‘ O mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones and their true qualities.
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good, but strained from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.’
This shows his true understanding of the natural world and if he has such a good understanding on everything else then he must truly be wise because here he talks about the plants and about how there is nothing so vile on earth that does not do the earth good in some way and there is nothing so good that if it was mistreated it would not do something bad. It shows that Friar Lawrence is a kind and caring character and he understands everything well showing dedication to what he does and careful consideration.
In Act 2, Scene 3, it is apparent that Friar Lawrence often acts out of sympathy and hope. When Romeo first tells the Friar about his true love for Juliet, Friar Lawrence is cynical about the sincerity of his words and is reluctant to marry them. However as the conversation between Romeo and the Friar develops and Romeo expresses his deep love for Juliet further, Friar Lawrence changes his mind, perhaps out of sympathy for Romeo’s desperate devotion to Juliet and agrees to marry them. He also believes that in the long run it may do the rivalry between the Montague and Capulet good and could end the family feuds:
‘In one aspect I’ll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.’
He then goes on to say ‘wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.’ Which in modern terms is saying ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ What he means is that slow and steady wins the race, as we say nowadays. Act two, Scene six is the scene in which Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet. Romeo arrives first and gradually gets more apprehensive about the arrival of Juliet and whether she got the message from the nurse about the wedding. Friar Lawrence uses his gentle nature to sympathise with Romeo as he can see that Romeo is excited and happy at the prospect of being with Juliet, however he does still calmly and subtly warn Romeo of the effects such a sudden powerful love can have:
‘These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume.’
In act three, scene three; Friar Lawrence is faced with a distraught Romeo who has just learnt of his banishment from Verona, meaning he will no longer be able to see his beloved and newly wed wife, Juliet. Romeo winds himself up and is in such a state he is threatening to kill himself, claiming that if he cannot see Juliet then his life is not worth living. Friar Lawrence tries to comfort Romeo by telling him all the good things he still has and that with time he will sort things out and he and Juliet shall once more be together.
‘O deadly sin O rude unthankful ness!
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince
Taking thy part hath rushed aside the law,
And turned that black word death to banishment.
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.’
The Friar is saying that Romeo is lucky to be banished when the law says his punishment should have been death. This shows that Friar Lawrence thinks things through, and does not always look on the dark side of everything, instead he looks for the good in the situation, showing he is wise caring and sympathetic.
When the Nurse knocks at the door of the Friars cell and tells Romeo of how grief-stricken Juliet is, Romeo begins to blame himself and using the dagger tries to kill himself with a dagger, but both the nurse and Friar Lawrence try to stop him and manage to stop him doing such a dreadful thing. This again shows the kind, wise, sympathetic side, as although committing suicide was seen as a sin not even human worth in this time period, the Friar was willing to forgive Romeo and forget the incident as he knew how devastated Romeo was at the days events.
Friar Lawrence is later faced with another problem. In Act Four, Scene One, he is faced with the prospect of marrying Juliet and Paris on the following Tuesday. The Friar knows this is a difficult situation for him as he has already married Romeo and Juliet without their parents consent. So when Juliet tells the Friar that she really doesn’t want to marry Paris and if she is faced with having to, she would rather kill herself he decides to give her a potion which will make her appear dead for a certain length of time, and then she will wake, but y this time she will have missed the wedding and can run away with Romeo to Mantua and their parents need know nothing of the marriage. This again shows his caring and sympathetic nature. His wisdom has enabled him to make this potion and learn how it works so he is again showing how wise he is.
In act four scene five; Friar Lawrence has to comfort Juliet’s distraught family after they discovered her dead the morning before the wedding. He showed his sympathetic side again in this scene even tough he knew Juliet was not dead, being kind must be a natural thing for him if he can so easily be sympathetic about something he knows is not true.
We then see another example of the friar being wise and sympathetic when he finds out that the letter he sent to Romeo in Mantua, telling him of his and Juliet’s plan, has not actually reached Romeo. Immediately Friar Lawrence goes down to the Capulet cell to wait for Juliet to wake up, as he knew that if he didn’t then Juliet would be severely worried and may do something stupid.
Friar Lawrence’s language also tell us a lot about his character, the speeches he makes are often well organised and contain a lot of useful advice, that if thought about give us a good insight into the world his speeches are normally long and he likes talking in long speeches and he always has a solution to the problems he is faced with which many people would be unable to manage, so if looked at in this way we can see that Friar Lawrence is in fact a caring and sympathetic priest.
In event of a crisis, Friar Lawrence acts calmly and is in control of the situation, unlike Romeo, who throws himself on the floor and weeps. He admonishes Romeo for being an "unseeming woman in a seeming man" when Romeo weeps in despair at the thought of being banished and separated from Juliet. He thinks of the consequences of the Romeo’s actions, and is able to see that "by doing damned hate upon [himself,]" Romeo will "slay [Juliet, his] lady" with grief. Therefore it can be seen that Friar Lawrence discourages Romeo from rash and violent behaviour, unlike Mercutio and Tybalt. This emphasizes his peace-loving, wise nature and level-headedness.
Despite this evidence saying that the Friar is a wise, sympathetic man, there is also evidence throughout the play to suggest he is a meddling fool. An example of this would be in Act two, Scene three, where Romeo appears at Friar Lawrence’s cell begging him to marry him and Juliet later that day. Friar Lawrence at first seems against this and points out to Romeo that only yesterday he was deeply in love with Rosaline and it could not have been true love if Romeo had already forgotten her and moved on to another girl who he hardly knows. The Friar assumes Romeo’s love is again only one of ‘courtly’ love, not true love:
‘Holy saint Francis what change is here!
Is Rosalie, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.’
However when he realises that marrying the couple could in fact prevent the family feuds from carrying on, the Friar rapidly changes his mind and agrees to wed them.
‘In one respect I’ll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.’
Although this may seem a good idea to the audience, it ends in being a bad one. The Friar is not really in a position to make the families stop their feud, he is there to be the centre of religion in Verona, and by interfering with the families problems he is abusing this position. Friar Lawrence should be more concerned about Romeo not being truly in love with Juliet before he marries her.
Another example of Friar Lawrence’s meddling occurs in Act four, Scene One, this is the scene in which Friar Lawrence gives Juliet the potion that will make her appear dead and then awaken 42 hours later as if from a deep sleep with no harm.
‘And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.’
This is another example of the Friar meddling in business, which does not concern him, and therefore putting himself at risk. The Friar is there to do his job; for confession, burials, Eucharist and marriages. He is not supposed to give out potions to people simply to prevent doing as he is bid to do, which in this case is to marry Juliet and Paris. His interfering this time is to cause the death of both Romeo and Juliet. Although he sends a letter to Romeo explaining all he does not consider what would happen if the letter fails to reach him. Friar Lawrence also meddles in things in Act five, Scenes two and three, where he has realised what his potion has done and that Romeo did not receive the letter, however by the time he arrives it is too late and all his meddling has resulted in the deaths of three people Paris, Romeo and Juliet.
All this evidence can result in the audience believing Friar Lawrence to be eith wise and sympathetic or a meddling fool. Perhaps more evidence is mostly there to support the fact that the Friar is sympathetic and wise. Although his schemes did not work out as planned, his intentions were honourable. He had hoped to restore peace to Verona’s brawling streets and "turn [their] households’ rancour to pure love" through the "holy act" of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, which was the reason why he consented to the act to marrying them. However, Fate, "a greater power than [he could] contradict… thwarted [his] intents."
Friar Lawrence’s character only appears to be foolish sometimes because he usually appears in major scenes, in which he is faced with many difficult situations in which he has to think on his feet, and so maybe he does not have enough time to consider the problem and come up with a suitable solution but one may feel that if we consider the situation he is in the solutions he does come up with are very good ones. Friar Lawrence is honest in his recounting the events in the play. The noble side of Friar Lawrence’s character is revealed when he offers to take the blame for the deaths of Romeo, Juliet and Paris. He offers to "let [his] old life/ be sacrificed some hour before his time/ unto the rigour of severest law." In these lines, he admits his misguidance in secretly marrying the young couple. Here he takes the responsibility upon his own shoulders and willingly faces the punishment.
Throughout the play Friar Lawrence has the best intentions to help those who he cares for and who are in need of his help. It is this attitude that brings him across as a sympathetic, wise man instead of a meddling fool.
