Moving onto Act III, Scene 3, we see a closer and more confidant relationship with Romeo and the Friar:
“Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?”
Romeo confesses all his problems to Friar Lawrence for example the killing of Tybalt. We also see that Friar Lawrence seems to lose his calm veneer during Romeos banishment. He is under more pressure and appears to be more stressed and agitated. He gives short sharp bursts of language, which creates a tense atmosphere on stage:
“Hark, how they knock! – Who’s there? – Romeo,
arise;
Thou wilt be taken.”
The nurse also ironically hints at the death of Romeo and Juliet without noticing it:
”Ah sir! Ah sir! Death’s the end of all.”
To an audience, this creates dramatic irony.
Later on in the same scene, Romeo tries to commit suicide. This is when Friar Lawrence delivers his speech to Romeo. He uses complex language and repeats them over again such as the rule of three (six times):
“Fie, Fie! Thou sham’st thy shape, thy love, thy wit.”
He uses this to condemn Romeo’s actions. He also uses rhetorical questions (five times) to try and make Romeo feel ashamed of himself: “Art thou a man?” This shows how Friar Lawrence is mocking him. He includes lots of strong, emotional language:
“Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!”
He is also mocking Romeo here about him trying to commit suicide.
During the speech, there is the impression that Friar Lawrence is using Romeo to solve a wider problem i.e. the reuniting of the two families. Although his plans are spontaneous, his speech could be rehearsed, and he has made up his mind about the joining up of the Capulets and Montagues:
“With twenty hundred thousand times more joy.”
This appears to be a good plan, but the Friar doesn’t take into account Romeo’s impetuous personality as the audience saw in act III, scene 1 (the fight scene).
The audience observes a change in the character of Friar Lawrence. When on stage, the change is more noticeable. When he first appears, we identify that he has a calm atmosphere after all the action. In act III, scene 3, he loses this sign of serenity and he becomes more agitated and stressed in a short amount of time, creating a large amount of tension amongst the audience.
We see in act IV, scene 1 that Friar Lawrence tries to regulate the problem he has made by marrying Romeo and Juliet. He appears to be in a dilemma when Paris is discussing arrangements for his wedding:
“On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.”
He tries to persuade Paris that the marriage is moving to fast. When Juliet enters the cell, Friar Lawrence uses the chance to get rid of Paris:
“My lord, we must entreat the time alone.”
This shows how the Friar is eager to deal with Paris to give him time to think of another plan. He is to blame at the moment because he has now put himself in a larger problem
When Paris leaves, Friar Lawrence informs Juliet that he has tried, but could not come up with a plan to postpone the arranged wedding:
“It strains me past the compass of my wits.”
The noun ‘compass’ relates to direction, which shows us how he has lost that sense. He also seems embroiled because of all the stress upon him. When he tells Juliet that he is unable to postpone the wedding, she threatens to commit suicide:
“Be not so long to speak; I long to die.”
This dramatically echoes what Romeo says to the Friar in act III, scene 3 where he also tries to commit suicide. Again we see that the Friar is not to blame because he is being honest but doesn’t know what to do
Along the same lines, Friar Lawrence thinks of a third plan, which is even more erratic and improbable than the previous two:
“Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope.” This plan seems quixotic and complex. It also seems to be perilous with lots of risks to be taken. While delivering his speech, Friar Lawrence creates dramatic irony for the audience: “A thing like death to chide away this shame.” He refers to death and foreshadows Juliet’s death without knowing. At the moment, Friar Lawrence seems to be trying to protect himself as well as Juliet.
This thought crosses Juliet’s mind as she prepares to take the potion and she starts to lose faith of the Friar:
“What if it be a poison that the Friar
Subtly hath ministered to have me dead.”
In the end she persuades herself nothing is wrong and drinks the potion. When Paris and Friar Lawrence enter the room, they find Juliet’s parents expressing their grief over their dead daughter. He stops Paris’s and Capulet’s lamentations and offers them consolation. He tells them how they should be ashamed of themselves because their daughter is now in heaven:
“Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion’s cure lives not
In these confusions.”
Friar Lawrence knew that this was to come therefore preparing this well crafted speech while acting sorrowful. The audience is now beginning to doubt Friar Lawrence because he is using religion to lie, which goes beyond the role of his job.
On stage, this would create a feel of happiness throughout the audience because they know that Juliet is not dead and she will not marry Paris. There would also be tension as well as dramatic irony because they have heard the prologue and know that something will go wrong, ending with death.
When we next meet Friar Lawrence (Act V, Scene 2) he appears to have everything set up for the plan. When Friar John comes back with the news, he becomes embroiled and worried because of the letter not reaching Romeo:
“Unhappy fortune!” This shows how it was fate that Romeo was never to get the letter. Friar Lawrence also admits how his plan hadn’t worked and how he was wrong:
“She will beshrew me much that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents.”
He then makes yet another plan witch also has faults:
“But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come.”
Friar Lawrence decides to go to the Capulets monument and when he arrives, he is seconds to late and Romeo takes the poison and dies. This creates enormous amounts of tension and suspense for the audience because they are wondering what would happen next. At this point, Friar Lawrence is to blame for the death of Romeo because he had not taken into account the consequences of his plans, and he could have done something beforehand to stop Romeo from committing suicide.
The Friar is full of foreboding when he reaches the graveyard. He is also fearful for the first time:
“Stay then; I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
O much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.”
The sense of foreboding intensifies when Friar Lawrence catches sight of the blood on the tomb entrance:
“Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre?”
Once Friar Lawrence enters the graveyard and spots Romeo and Paris dead, Juliet starts to wake. He hears people approaching and explains briefly to Juliet what has happened:
“A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents.”
When Friar Lawrence talks about ‘A greater power’, he refers to destiny and fate and how he can’t do anything to change it. In the same speech he makes another plan to try and save her and save himself:
“Come, I’ll dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.”
When Juliet refuses to run away with the Friar, he flees by himself and leaves her to commit suicide. At the moment, the audience would be frustrated at him because of his cowardly actions. On stage, this would create a mounting sense of doom, which is the point of a tragic play. Friar Lawrence seems to magnify the sense of tragedy. We see that he is to blame at this point.
When Friar Lawrence and Balthasar are brought forward to the Prince, Friar Lawrence informs him that he is responsible for the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet:
“I am the greatest able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge,
Myself condemned and myself excused.”
He pleads guilty but at the same time innocent. We think that he tries to make the Prince feel sorry for him and it works in the end:
“We have still known thee for a holy man.”
Overall we see that the play rotates around Friar Lawrence and that he is an agent of the drama. From my point of view, I think that Friar Lawrence is to blame because despite his honorable intentions, he could have done something to stop the tragedy from happening. Friar Lawrence’s character changes dramatically as well as his use of language and dramatic significance.
