Franciscan Friar Laurence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

The role of the Franciscan Friar Laurence in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet can be described as a mentor, but his actual actions as opposed to his good-natured intentions can be effectively described with only two words: “friendly fire”. In the play, Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, find deep and amorous infatuation with each other virtually at first sight, despite their families’ vicious dispute. Eventually, Capulet, Juliet’s father, arranges for Juliet to be married to a young suitor named Paris, despite the fact that Friar Laurence, Romeo’s friend and advisor, already married Romeo to Juliet, consequently, Friar Laurence tried his best to assist Juliet in avoiding marriage with Paris on moral grounds. In the heat of the moment,

Friar Laurence constructs a plan on a rickety foundation that consisted of Juliet taking a potion to feign death, causing her family to place her in the family tomb, while the Friar sends a letter to Romeo, in Mantua after being banished from Verona from killing Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. Romeo is intended to receive the letter, hurry over to Juliet’s tomb, and kiss her to revive her and demonstrate their true love to their families so they will accept her marriage. However, this plan doesn’t fully come to fruition, as Romeo receives the Friar’s letter much too late, prompting Romeo to speed toward Verona as soon as humanly possible to convene with Juliet in her tomb, where Romeo and Paris get in a scuffle, with Paris losing his life and Romeo committing suicide after kissing Juliet for the last time. It is more than evident that Friar Laurence is to blame for the misfortunes endured in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
Firstly, Friar Laurence is responsible for the downfalls of both Romeo and Juliet in the play because his scheme to reunite Romeo and Juliet by faking Juliet’s death and sending a letter to Romeo to summon him to her grave in Verona was built on rickety foundations, which is to say that there were many uncertain variables in the plan that could have fallen short of their intended purpose.

When the Friar’s plan was executed, his letter to be sent to Romeo was undelivered because his messenger was detained for suspicions of being infected with the plague, causing the Friar to go to the Capulet tomb to take Juliet to a nunnery once she wakes up (in approximately three hours). Romeo receives news of Juliet’s “death” once his servant Balthasar informs him that Juliet lies in the Capulet family tomb, causing him to hurry to Verona and buy poison to commit suicide in case Juliet was truly dead. According to the text: “John. I could not send it - here it is again - Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection. Laurence. Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, The letter was not nice, but full of charge, Of dear import, and the neglecting it May do much danger.” (Shakespeare, 470). This excerpt shows that the Friar’s inability to deliver his letter to Romeo commenced a domino effect that caused Romeo to arrive too early for Juliet to awaken. Therefore, since Romeo thought that Juliet was dead, he drank his potion to kill himself, and when Juliet saw Romeo

lying dead next to her, she takes his dagger and plunges it into her abdomen, ending her own life. Therefore, Friar Laurence’s defective stratagem to reconvene Romeo and Juliet caused their downfall and is to blame for the tragedies endured in the play.
Additionally, Friar Laurence is responsible for bringing about catastrophe because there was a possibility that he poisoned Juliet’s potion in order to flee from the incidents transpiring at the time with no punishment. In the play, Juliet, while in bed, ponders the fact that the Friar could’ve poisoned her sleeping potion because he would be dishonored for marrying her and Romeo, of families caught in a violent feud. In the book, Shakespeare records: “Juliet: What if it be a poison which the friar Subtly hath minist’red to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored Because he married me before to Romeo?” (Shakespeare, 456). In this excerpt, Juliet explains how the Friar might try to avoid incarceration from marrying feuding families by poisoning her potion and fleeing Verona. Ultimately, Juliet still takes the potion because she would accept death if it meant avoiding her upcoming marriage to Paris, even though she still woke up in her tomb many hours later. As a consequence, Friar Laurence is to blame for the calamities that occurred in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet that brought Romeo, Juliet, and Paris, to some extent, to their doom.
Finally, Friar Laurence exhibits culpability for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he performed and strongly supported and encouraged the marriage of Romeo and Juliet despite the strong rivalry between their families and the fact that County Paris wished to marry her as well, with the support of Juliet’s parents, where the decision unfolded and the lives of the star-crossed couple were lost. In a similar case, Bosko Brkic and Admira Ismic, two lovers in the besieged Bosnian city of Sarajevo, were deeply infatuated with each other and hoped to escape Sarajevo and find love away from the danger of Serbian snipers across the Vrbana Bridge, where they gunned down anyone attempting to cross. Bosko’s mother, Rada Brkic, as well as the rest of their families, strongly supported their relationship and didn’t attempt to stop their crossing over the bridge, despite the fact that Bosko was a Serbian Christian and Admira was a Bosnian Muslim. On the bridge. Bosko and Admira were gunned down by a Serb sniper; Bosko died instantaneously after being shot and Admira, also shot, crawled over to Bosko’s body, cried, and passed away. According to an Irish Times article: “Their families approved of their relationship. Nine months before their deaths, they moved in together. As Bosko's mother, Rada Brkic, said later: "I raised them without thinking about religion or nationality. I never said, 'You are Serbs, they are Muslims or Croats.' I saw her only as the girlfriend of my son, who loved her, and who I loved, too. I didn't regard her as a Muslim, as different." (https://www.irishtimes.com). According to this excerpt, the couple’s families all supported the action that unfortunately led to Bosko’s and Admira’s deaths, as Friar Laurence supported Romeo and Juliet’s marriage which unfolded into an unfortunate series of happenings which culminated in the loss of their lives as well, with Juliet dying by suicide by dagger and Romeo’s suicide by poison. Therefore, Friar Laurence is responsible for the deaths of the two titular lovers in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
With the evidence presented previously, it is more than obvious that Friar Laurence, Romeo’s advisor and friend, is the prime culprit in bringing about the demise of both Romeo and Juliet.

Firstly, Friar Laurence is to blame for the deaths of the star-crossed lovers because he fabricated a scheme to reunite the two lovers that failed when Friar John was unable to deliver Laurence’s letter to Romeo, causing Romeo to arrive at Juliet’s tomb in Verona at the wrong time, where he encounters and kills Paris in a duel, believes Juliet is dead, kills himself with poison to be with her in the afterlife, as Juliet wakes up from her death-like trance with Romeo and Paris dead at her side, then uses Romeo’s dagger to end her life. Secondly, Friar Lawrence could’ve poisoned the potion that he gave to Juliet to put her in a temporary coma in order to escape the situations unfolding unharmed, which Juliet ponders the possibility of. Thirdly, Friar Lawrence strongly supported Romeo and Juliet’s relationship and marriage, much like the families of Bosko Brkic and Admira Ismic supported their relationship and their failed escape of Sarajevo, both of which ended in the deaths of the couples. The term “friendly fire” describes the Friar’s intentions quite well, as the Friar intended to assist Romeo and Juliet with continuing their relationship despite the feud raging on between their families, yet sparked a series of events that eventually led to the couple’s downfall. If the Friar would have

been more wise or clever with his plans to rescuing Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, their lives would have been spared from this tragedy.