Friar Laurence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence has a major role. Friar Laurence’s 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. He was there throughout Romeo and Juliet's lives, he married them, came up with a plan to keep them together, and was a friend throughout their tragedies. However it was his rashness, short-sightedness, poorly thought out plans and desperate measures that led to Romeo and Juliet's ultimate tragedy. Today I am going to prove to you that Friar Laurence is the one ultimately responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet. Nevertheless, to prove that Friar Laurence is ultimately responsible for their

deaths, all you have to do is look at the decisions he made.

The first poor decision that Friar Laurence made that resulted in the death of Romeo and Juliet was to marry the two in secret.

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

been far wiser to at least try and convince the two families to give their consent. Friar Laurence's un-priestly act of deception sadly leads to other acts of deceptions, such as faking Juliet's death, which leads to Juliet's real death and Romeo's.

Friar Laurence certainly made some well-intentioned poor decisions, the second well-intentioned poor decision Friar Laurence makes is to fake Juliet's death in order to help her out of her bind and unite her with Romeo in Mantua.