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Introduction writing an essay describing the character of the characters for Romeo and Juliet
Family loyalty in Romeo and Juliet
Family loyalty in Romeo and Juliet
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Romeo and Juliet are full of conflicting loyalties. The background loyalties are set up in the first scene, when Samson and Gregory decide to start a fight with some Montagues. Loyalty drags all of the surrounding Montagues and Capulets into the fray. The first loyalty that is established is loyalty to family.
But Romeo and Juliet complicate that by making obligations to each other. Now they have to be loyal, not only to their families, but to each other, and by extension to each others' families. Romeo shows this when he meets Tybalt: he refuses to fight him, because he is loyal to Juliet, and so to Tybalt. Mercutio demonstrates that there is another kind of loyalty in play here, which is loyalty to friends. As an act of loyalty to his friend,
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Romeo must revenge him, although this conflicts with his loyalty to Juliet's family. Juliet is caught in a similar conflict when news of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment is brought to her. The Nurse says, "Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?" and Juliet replies "Shall I speak ill of him who is my husband?" In Verona, two star-crossed lovers from two feuding families are confronted with many unfortunate events. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, multiple characters can be blamed for the death of the two star-crossed lovers but the character that stands out to be the blame for the deaths most is Friar Lawrence. It was his rashness, short-sightless, poorly thought out plans and desperate measures that led them to a tragic death. He was the one that could control the marriage and actions that took place. Friar Lawrence proceeded in marrying them ignoring his own advice that the marriage was too quick, he comes up with a plan too quickly without considering the consequences, provides the potions to her and lastly does not make sure the letter is definitely delivered to Romeo. These poor decisions and actions of his, causes the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet. The first decision of his that dooms the two lovers was the arranged secret marriage between Romeo, Juliet and himself. When Romeo came to him to confess his love to this new girl he met called Juliet and their will to be married, the friar - although at first thought the marriage was too quick, ignored his own advice and carried on with Romeo’s will. He had full control of deciding whether it would be good to marry them or not. He should have taken the time to think about Juliet's dilemma with Paris before he married her to Romeo. If the marriage was secret and neither of their parents knew, the two families wouldn’t know to consider the fact that their families are now somewhat bonded and not to fought against as enemies. Whereas delaying the marriage, he would have had time to clarify the situation with Lord Capulet and Lord Montague. The second mistake that Friar Lawrence committed was his poorly thought out plan and providing the sleeping potion to Juliet.
This created the confusion of Romeo believing that Juliet was in fact dead. When Juliet approached him for help about her unwanted prepared marriage to Paris, he was caught off guard by Juliet's threat to commit suicide and quickly responded "Hold daughter! I do spy a kind of hope, which craves as desperate an execution as that is desperate to prevent"(IV. i. 68-70), and gave her the potion. He should not have acted so quickly, especially after he told Romeo "Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast"(II. iii. 94-95). Friar Lawrence should not have allowed pressure from other people to distort his own …show more content…
judgement. As Friar Lawrence has given the sleeping potion to Juliet along with his poorly thought out plan to reunite them, he has to send a message to Romeo to inform him about the plan as he is currently banished from Verona.
He sends this important letter to Romeo through Friar John and fails to tell him the content of the letter. The letter never reaches Romeo as Friar John is quarantined with other people that are suspected to have traces of the plague. Friar Lawrence was outraged and he is quoted, “Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, the letter was not nice but full of charge, of dear import, and the neglecting it may do much danger” (V. ii. 17-20). From his statement, Friar Lawrence had clearly failed to tell Friar John of the importance of the letter. Since he had failed to think of other ways to get the important message to Romeo, Friar Lawrence is to be blamed for not warning Romeo in time. His plan of relying the delivery of the letter to just one person had caused Romeo to believe that Juliet’s death was real. In the play, when Romeo’s friend sees the news about Juliet’s apparent death at the tomb, Friar Lawrence sees him and should have known that Romeo was going to be misinformed. Instead, he does not wait for Romeo to arrive and then to reinform him about his plan of reuniting them. Therefore, Friar Lawrence still had a second chance to correct the situation but does not do so, letting the two lovers’ confused ending in their tragic
deaths. In summary, Friar Lawrence was the main person that doomed Romeo and Juliet’s lives. Although he did not intend to do this, his poorly thought out plans and rashness sets up and continues to create matters worst. Friar Lawrence could have prevented the death of Romeo and Juliet by taking his own advice of the abrupt marriage, clearly thought out his plans and made sure the letter reached Romeo. Many of the characters could also have been blamed for the death of Romeo and Juliet but the one that played the biggest role was Friar Lawrence.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a story of two young lovers. These two hearts, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet belong to feuding families. The family feud causes them to keep their love a secret and therefore only Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence know of their love. Romeo and Juliet are able to look past the feud and let themselves fall in mad love with the other. They let themselves do almost anything for the other and at times it seems like too much to do, even for the one they love. Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Rome and Juliet’s personal choices lead to their downfall.Fate originates all of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, from when they met until they die.
A key theme of Romeo and Juliet that occurs throughout the play is Loyalty Vs. Disloyalty and the effects that this has on the characters Romeo and Juliet and their families. For example Romeo knows that if he tells his family of his love for Juliet it will be seen, as a disloyalty to his family and Romeo knows this so he tries to hide this truth.
Failing to uphold his end of the plan, causing the plan to fail and resulting with both Romeo and Juliet dying. Friar Laurence admits to being responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence made a huge mistake that he could have avoided himself, if only he had thought out his plan better. He trusted Juliet an unstable fourteen-year-old with a potion to make her appear dead just so she would not have to marry Paris. Resulting in the death of herself, Friar Lawrence had even said, "If…thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself…take thou this vial…no warmth, no breath shall testify the livest." He should have been more careful, Friar Laurence's idea for Juliet was very risky and because of his own ignorance has ended up in tragedy. He also admits that he left the tomb and left Juliet there. The Friar knew that Juliet had previously threatened to kill herself, yet he still abandoned her with Romeo's knife. If the Friar truly cared about her safety, he would have forced her to come with him or stayed to prevent her from making any irresponsible
While weeping over what Juliet would think of him after finding out he killed Tybalt, he was relieved to know that Juliet still loved him, “Go before, Nurse commend me to thy lady,/ And bid her hasten all the house to bed,/ Which heavy sorrows make the apt unto./Romeo is coming” (Shakespeare 3.3.155). Friar knew about Romeo and Juliet’s secret romance from the beginning, but he did not do anything to stop it, in fact, it was Friar who married the two. Friar Lawrence knew what could happen, but his only advice was to take slow. In addition, Friar Lawrence also gave Juliet the potion to put her into a fake death so she could avoid marrying Paris. After putting in serious consideration about drinking the potion Juliet decided to take the chance. “Take this vial, being then in bed,/ And this distilling liquor thou off,/ When presently through all thy veins shall run/ A cold drowsy humour” (4.1.90-91). Friar gave Juliet the potion because she said she would rather kill herself than marry Paris and after saying that Friar came up with the
Finally, the friar gives the letter about "the fake death plan" to Friar John when he should have delivered it himself. Despite any other "at fault" characters in Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence is the most responsible for the tragic events that occur in the play because of his miscommunication, dishonesty and poor decision making. Beginning with Friar Lawrence's first mistake, he marries Romeo and Juliet not knowing that it would create a controversy. When Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet, no one knows and there is no parental consent. By not telling anyone, Romeo and Juliet are put in danger because of this secret.
Given this point, it is unrequited love that brings Romeo and Juliet together. But this also means that they would have to get over the fact that their families hate each other. This eventually leads them to forgiving the rival family for all the hateful acts that have occurred against one another. This is not the only forgiveness that is experienced in this play. Tybalt is a Montague with a fiery attitude.
Juliet is to drink a potion to make her appear dead, and later wake to be free of the shame of marrying Paris. Here, Friar Lawrence is assuring Juliet that he will send a letter to Romeo, explaining their plan. Romeo doesn’t receive that letter, and he does not know what is to happen. Free will comes with great consequences. Friar Lawrence and Juliet inflicted their own wounds by not telling Romeo of their plan. If they had taken the time to make sure that Romeo got the information, their plan might have succeeded, and Romeo and Juliet would be free to marry each other. A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents. (V, iii, 154-155)
He also tells Juliet that "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall hem come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall Romeo bear thee to Mantua" (Act 4, Scene 1.) Unforeseen to neither the Friar nor Juliet that an error such as the one of Friar John’s would prove to be deadly. Poor Romeo was not able to receive the letter. Friar Lawrence plays a significant role in the plan for Juliet to "sleep."Friar Lawrence plays an important rule in the actual deaths of Romeo, Juliet, And Paris. Friar Lawrence is unable to reach Romeo with the news of Juliet’s "death." Romeo, thinking Juliet is dead rushes to Verona, but not before buying some fast poison.
The letter explains the plan for Juliet and Romeo to eventually escape and live their lives together, but since it never sent to Romeo, that did not happen at all. Friar Laurence’s rashness is evident when he sends Friar John alone to Mantua, forgetting the rule that forbids a friar (John) from travelling without the company of another friar. Meanwhile, Friar Laurence is aware that a contagious plague is spreading throughout Verona, yet he does not choose to go with Friar John himself. There is a huge risk that John would find a companion that has to be quarantined due to the sickness, which is the case in the story. Kriegel announces regarding the Friar’s impulsiveness, “Had Friar John left the city immediately in the company of a “safe” member of his order, he would never have been delayed and would have been able to send the letter to Romeo.” Now, the Friar is mindful that his plan is destroyed and he needs to do everything he can to repair his fault. In Shakespeare's tragedy, John explains to the Friar how he was unable to deliver the letter, and Friar Laurence replies, “Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood/ The letter was not nice but full of charge/ Of dear import, and the neglecting it/ May do much danger” (V.II.17-20). The Friar recognizes his flaw of being unable to deliver the significant letter to Romeo in order for his plan to succeed. Laurence’s unthoughtful plan only led to further problems days after, specifically the death of Romeo and
After Romeo is exiled to Mantua, Juliet is distraught at the loss of her husband and has no idea what to do. Turning to Friar Lawrence for guidance, Juliet demands a solution or threatens a worse fate. For example, Juliet is so devastated she says this “Tell me not, Friar, that thou hearest of this, unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, do thou but call my resolution wise, and with this knife I’ll help it presently” (4.1.51-55). After seeing Juliet so hysterical and threatening to kill herself, Friar Lawrence decides to keep this to himself and sneak her out of Verona with an elaborate scheme. This in itself shows how ill-advised he is because instead of telling her parents that she is unstable he keeps it hidden for no good reason. This also contradicts his original plan to use the marriage to bring peace within the families because now all he is doing is helping their children run away together. The Friar is unwise because he does not tell Juliet’s family about her suicide threats and comes up with a ludicrous plan to help two young children run away
Love and loyalty is a strong theme throughout Romeo and Juliet, however in relationships between romantic partners, family, and friends the amount of and the value of love and loyalty differs. Love and loyalty are necessary in all three relationships, the depth and the strength of love and loyalty are presented differently in the contrasting relationships. Friends usually by some similar interests, family by birth and relation, and romantic partners being first friends but then sealed with a stronger and more complex bond. Therefore the romantic partners would value love and loyalty the most. The amount of loyalty and loyalty is in different each relationship and relates to the belonging needs
In Romeo and Juliet, there is a scene that shows why companionship is important to a healthy relationship. “Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich Capulet as mine on her, so hers is set on mine” (1,3, 57-59). This is showing how much Romeo cares for Juliet and how much Just cares for Romeo. They really love each other. There are many scenes in Romeo and Juliet and represents companionship and the next one shows how Romeo and Mercutio have a healthy relationship.
He wants the Montagues and the Capulets to reconcile and put aside their family feud. Friar Lawrence creates a dangerous plan that could go wrong in many directions. Because the Friar is from the church and could not lie, Juliet is inclined to believe that his plan will work. This potion can be dangerous and risky move into the plan, If the Friar really wanted to help the families, he should have considered the flaws in his plan as there were many factors that caused the plan to go awry such as miscommunication between Romeo and the Friar. Because he thought Juliet died, he, subsequently, killed himself as well.
Betrayal is often the hidden consequence of loyalty. Within Romeo and Juliet many stronger relationships have formed on each side of the feuding families, which are put to the test throughout the play and the tragedies. Because Juliet is faithful to Romeo, she betrays and disobeys her parents. Similarly, the Nurse’s betrayal of Juliet was due to her loyalty to the Capulets. Romeo’s loyalty to Mercutio results in his betrayal of Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses Juliet, the Nurse, and Romeo to prove that a character’s loyalty to one can lead to the betrayal of another.
Friar lawrence never realized how badly their plan could end if one of the smallest details went wrong. In this case one of the small details did go wrong and that was Romeo not receiving the letter. In the text Friar Lawrence stated “Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift; And hither shall he come : and he and I Will watch thy walking, and that very night Shall Romeo bear thee hencee to Mantua. And this shall free thee from this present shame,” (IV.i.116-120). This quote from the play explains how Friar Lawrence didn’t give his plan of faking Juliet's death and Romeo not receiving the letter. When he thought up the plan he thought that everything would go the right way and everything would be fine. Friar Lawrence didn’t think through the possibility of Romeo not receiving the letter. Friar Lawrence figured after Romeo received the letter stating his plan that Romeo and Juliet would be free to live their life without punishment. Another example of plans not being