This is saying that good and evil reside in everything, man-made and the natural things of the world.
When Romeo turns up, he tells the friar how he does not love Rosaline anymore, but loves his enemy, Juliet Capulet. The Friar is asked to marry the couple, but he still thinks that this is going too fast.
“They stumble that run fast” when he says this he means two things, but Romeo only understands one. The meaning he thinks is; do not run Romeo or you will fall, but the other meaning means; they who go fast or plan fast will surely fail, an example of this in the play is Romeo and Juliet’s marriage.
Eventually the Friar agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet, but it was still a quick decision. This is because he sees that Romeo is very determined and happy about his choice, and to add to that, the Friar thinks that this will solve the family feud which it does but it does not help Romeo or Juliet because they end up dying for each other and their families.
I think that considering that friar Lawrence is a holy man and connected to authority he faces many consequences if he is found binding two lovers without permission from their parent or guardian. However, he does this because he thinks that it will solve the family feud between the rival houses.
When Romeo is banished, the friar is the one to tell him of the prince’s sentence. Romeo is devastated because this will mean being separated from Juliet, therefore the friar comforts him by telling him that he will try to find a way to help. “I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word” but when Juliet has taken the drug, the friar tries to take her parents out of grieving because he knows that she is not dead but appears to be. We feel that the friar is not being the holy man he should be. Firstly he encouraged Romeo and Juliet to get married, he then gave Juliet the drug that made her look dead, and now he is lying to the Capulets, therefore it is hard to trust Friar Lawrence at this point.
At the end of the play, Friar Lawrence confesses the whole story about Romeo and Juliet and the Montagues and Capulets make peace which is what the Friar intended from the beginning. This gave him satisfaction but he felt devastated that the two lovers had to die in the process. Some might say that this was the friar’s fault because he married Romeo and Juliet in the first place without parental consent; he gave Juliet the drug so that when Romeo saw her he thought that she was dead because he did not get the letter that the friar sent him via Friar John. However it could be Romeo and Juliet’s own fault because of their own choices to get married.
The older people of Verona do contribute to the death of the young lovers. Capulet and Montague, because they are the ones that would not make peace and therefore caused the marriage to happen in secret and all the deaths, the Nurse and the Prince however do not really contribute to the deaths but try to stop them as best they can. Because of their parent’s pressure and their conflicts this could also contribute to their deaths, some of these consist of the conflict issues and how Juliet has an arranged marriage to Paris. The Friar is involved in these problems because he married the two star-crossed lovers, and he knew that Juliet was supposed to be engaged.
The timing in the play counts as everything, the time span of the play is only about two to three days which proves that there is a lot of pressure on the characters, timing also plays a major part in the play, because friar Lawrence’s letter does not reach Romeo in time, he sees that Juliet appears dead but that is only the effects of the drug. Another time issue is that Juliet wakes up after Romeo kills himself, which is another problem that causes both of the deaths.
To conclude, I think that the Friar is not the soul cause of the tragic outcome in the play but he does contribute to the deaths of the two young lovers. However, he does this thinking that the outcome will be much better than the start of the play because he believes that the marriage between the two children will solve the feud, which it does but Romeo and Juliet end up dying to save others.
