Friar Lawrence Say That Romeo's Love Will Be His End

In the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence states “O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:/Within the infant rind of this small flower Poison hath residence and medicine power: For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will.” (II, III,15-16/II, III,23-29) The Friar explains that flowers could be used for medicinal purposes but also for poison. While also saying Romeo’s love could heal his heart from Rosaline.
Juliet could also be his poison his “love will be his end” as described in the prologue “From forth the fatal loins of these two

foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove.” (5-11) This showed that Rosaline who was initially Romeo’s love was not as prominent as Juliet. very ‘Till death do us part’ kind of love which it did but anyway Rosaline was more like a crush, an intense but relatively shallow, or romantic attachment. Throughout the play he had a dramatic personality change from the start to the end of this play, From being dumb, rash and senseless to violent and a turn for being like Tybalt. Throughout the play Romeo evolves into a different person he becomes wild and corrupted by the family feud as readers will see by the end of the play.
During the 1st feud of the play the prologue stated the Capulets and Montagues were in a feud for so long they couldn’t remember why they fought in the first place but that didn’t stop them from hating each other so much they could kill someone. For example Romeo and Juliet were still in love after discovering their love was doomed from the start “Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me That I must love a loathed enemy.” (I, IV,152-155) but this didn’t stop either of them from running off to get married. This shows that Romeo and Juliet are both Foils characters to Tybalt who said “I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward! (I, I,71-73) Tybalt responded to hate rather than love when he met any Capulet.
Romeo was initially the level headed one, but he completely changed due to Mercutio being murdered by Tybalt.

Romeo was more like the peacemaker in that particular feud he struggled to calm Tybalt and Mercutio down which ended by death. The death of Mercutio changed his personality, making him more like Tybalt- rash and senseless as opposed to before his friend Mercutio’s death, and so Romeo being the rash and senseless person he was, he murdered Tybalt, his wife’s cousin. He evidently made a mistake and regretted it later on. Fate played a prominent role in the fact that even when Prince Escalus declared the punishment for another feud between the two families would be death, but Romeo still managed to avoid death by being banished from Verona, but this consequence would lead to never seeing Juliet again. And that of course couldn’t happen due to their undying love for each other. This results obviously for Romeo to essentially attempt suicide but then again if you plan to kill yourself don’t do it infront of people. By killing Tybalt, Romeo assumed Juliet would hate him “Doth not she think me an old murderer/what says My concealed lady to our canceled love?”(III,III,102-106) He clearly hates himself so much that it leads to attempting to commit suicide “Friar Lawrence: Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts [denote] The unreasonable fury of

beast.”(III,III,118-121)
In the beginning of this scene Romeo tried to avoid fighting and acknowledged the fact that he was married to juliet even though her cousin wants to kill him. Romeo didn’t explain why he did this but the audience already knew he couldn’t die by Tybalt's hands as said in the prologue, “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.” The dramatic Irony is that he didn’t know. Romeo didn’t start fighting because he was provoked, rather because Tybalt had killed Mercutio.“Romeo: Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage To such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not./I do protest I never injured thee But love thee better than thou canst devise Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. And so, good Capulet, which name I tender As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.”(III,I,63-73) you can see in this scene he tried his very best to avoid fighting but fate comes into play when instead of his death Tybalt was murdered. All of this could have been avoided if Fate hadn’t come into play.
In the start of this tragic play, Romeo was heartbroken over Rosaline.

However, after meeting Juliet and falling in love and they give each other their hand in marriage the same night they met, which is not advised. After this, Mercutio died and Tybalt had killed him that completely changed Romeo's personality he was already very impatient, senseless and rash he didn’t think of the consequences of killing Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, would mean being banished from Verona. Friar Lawrence explains, “Here from Verona art thou banishèd. Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. Romeo: There is no world without Verona walls But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence “banishèd” is “banished from the world,” And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd” Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishèd,” Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax And smilest upon the stroke that murders

me.”(iii,iii,16-24)
Juliet when she heard about this she wanted to die or run away with Romeo “When the prince banished romeo he came back thinking juliet was dead and he wanted to die with her. When Paris came in he asked to be buried with Juliet when He wanted to do the same, he thought he was going to die anyway he was desperate and so he killed Paris, “ O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, Open the tomb; lay me with Juliet.”(iv,iii,72-73) Although Paris hadn’t even married Juliet and only met her once in his life Romeo still laid Paris in the tomb with her. Romeo decided he would poison himself and die with Juliet “Here’s to my love. Drinking. O true apothecary, Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.[He dies.]”(iv,iii,119-120) As you can see throughout this play Romeo had been rash and senseless when it came to Juliet. Little did he know Juliet was still alive but she killed herself with her dagger when she found out he was dead. So both Romeo and Julietalike were killed by their own hands, however it could be argued each others’ hands indirectly. “ A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;”.(prologue) Romeo’s senselessness and love for Juliet caused him to change dramatically throughout the play.
Romeo differs from Tybalt for only the start of the play at the end of it they were basically the same when it came to fighting they fought till death. He had made many rash decisions when it came to Juliet. He had killed her cousin for killed Mercutio, he had attempted suicide, the consequences for his actions were being banished from Verona, then finally when learning of Juliet’s ‘death’ he discounted the fact he was banished and bought poison to kill himself. When finally reaching Juliet he met Paris, Juliet’s fiance, and had killed him as well. Along with that he killed himself right before the Friar came and Juliet woke up from the sleeping potion. This cycle of violence had caused the two families in the play to lose theirloved ones.However, at the end of the play their deaths did absolve the feud between their families.
The idea of love and hate being at odds with one another in Friar Lawrence’s words “Poison hath residence and medicine power: For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart./Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.”(II,III,24-31) exemplifies that love is poison but also medicinal, hate is poison. Romeo and Juliet’s tragic story was doomed from day one out of the four. Romeo’s love and hate was like a cancer to everyone one, including himself. As for the power of love and hate, essentially there is a very thin line between the two, and feeling hurt can easily push someone over the edge. That end could either have tragic meansor a happy ending. Romeo was hurt in the start of the play the cause being Rosaline. He was heartbroken over her, so when meeting Juliet he tipped over a line, that line was love. Fate came into play when Romeo and Juliet uncover, their love was doomed every time Romeo was in death's way the dramatic irony of the fact that his love was his poison came with it, Romeo was an imbecile. Overall with the renaissance era in mind, this was the first play/story which opened the eyes of the people about love and its effects to humankind.