Friar Lawrence is the main culprit in the lover’s deaths. The Friar tried to do a good deed to marry the couple without the parent’s permission to try and bring the families together, which it did at the cost of Romeo and Juliet’s life. The friar is Romeo’s confessor and spiritual adviser and helps him get through the troubles Romeo faces. We meet him first in Act 2 scene 3 outside his ‘cell’. This is where he accepts to marry Romeo and together, his first mistake. “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be” (II, iii, 90). The Friar is telling Romeo that he will assist Romeo in marrying Juliet. The 2nd time we see the Friar is in Act 2 Scene 6. This is where the lovers are married, linking in with the Friars acceptance. At the start of Act 3, the vengeful Romeo murders Tybalt and is banished for this. Friar Lawrence concocts a plan to bring the lovers together. Juliet is given a deep- sleep potion to make her look dead. “And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death thou shalt continue two and forty hours and then awake as from a pleasant sleep”
(IV, i, 104-6). Friar Lawrence is telling Juliet that she will go into a deep sleep for a long time- making it look like she is dead. When Juliet is put in the Capulet vault; Romeo would get her and run away with her to Mantua. “Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua and this shall free thee from this present shame” (IV, i, 117-8). This is the Friar’s second major error. The plan backfired causing Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide. Romeo didn’t know about the plan so thinking that she was really dead he killed himself.
Friar Lawrence’s main objective in this was to try and the fighting families together.
Friar Lawrence wasn’t completely to blame. Tybalt was involved and killed Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1. Romeo wanted revenge and then killed Tybalt. Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, also spots Romeo at the Capulet ball and gets angered at this. To make it worse for him, Lord Capulet refuses to let Tybalt attack Romeo saying: “Here in my house do him disparagement therefore be patient, take no note of him” (I, v, 69-70). Capulet here is saying that he doesn’t want any violence in the party and tells Tybalt to ignore Romeo. The Nurse is another character that contributed to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The Nurse, who has cared for Juliet most of her life, is also to blame as she kept the love and marriage of the two lovers a secret from Lord and Lady Capulet. The Nurse ran errands for Juliet including the message of love and marriage from Romeo, this she kept from the Capulets. “Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell there stays a husband to make you a wife” (II, v, 69-70). The Nurse here tells Juliet to go to Friar Lawrence’s cell to marry Romeo. The Nurse also advises Juliet to marry Paris, knowing she was already married to Romeo. Finally the lovers themselves are to blame for their deaths. Both characters acted too hasty in rushing the marriage. Romeo and Juliet both deceived and disobeyed their parents, messing with the ‘enemy’. In the play, Romeo acted too violently and without thinking killing both Tybalt and Paris.
Fate. The characters in Romeo and Juliet had a massive hand in the deaths but fate featured as well. In Act 1 Scene 4 Romeo says “I fear, too early: for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars” (I, iv, 106-7). He believes that that he can feel something bad is going to happen, its written in the stars. Friar Lawrence married Romeo and Juliet in the hope that it would join the families together and bring peace. At the end of the play he achieves what he wanted, the two families united, however it caused the deaths of the lovers. The families had to be punished to get brought together.
Shakespeare varied the language during the play using Iambic pentameter, for the nobles, which showed that they were educated and well off. Shakespeare used prose for the lower class people to show that they were not as rich as the nobles and hadn’t had much if any education. Blank verse is when a poem is unrhymed and written in iambic pentameter. It refers to a line consisting of five feet. The word simply means that there are five feet in the line; iambic pentameter is a line comprising five . The Iamb is a foot of poetry with an unstressed sound followed by a stressed sound e.g. miss- ion or com- pare. Petrarch was the man who invented the sonnet. A sonnet is a verse form consisting of fourteen lines with a fixed rhyme scheme. Shakespeare uses this form for his own purpose. For example he uses it when Romeo meets Juliet for the first time:
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shines a snow-white swan trooping with crows,
As this fair lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
I never saw true beauty till this night…
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth the rough touch with a gentle kiss.”
(I, v, 43-52 & 92-5)
The fourteen lines here show Romeo’s shock of how beautiful Juliet is with the fixed rhyming scheme.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story, which the deaths, in some ways, could have been avoided. Fate played a big role in the tragedy. Romeo, before the Capulet ball, thought that something was wrong and it was ‘ hanging in the stars’. The Nurse and the lovers helped in the deaths as well. They all kept the marriage a secret, disobeying and deceiving their parents but the main culprit is Friar Lawrence. He married the two lovers in the first place and when Romeo was banished from Verona, the Friar created a plan to get them together so they can run away to Mantua without half of Italy looking for them. Shakespeare adds Italian comedy to ensure the plays popularity mainly displayed by the Nurse. Shakespeare uses poetry styles, like Iambic pentameter, to show that the noble’s are educated.
