopes that Romeo will come and their relationship will be saved, unfortunately this is not the case. Friar Lawrence’s plan is thoughtless, after Juliet is aware of the plan and has the potion; Friar is advised that Romeo did not receive the letter. This causes Romeo and Juliet’s untimely death. “A grave? Oh, no. A lantern, slaughtered youth,/ for here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of light/Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred.” (5.3.84-87) At the sight of Juliet’s body, Romeo becomes so overwhelmed with grief
Despite his conscience, Friar Lawrence reveals a potion that will put Juliet to a false death, in the “Potion Plan” scene. His motivation was caused by the weeping and tears of Juliet who was in the hands of a twisted marriage against her will. She had already been married to her love, but now that promise was in danger of being broken. From the few lines that the friar speaks, the audience realizes that this friar is certainly not the stereotype friar that goes around trying to live an impossible life of perfection.
When Romeo and Juliet realize they can’t be together, and Juliet is expected to marry Paris, she needs an escape plan. Juliet pays a visit to the Friar, who creates a plan for Juliet to fake her death with a sleeping potion. When Juliet asks the Friar to help her break free from her wedding with Paris, he replies that: If, rather than to marry County Paris, Thou has the strength of will to slay thyself; Then it is likely thou wilt undertake A thing like death to elude away this shame, That cop'st with death himself to scrape from it; And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy. IV i 71-76. Therefore, for the second time, the Friar acts unwisely and agrees to give Juliet this deadly potion.
While weeping over what Juliet would think of him after finding out he killed Tybalt, he was relieved to know that Juliet still loved him, “Go before, Nurse commend me to thy lady,/ And bid her hasten all the house to bed,/ Which heavy sorrows make the apt unto./Romeo is coming” (Shakespeare 3.3.155). Friar knew about Romeo and Juliet’s secret romance from the beginning, but he did not do anything to stop it, in fact, it was Friar who married the two. Friar Lawrence knew what could happen, but his only advice was to take slow. In addition, Friar Lawrence also gave Juliet the potion to put her into a fake death so she could avoid marrying Paris. After putting in serious consideration about drinking the potion Juliet decided to take the chance. “Take this vial, being then in bed,/ And this distilling liquor thou off,/ When presently through all thy veins shall run/ A cold drowsy humour” (4.1.90-91). Friar gave Juliet the potion because she said she would rather kill herself than marry Paris and after saying that Friar came up with the
The deaths of Romeo and Juliet occur because of the crucial mistakes that Friar Lawrence makes. Friar Lawrence mishandles the situation by marrying the young couple that should not have been together. In addition, he has Juliet take his homemade concoction which ultimately leads to Romeo's and Juliet's actual deaths. Finally, he has a quarantined friar try to deliver a letter to Romeo about a secret plan that had been created by Juliet and him. Even though Friar Lawrence has good intentions and was just trying to help Romeo and Juliet, he ends up creating a huge problem that kills the young couple and devastates their families with sadness. The consequences far outweigh the good intentions. But, sometimes the people who are thought to be knowledgeable and trustworthy may turn out to be irresponsible and poor decision makers.
Friar Lawrence showed that he was 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 came to the letter, Romeo wouldn’t have drunken the poison and Juliet would have never stabbed herself. In conclusion, the tragic death of young Romeo and Juliet can be blamed on their family and friends.
With all the conflict arising between Juliet’s family, Friar Lawrence creates a plan that unfortunately does not succeed. His plan for Juliet is to tell her father she will marry Paris, then go to bed with no one, not even the nurse. After, she will drink a potion to make her seem dead for forty two hours and then have a messenger tell Romeo about it. He will have her put in a vault to wait for Friar to bring her out so she and Romeo can elope. The plan was perfect until tragedy occurs, Benvolio sees Juliet dead and immediately tells Romeo about it.
Juliet is to drink a potion to make her appear dead, and later wake to be free of the shame of marrying Paris. Here, Friar Lawrence is assuring Juliet that he will send a letter to Romeo, explaining their plan. Romeo doesn’t receive that letter, and he does not know what is to happen. Free will comes with great consequences. Friar Lawrence and Juliet inflicted their own wounds by not telling Romeo of their plan. If they had taken the time to make sure that Romeo got the information, their plan might have succeeded, and Romeo and Juliet would be free to marry each other. A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents. (V, iii, 154-155)
He also tells Juliet that "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall hem come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua" (Act 4, Scene 1.) Unforeseen to neither the Friar nor Juliet that an error such as the one of Friar John’s would prove to be deadly. Poor Romeo was not able to receive the letter. Friar Lawrence plays a significant role in the plan for Juliet to "sleep."Friar Lawrence plays an important rule in the actual deaths of Romeo, Juliet, And Paris. Friar Lawrence is unable to reach Romeo with the news of Juliet’s "death." Romeo, thinking Juliet is dead rushes to Verona, but not before buying some fast poison.
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.
After making the plan to fake her death with Friar Laurence, Juliet tells her father, “Pardon, I beseech you! / Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you” (4.2.22-23). Here, Juliet is lying to her father by telling him she will marry Paris when she really plans to fake her death. This is important because it reveals that Juliet’s eagerness to be with Romeo causes her to lie to her parents, putting the person she just met above the parents that raised her and love her very much. Not caring about how her actions will affect them may also cause conflicts later on in the play. Romeo is also deceptive to his role model, Friar Laurence. After learning that Juliet has “died”, Romeo tells Balthasar, “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars! / Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper / And hire posthorses. I will hence to-night” (5.1.24-26). Here, Romeo is being deceptive of Friar Laurence by not staying at Mantua like Friar Laurence told him to. This is important since Romeo is still banished, so going back to Verona may cause even more conflicts later in the