Romeo and Juliet Persuasive Essay

1099 Words3 Pages

It’s hard to believe that one person can be responsible for the deaths of the two main characters in one of the history’s most famous plays. This is exactly what happened in Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet. In this play the person who is trying to help Romeo and Juliet throughout the story is the person that is most responsible for their deaths. That person is Friar Laurence, the man who devised a plan for Romeo and Juliet to converge one last time before Romeo is banished from Verona. His plan goes horribly wrong, causing the deaths of the two lovers. The friar not only made one mistake, but rather three mistakes that led to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence is responsible for the tragic outcome of the play because he gave a potion to Juliet to make her act dead, he did not deliver a letter of great significance and importance to Romeo, and he fled when Juliet was in the most danger at the Capulet’s tomb.
The first major reason that Friar Laurence is responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet’s death was that he gave Juliet a potion that would make her look dead. He did this so that she could try to avoid marrying Paris, and so that she could also meet Romeo at the tomb before he was forced to flee Verona. This step in his plan went horribly wrong, as the timing of the potion is what ultimately made Romeo commit suicide. This decision was a poorly thought out decision by the friar because he did not think about the possible consequences if something were to go wrong. The friar show his irresponsibility by saying, “If, rather than to marry County Paris,/ Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,/ Then it is likely thou wilt undertake/ A thing like death to chide away this shame,/ That c...

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...s the friar’s fault for leaving Juliet alone in a time when she was very distressed. Instead of staying with Juliet when the watchmen came, and because of his cowardly and irresponsible choice, Juliet ended up dying.
Friar Laurence made many poor and irresponsible choices throughout the play, and these choices ended up being fatal for Romeo and Juliet. By making these decisions, he is the single person that was most responsible for the tragic outcome of the play. The reasons Friar Laurence is the one who should be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s death is because he gave a potion to Juliet to make her act dead, he did not deliver a letter of great significance and importance to Romeo, and he fled when Juliet was in the most danger at the Capulet’s tomb. These are the three significant mistakes that caused the deaths of two of literature’s most famous lovers.

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