Friar Lawrence in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Friar Lawrence in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "We still have known thee for a holy man"

In this play, Friar Lawrence is shown to be a wise and sympathetic man

in a number of ways. One good aspect of his character is the fact that

he is sympathetic and looks out for Romeo, caring for him almost as a

son. When Romeo comes to Friar Lawrence, with his tales of his new

found love for Juliet, the Friar instantly has sympathy with him and

tries to understand Romeo's predicament.

"But come young waverer, come go with me"

It is clear that Romeo values Friar Lawrence's opinion, this shows how

Friar Lawrence must have some positive qualities as he would not have

gone to him if he did not value and respect the Friar's opinion. Thus

Romeo has clearly decided that the Friar has a valuable opinion, that

he respects and cherishes. The Friar is clearly sympathetic to Romeo

and is capable of understanding that although he has only just changed

his mind about who he loves it is still possible that he is truly in

love with Juliet. He is also kind enough to Romeo to agree to help him

and Juliet get married to each other, The Friar is clearly therefore a

kind and sympathetic person, but this also shows a critical flaw in

the Friar's character; that the Friar is prepared to marry two people,

who have only met each other in the past twenty four hours shows that

he has a lack of judgement of events. He fails to look at the other

side of things and doesn't even stop to think before agreeing to

something that could change two young people's lives. The Friar is

also far too...

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...o haunt him later on. His lack

of careful judgement when he gave Juliet the sleeping potion showed

that he hadn't really fully considered the consequences of his actions

before he decided to give Juliet the potion. Friar Lawrence also made

the error of not telling Friar John of the extreme importance of his

mission, if Friar John had known the full consequences of his task

then he may have been able to pass on the correct information to Romeo

in time to prevent his tragic suicide. Perhaps the best commendation

of the Friar's character is the Prince of Verona's judgement at the

end of the play,

"We still have known thee for a holy man"

and although this is perhaps symbolic of the high social esteem in

which clergy were held in the middle ages, it is more likely a

judgement of a wise and sympathetic priest.