Friar Lawrence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Many know the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, and they are aware of the sequence of events that lead up to the young couple’s death. Although, not many realize that there were characters who contributed to Romeo and Juliet taking their lives. For instance, when the couple meet in the beginning of the story and the Nurse breaks the news to them that they are the heirs of their enemies. Though she tells them, she does little to stop the couple from being together throughout the play. An additional character who played a role in their death was Tybalt because he decided to add more fuel to the Capulet and Montague feud by fighting with Romeo which resulted in his banishment. Let's not forget Lord Capulet rushing …show more content…

From the start, Friar Laurence was secretive and deceitful when he does not tell the families of Romeo and Juliet about their relationship, and he is the one who marries them. Though he was hesitant to unite the couple at first, in the end, Friar still agreed to officiate the marriage. As a result of him marrying them, Romeo and Juliet felt like they had to do anything and everything to save their marriage, which included dying for one another. Since Friar was considered a man of God, he should have lead the couple to tell their parents or told the parents himself. Friar Laurence’s irresponsibility, another one of his disturbing character flaws, likely lead to the couple’s death. Knowing the effects of the vial (“If thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself....take thou this vial...no warmth, no breath shall testify the living” IV.i.72,93,98) he should have taken the opportunity to again, inform their parents; instead he hatched a plan for Juliet to fake her death. Had Friar Laurence not given Juliet the vial, she would not have been put in the position she was in, which rippled to Romeo’s death and her real death. Friar makes multiple bad choices throughout the play, and as he made such choices, he inevitably doomed Juliet to her death therefore leading to Romeo taking his life

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