How Did Romeo And Juliet Make Wrong Decisions

Romeo and Juliet is a play where people make the wrong decisions at the wrong times. Written by William Shakespeare, the play follows the relationship between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, two star-crossed lovers from rival families. They meet and instantly fall in love, and the next day they get married. However, Romeo’s exile after killing Juliet’s cousin and Lord Capulet’s arranged marriage of Juliet and Paris bring the couple apart. Both Romeo and Juliet prefer death to separation, and after a failed plan to have Juliet fake her death and run away with Romeo, the couple ends up killing themselves. The end could have been prevented many times throughout the play, but the characters kept on making blunders and not doing what they should

have done. The person most to blame for the tragic events of Romeo and Juliet is Friar Lawrence; his willingness to support the couple and marry them, creation of negligent and near-sighted plans, and passive nature doomed Romeo and Juliet’s relationship and ultimately led to their deaths.
Friar Lawrence was the one to marry the couple, which was a mistake which the Friar justifies to himself through poor reasoning.

After Romeo and Juliet talk about the desire to marry each other, Romeo approaches the Friar to see if he would help them get married, saying “I’ll tell thee as we pass, but this I pray,-That thou consent to marry us today” (2.3.67-68). Although he chastises Romeo for moving from girl to girl so quickly, Friar Lawrence eventually agrees to marry the couple, hoping it would end the long-standing feud between the Montagues and Capulets, saying “For this alliance may so happy prove-To turn others your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.3.98-99). Later in act 2, he officially marries the couple. This was a mistake, he should have never agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet. He should have discouraged the dangerous relationship, not make it even stronger by making them husband and wife. His motives for marrying them seem good, but they were actually not. Would Lord Capulet really be thrilled upon hearing his daughter married a Montague instead of Paris? Juliet, his only daughter, would be taking up the name of his greatest enemy. If Lord Capulet had found out about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, it would have probably strengthened the hatred between the two families, not bring peace. Friar Lawrence is delusional for thinking that he could solve the problems between the two households by marrying the couple, he just makes the whole situation much

worse.
Throughout the play, the Friar makes a lot of plans, but most of them not very thought out. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, his plan to marry Romeo and Juliet and end the feud between the Montagues and Capulets was flawed and failed tremendously. Later on in the play, he makes a plan after the Prince exiles Romeo and Lord Capulet forces Juliet to marry Paris. His plan is to have Juliet feign obedience, then take a potion to make her seem dead, then have Romeo meet her at her tomb and have them run away together. He gives her the potion that puts her in a coma, which ultimately leads to the couple killing themselves. If he did not give Juliet the potion, then they would have have tragically died. Also, his plan was incredibly near-sighted. Even if it had worked out without any mishaps, what happens next? Friar Lawrence doesn’t think about what Romeo and Juliet will do after they run away together. Romeo is still exiled from Verona, so they would have to go to Mantua, and they would have very little money. Their love is still forbidden, so if anyone caught them they would get in a lot of trouble. Friar Lawrence’s plans are incredibly flawed and led to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.
Friar Lawrence’s passive nature makes the events in the play go from bad to worse.

After making the plan with Juliet to fake her death, he says, “I’ll send a friar with speed-To Mantua with my letters to thy lord” (4.1.125-126). Instead of delivering the news to Romeo himself, he sends someone else to do it. He makes the plans, but when the time comes to carry them out, he just delegates the work to other people. Friar Lawrence tells Friar John to deliver the letter, but he is unable to deliver it. Would Friar Lawrence have been able to deliver the letter to Romeo in time if he did it himself? Probably not, because he would have faced the same obstacles that Friar John did: the plague. Friar John says, “Where the infectious pestilence did reign,-Sealed up the doors and would not let us forth,-So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed” (5.2.10-12). It can be inferred that there is a plague in the area that slows down the speed of travel, so Friar Lawrence likely couldn’t have delivered the letter in time. However, he would have been able to travel to the tomb right away, instead of having to wait for Friar John to return and tell him about his inability to deliver the letter. If Friar Lawrence had taken action and tried to deliver the letter himself, then he would have been able to make it to the tomb and explain the plan to Romeo and avoid any confusion, preventing both Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Instead, he tells Friar John to do the work, and by the time he arrives at

the tomb, Romeo is already dead. When Juliet wakes up and asks about Romeo, he says, “Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay” (5.3.164). He tells Juliet that Romeo and Paris are dead, and then exits. Juliet, overcome with grief, kills herself. Friar Lawrence could have prevented Juliet’s suicide here, but doesn’t because of his passiveness. Instead of sticking with Juliet after she learns of Romeo’s death, he leaves. Leaving Juliet by herself after learning this news is an awful idea, especially since she threatened to kill herself earlier in the play. He should have stayed by her side, and stopped her from making any rash decisions. Both Romeo and Juliet’s deaths could have easily been prevented if the Friar took charge and be so passive.
Friar Lawrence was not the only person responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. For example, Juliet’s nurse helps the couple be together and helps set up the marriage by acting as a messenger between Romeo and Juliet. By pushing Paris towards Juliet, Lord and Lady Capulet just push Juliet closer to Romeo. Tybalt starts the fight that gets Romeo exiled. However, all of these people could have committed their wrongdoings and Romeo and Juliet still could have survived, as long as Friar Lawrence did the right things. Throughout the play, the Friar gets multiple opportunities to prevent the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, but each time he does the wrong thing and pushes the couple closer to their tragic fates. However, this does not mean Friar Lawrence is a bad person. He is misguided, but at his core he is a good person. He is a caring fatherly figure to Romeo, as Romeo’s dad is very absent in Romeo’s life. There are many ethical people in the world who have good intentions but happen to make mistakes that hurt people, and even though they make destructive blunders, they are still people who should be forgiven for their wrongdoing.