The equivalent character, who has a vital role in the story by giving the support needed to Romeo, is Friar Laurence; Friar Laurence is a man of the church, well known by people in the town of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo confides all of his deepest feelings and true passions in the Friar. In return the Friar gives his own advice to the young boy; this advice is well appreciated and taken truly into thought such as his plans for the marriage. Romeo is a lot more open and truthful around the Friar than he is around his own parents and many things he tells the Friar he does not want his parents to know. The Friar refers to Romeo as
“My good son”
This shows the fatherly feelings he has for Romeo, and how much he truly cares for him, this is especially shown in the way he uses,” My” which shows the feelings of ownership and responsibility felt by the Friar towards Romeo.
The Friar is an old man who has a lot to say and explains himself through very long speeches throughout the play, he is portrayed as a character that likes to take a situation into his own hands and try to fix the problem using his own wide base of knowledge, including being a master in the use of herbs and plants to make potions and medicines for many reasons. Unfortunately many of his plans go very wrong, such as when the Friar gives Juliet a potion to make her appear dead, but the letter does not reach Romeo, this changes the once small problem and cause it to become greater and if not impossible a lot harder to fix. Even though the Friar likes to help people and do the best he can, one of his many plans is the reason for the tragic ending of the play leaving both Romeo and Juliet dead.
One of the main similarities between both the Friar and the Nurse is that they both keep the secret of the marriage between Romeo and Juliet quiet from their parents. It is this secret that fuels most of the rest of the play. This secret causes great problems for Juliet including the dilemma of her parents wanting her to marry the county Paris, unaware that she is already married to Romeo.
Both the Nurse and the Friar demonstrate that they care greatly for the lovers and openly show that they would be willing do almost anything to help then and make them happy. You would normally expect this only from family and closest friends, not from people employed by the family and local church men. This helps to show the special bond that they have, and how important the roles of the Friar and Nurse truly are.
The advice that the teenagers should follow their hearts and not the rules is given by both the Friar and the Nurse. They are both advised to go against their parents’ wishes by speaking to a member of the opposite household; they greatly increase this rebellion by spending time together and getting married to each other without their parents’ knowledge pushes the boundaries as far as it could possibly go. This time together is only able to happen because it was helped by both Nurse and Friar who arranged it. Without their help none of it would have ever happened and there would be no story.
When Romeo or Juliet asks the Friar or Nurse to do something for them, they almost always oblige and do the deed for the two lovers. This can be shown when Juliet tells the Nurse to go find Romeo and she is mistreated by Romeo’s friends.
Romeo asks the Friar to marry him to Juliet; the Friar does this for Romeo, even though he does not think it is the right decision, the Friar says;
“For doting, not for love”
The way he uses the word doting, shows he does not think that Romeo truly loves Juliet as much as he says he does, and that just like Rosaline, he could go off her at any time. The Friar decides that he should marry them, in hope that it will bring the two feuding families together, and stop the ongoing rivalry.
Although there are many similarities between the characters and the roles they play, I believe the Nurse is a lot more obedient to Juliet when asked to do something than the Friar is towards Romeo.
If told to do something the Nurse will automatically do it without arguing or giving her opinion on the matter, where as if the Friar is asked, he will put a fight first, pointing out his own feelings towards what he is being asked, before physically doing it, he also thinks of solutions to problems when faced with them, even though theses solutions do not always work. Whereas the Nurse did nothing to solve any problems, she did not try to come up with a solution, he answer was to just forget it; the Nurse mainly just did what she was told.
Other than the Friar’s tendency to fight back, the Friar and Nurse are very similar in character, they play the same role, and perform a very similar function, but they are on different sides of the story, the Nurse on the Capulet side, and the Friar as more of a central character, where both Romeo and Juliet can go to him. They both advise and help the “star-crossed lovers” to do what they want against their own parents’ wishes. Though I am sure they are both forced to regret this at the end of the script, where the decisions they made about keeping quiet and trying to help the ones they love and care about, end up with both dead, and themselves partially to blame.
