Romeo & Juliet Class Essay In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the deaths of the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, are the result of many actions committed by various characters. From Lord Capulet, the overbearing father, to Count Paris, the lovestruck kinsman, everyone plays a role in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Although Romeo and Juliet choose to kill themselves out of their own free will, Friar Laurence is the most accountable for their deaths. His encouragement of their naive actions, his haphazard scheme, and lack of caution when dealing with their lives, influences their decisions and leads to their untimely deaths. Friar Laurence’s decision to allow Romeo and Juliet to secretly marry is the cause of their eventual …show more content…
In order to evade the marriage, Juliet begs Friar Laurence to help her. Juliet indicates the severity of the situation by expressing her “[longing] to die if what [Friar Laurence] speak’st speak not of remedy” (Shakespeare 4.1 66-67). To help Juliet, Friar Laurence gives her a potion that will make her appear dead for forty-two hours, at which time she will wake up and Romeo will be at her side. Friar Laurence fails to treat Juliet’s life with the respect it deserves by taking his chances and following through with his plan. Although the success of the plan is crucial for Romeo and Juliet to be together, Friar Laurence is unwilling to travel to Mantua and explain the plan to Romeo. Instead, Friar Laurence chooses to “send a friar with speed to Mantua with letters to [Romeo]” (Shakespeare 4.1 123). Even though a critical part of his plan relies on his messenger delivering his letter to Romeo, he fails to inform Friar John of Juliet’s desperation or the urgency of the situation. When Friar John’s town is quarantined due to a plague and he “[can] not send [the letter]” (Shakespeare 5.2 14-16). Despite receiving no confirmation, Friar Laurence assumes his messenger is successful and leaves the plan unaltered. After Romeo is informed of Juliet’s supposed death, he rushes to her tomb and commits suicide, only for Juliet to …show more content…
After the Prince announces his exile, Romeo claims “exile hath more terror... much more than death” (Shakespeare 3.3 12-15), which is a clear overstatement of reality. These emotional exaggerations are a warning sign of Romeo’s immaturity, yet Friar Laurence does not take note of these obvious displays of mental instability. Despite Romeo being in a highly emotional state, Friar Laurence mocks him, asking “art thou a man” (Shakespeare 3.3 109) and tells him that “[his] tears are womanish” (Shakespeare 3.3 110). As a mentor and friend, Friar Laurence is obligated to guide Romeo through times of strife, rather than making these difficult situations worse by ignoring and even mocking Romeo’s behavior. Aside from disregarding Romeo’s emotions, Friar Laurence also overestimates Juliet’s ability to make logical decisions while in the midst of processing a traumatic situation. Immediately after she wakes up from her drug induced coma, Friar Laurence informs her of Romeo’s death. He then instructs her to “come... good Juliet” (Shakespeare 5.3 158), because he “dare no longer stay” (Shakespeare 5.3 158-159), yet he leaves the tomb before Juliet can answer his requests, let alone process the situation at hand. Juliet previously mentions her suicidal intentions if she marries Paris instead of Romeo. Despite this, Friar Laurence ignores Juliet’s current mental state and leaves her abandoned while she is despondent and desperate. Alone in
In the classic play Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence plays a major part. Romeo and Juliet trusted him entirely as he was the priest of their town. They turned to the Friar for help and advice at a few crucial points in the play. Little did these two lovers know that their decision to turn to Friar Laurence for help would eventually lead to their deaths. Friar Laurence was responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because he married Romeo and Juliet, he was afraid of committing a sin, and because of his faulty plan for saving Juliet from a marriage to Paris.
For example, his replication of a potion leads to the unfortunate climax. The potion mimics death by making the bearer to be “depriv’d of supple government, shall, stiff, and stark and cold appear like death” (IV.i.103-105). By pretending the death of Juliet to the rest of the Capulets, it leads to a chain reaction that caused the “Romeo and Juliet tragedy”. In addition, the friar has sent Romeo to his doom by failing to send the young man his letter indicating the faked death of Juliet. The friar sincerely believes that it “shall free thee [Juliet] from this present shame” (IV.i.118). However, Friar Laurence’s plan backfires. His failure causes Romeo to be suicidal which succeeds in the end of the play. Friar Laurence refuses to be concern of the traumatised Juliet in favour for his cowardice. As Juliet wakes up from her deep sleep, the first thing she sees is the body of her lover, Romeo. Friar Laurence does not acknowledge her shock as he pleads to leave the catacombs carelessly. He tries to convince Juliet to flee and to “stay not to question” (V.iii.58). He makes a bad decision in intensifying her shock by acting with no remorse and not standing up to face the consequences. As a result, Friar Laurence is emphasised to make poor decisions that lead to Romeo and Juliet’s
Romantic love stories are often ended with a tragedy, because of loss of passion or a loved one. These tragedies are often the result of one person’s actions that ended someone’s life or love. In the Romeo and Juliet play written by William Shakespeare, two citizens of Verona come together and fall deeply in love. Unfortunately their love comes to an end, along with their lives, because of a misunderstanding and a persistent feud between their families. Although there are many characters in this play that have contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s death, Friar Laurence is the person most to blame.
But in the end he failed them, and as a result failed to keep them from dying. When Romeo was banished he came to Friar Lawrence asking for advice on what to do. “Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand That I yet know not?” (3. 3. 1-13) Friar Lawrence only tells him that he can spend the night with Juliet and that he must leave in the morning. He helps Romeo, but only to a certain extent. But then Juliet confides in him, when the situation is even more dire than the last. “O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of any tower, Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears, Or hide me nightly in a charnel house, O’ercovered Quite with dead men’s rattling bones, With reeky shanks and yellow skulls. Or bid me go into a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his.....” (4. 1. 78-126) In this exchange between Juliet and Friar Lawrence, the Friar gives Juliet a potion that makes it appear as if she is dead. Then he says that he will send a letter to Romeo telling him about their plan and then he will come retrieve her from the vault. But this letter never reaches Romeo because Friar Lawrence trusts Friar John to get the letter to Romeo. But the letter fails to reach Romeo because of some complications with Friar John, and Romeo rushes to Juliet’s grave
Friar Laurence continues to honor Romeo and Juliet's love without taking their parents' wishes into account. He goes on deceiving the Capulets by keeping the union a secret and having everyone believe that Juliet will marry Paris (4.1). He goes against the state law by harboring a criminal when he hides banished Romeo in his home and devises a way for him to get away from Verona and head to Mantua (3.3). At this point, the friar feels himself to be a part of the lovers' cause because when advising Romeo he uses the word we, as if he feels responsible and will not abandon them, he says for Romeo to stay in Mantua until:
Throughout a discussion amid Romeo and Friar Laurence, Friar Laurence’s advice and the decisions he made were not the most favorable. Romeo reaches out for help from Friar Laurence when he proposes marriage to Juliet, asking him to marry the two obscurely. Friar’s thoughts about the situation regarding the marriage were originally that it was rushed. How men look with their eyes and not their hearts, coming to the idea that Romeo does not truly love Juliet as he may think he does. He states, “‘Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,/So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies/Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes’” (2.3.66-68). Friar Laurence is trying to convince Romeo of the facts that he does not know what love really is. Romeo only believes that he is in love by the way his eyes are fooling his brain. When confronted with these theories, Romeo goes out of his way to try and get Friar Laurence to agree to marry him and Juliet. Through this, Friar Laurence starts to wonder if maybe this would be what solves the feud that the two
When Romeo was first banished, Friar Laurence came up with a plan to get Juliet to Romeo so they could be together. The plan could have worked but the letter with an explanation of what was happening never got delivered to Romeo. When one of Romeo’s servants, Balthasar, told him of Juliet’s “death”, Romeo (unknowing of the Friars plan) disheartened buys poison and travels to Verona. He goes straight to Juliet's grave without going to see anybody, specifically the Friar, to see if she really is dead. When he gets there, he see and kills Paris and then goes into the Capulets monument where he sees Juliet one last time, drinks the poison and falls down dead.
Friar Laurence,though he thought he was doing the right thing for the young teens, he really had a bad judgment.He carried the burden of their deaths forever. If he had delivered the message of Juliet’s death being fake, Romeo wouldn’t have gone to the apothecary and gotten a poison to kill himself. Instead of helping and supporting them to disclose their love situation, he looked for and chose “easy” way out of the sticky situation. He submitted to their dreams and hopes. He married Romeo and Juliet instead of encouraging them to come forth their families with the information about their affair As a result of their hidden affair, their stronger bond grew even stronger withen them was created when marriage: "For, by your leaves, you
Friar Laurence had a big role to play in Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. First off he was the one to marry them. Knowing that Romeo was a Montague and Juliet a Capulet. He knew that it was gonna be hard and very “illegal” to do so. Yet he still felt for Romeo and did as he asked. (PG.840-841)
After Romeo got banished from Verona, Friar Laurence comes up with an elaborate to allow Juliet to be with Romeo and not marry Paris. Friar Laurence gives Juliet a concoction, and explains to her that “when presently through all thy veins shall run a cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse shall keep his native progress, but surcease: no warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest...” (1075, l. 104). Juliet is to drink the potion, which will cause her body to go into a state that is near death for forty two hours, and when she wakes up, Romeo will be at her side. Friar Laurence sends a letter to Romeo explaining his plan. However, Romeo does not receive this letter before Balthazar brings wind to Romeo that Juliet is dead. Friar Laurence created such an embellished plan that there were too many places where things could go wrong, which ultimately caused Romeo and Juliet to
In the play, Friar Laurence is the cause of Romeo and Juliet’s death, there are several significant details that help the reader find who kills the main two characters. First, the character Romeo falls in love with Juliet after he sees her at a party. Another important detail is they both get married the next day because Romeo proposed to her the night before. The third detail important to the play is Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin and gets banned. Another important detail is Paris now wants to marry Juliet. Also, significant is Friar Laurence helps Juliet fake her death so that she doesn’t have to marry Paris anymore. An important key element of the play is someone goes to tell Romeo that Juliet is dead, so now Romeo goes to Juliet and kills himself then Juliet kills herself because she feels like she should be with Romeo. Finally, the Shakespeare lets the reader know who killed both Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Laurence says it is very dangerous that Romeo didn’t get the letter. Friar John is sent out to get an iron crowbar for Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence then plans to meet Juliet at her tomb to bring her back to his cell where she will be safe. He plans to keep her in his cell until Romeo comes.
His irresponsible ideas, rash ideas and his inconsideration of future consequences had lead him to marry the two. The Friar also contributes to their death by encouraging her to take a poison that will fake death, in order to reunite her and Romeo in Mantua. He did not consider the fact that the message could not get to Romeo in time nor did he do anything to ensure that it would. Furthermore, he did not realize that if Romeo found out about her “death” he would try to kill or injure himself just like he had tried to do when he found out about Juliet’s sadness due to Tybalt’s death; “In what vile part of this anatomy doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack the hateful mansion”.
The Friar explains his plan to help Juliet to her and says she will, “appear like death/…Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua”(IV.I.103, 117). Juliet does not want to marry Paris and their wedding is planned to take place in only a few days. Friar Lawrence thinks outside of the box and devises a scheme that will fool others into thinking that Juliet is dead so that she will not have to marry Paris. The fact that the Friar came up with such a plan under such short notice shows that he is a quick, but careful thinker. Later, Friar Lawrence is told that Romeo was not aware of his plan yet and reacts, “Romeo hath no notice of these accidents/… [I will] keep her at my cell till Romeo came” (V.II. 26-28). The Friar had planned to send a message to Romeo telling him that Juliet is not actually dead, but he has not gotten this note yet, so he believes his love has died. Friar Lawrence is aware of the love between the two and knows that this mistake could result in Romeo harming himself, so he must fix this immediately. The Friar is clever enough to quickly rethink his plan in order to save Romeo from himself. The Friar uses his qualities of intelligence and cunning to help Romeo and Juliet, greatly influencing and changing their
He also has a great deal of influence on Juliet, especially is his actions to keep Juliet and Romeo’s relationship intact. When the Friar first meets Juliet, at Romeo and her wedding he advises them to, “Love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” (2.6.15-15). As being naïve teenagers, they did not take his advice into consideration. Once Romeo is banished from Verona because he killed Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, Juliet seeks help from the Friar and he realizes that she, “Hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then is it likely thou wilt undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame, That copest with death himself to escape from it,” (4.1.72-76) The Friar by helping Juliet, gave Juliet the strength and courage to drink the vile of the potion to enter a sleep like death. At the conclusion of the play, the Friar, “Dare no longer stay”(5.3.159) and leaves Juliet in the capulet’s tomb with her beloved Romeo. The Friar did not urge Juliet to leave the tomb, but isolates her with Romeo making no effort to force her to leave. She results in taking her own life in desperation. Friar Laurence influences Juliet by his passive act of leaving Juliet in a time of despair. This leads her to act and take her own life, leaving a negative and tragic