Shakespeare uses a lot of dramatic devices throughout the play. These devices help the audience to know what will happen. The Friar says, “…virtue itself turns vice.” He says that good can turn bad which does happen because when the Friar gave a potion to Juliet to make her look dead and then Romeo was supposed take her away but Romeo thought that she really died so he killed himself so when the Friar had good intentions it turned bad. This is dramatic irony as the audience knows more than the characters. Also there is juxtaposition because he talks about two opposite things, good and bad. The Friar is lecturing because he keeps talking about what could happen if things are not done correctly. This also foreshadows the problem after Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Romeo and the Friar show good understanding and there are some shared lines like when Romeo says, “…sweeter rest was mine,” the Friar says “…wast thou with Rosaline?” “Rosaline” and “mine” rhyme which shows their relationship. The Friar says, “wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.” This is paradox because he says that the faster you go, the more things you do wrong. They both are poetic in their use of language. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter because each line of the play has ten beats.
When the Friar is talking at the beginning of Act 2, Scene 3, he says, “The grey ey’d morn smiles on the frowning night.” He uses personification to describe the morning and the night because he describes the morning as “grey ey’d” and the night as “frowning” like a human.
The play shows nature as the Friar is taking about the flowers and is interested in nature. He wanted fresh flowers for his medicine. He says, “Now ere the sun advance his burning eye…I must upfill this osier cage of ours.” He wanted to take the flowers before the sun goes down and he says “I must” which shows the idea of haste and urgency. Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight and in four days they get married and die. The audience would find this surprising because now girls and boys go out for a long time and don’t get married as quickly.
The Friar has a minor part in the play but I think he does influence the play because if he didn’t marry Romeo and Juliet it might have not started the problem and his advices lead to their death. He might have not wanted to do what he did but just ended up in the wrong way. The marriage leads to Romeo and Juliet thinking that they could live together. The Friar should have thought more about the consequences of the marriage and how the families would react because it might not have ended the feud and it could be affected in a bad way, which did happen. He didn’t actually know what was going to happen but just hoped for the best and didn’t think about how the marriage would affect Romeo and Juliet. He says, “For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” This shows how he was thinking about the families settling and not fighting but not thinking about the possible things the marriage would bring for Romeo and Juliet. Romeo shouldn’t have acted in haste and kill himself at the end as the Friar said, “wisely and slowly, they stumble that run fast.” He tells Romeo to do things “wisely” and not rush but he didn’t take his own advice because he took decisions in haste. He gave the potion to Juliet but he should have just let everything happen and leave it because the plan didn’t work so maybe he could have another plan if he really wanted to help which he could have thought more about and planned carefully because he doesn’t take time and just gives the potion to Juliet without thinking when she tells him the problem. I think that he is a character that is clever because you can see this from the potions and the plans that he makes but he does things in a rush. The audience might have thought that the Friar is a good man as he tries to help Romeo but just did things in haste.
At the end of the play Romeo and Juliet die because Romeo thinks that Juliet really drank poison because he didn’t get the letter from the Friar so he kills himself and when Juliet wakes up to see Romeo dead she kills herself. To one point it was Romeo’s fault as he gets emotional and just kills himself but if the Friar didn’t give the potion to Juliet it wouldn’t have happened because he should have thought about the possibilities and the marriage brought Romeo and Juliet closer so if the Friar didn’t marry them it might have not happened.
The Friar is pardoned because he only gave advice and married Romeo and Juliet, which is what he has to do as a Friar, but I think he should have been punished because he was one of the reasons of the deaths and he interfered in the problem and caused it to grow. He might be feeling guilty at the end because two people had died because of what he had done.
I think that audience in that century would have thought that the Friar shouldn’t be punished because he was very important to everyone as he brought them closer to God and tried to solve everyone’s problems but the new audience might have thought that the Friar should be punished because if he didn’t interfere, Romeo and Juliet might have not died.
