Friar Lawrence Suicide

In life, one’s best intentions, with an improper approach, leads to a negative outcome. This is clearly evident in Friar Lawrence from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is about two unfortunate young lovers whose love for each other ultimately leads to their deaths. Because of their families’ hostility towards each other, they take a risk and marry in secret. After Romeo’s exile and Juliet’s forced engagement, Juliet accepts Friar Lawrence’s plan for escape and for their families’ reconciliation. The friar’s plan fails and both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide because of their newly-found knowledge of one another’s apparent death. Due to the fact that he is involved in their marriage, he withholds that knowledge from Paris, and

Once Paris is given permission to marry Juliet on Thursday, he travels to Friar’s cell asking for his aid. The friar leads Paris on while barely speaking of his opposition to the Lord Capulet’s plan to gladden Juliet, who he thinks is weeping over Tybalt’s death. In objection to the plan he utters, “On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.” (Shakespeare 895) and he also states “uneven is the course; I like it not.” Because Friar knows that Juliet is already married and that she doesn’t weep over Tybalt’s death, but rather Romeo’s exile, he tries to change Paris’ mind about Capulet’s plan, rather than simply telling him the truth. The window of opportunity is open for him to confess to the County that his fiancé is already married, but he chooses otherwise. By suppressing the truth, Friar loses his chance to tell Paris, which could change Paris’ attitude about wedding Juliet, and by extension Capulet. With Capulet’s new mindset, it is probable that he would allow Juliet’s marriage. Consequently, the friar will not have to make a failing plan, leading to Romeo and Juliet

After being threatened by Juliet to either conceive a scheme, preventing her marriage, or she will take her own life, Friar quickly constructs the scheme. He tells Juliet to drink the potion he gives to her, which will make her fall into a dead-like sleep. After her nurse finds her “dead”, they will have her funeral. Furthermore, he explains, “Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes to rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead… Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault where all the kindred of the Capulets lie. In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, shall Romeo by my letters know our drift; and hither shall he come; and he and I will watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.” This plan fails because Romeo is informed of Juliet’s seeming death before his warned about the friar’s plan. Afterwards, Romeo goes to the tomb, where he finds Juliet asleep. From there he commits suicide by drinking a potion he bought from an apothecary. After Juliet awakes and finds Romeo dead, she commits suicide by stabbing herself with a dagger. In his oblivion to the fact that Romeo will find out about Juliet’s death, he constructs the plan. For this same reason, he should be held accountable for the deaths both of Romeo and