He thought that if a Capulet married a Montague, there would be peace among the land. However, he didn’t really think it through enough and he just went straight on with it.
In one respect I’ll assist be:
For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.
This means that Friar Lawrence accepts to marry Romeo and Juliet. He also says here that he is doing it to turn the households’ rancour (malice) into love- basically, to stop the feuding between the Capulet and Montague family’s. This is the only reason he really gives for marrying Romeo and Juliet, and although wise in the long run, this turns out bad. If he hadn’t have married Romeo and Juliet together, Juliet could have married Paris without fear of going to hell because she had only one mate, which was legal in the eyes of god. So really, it was Friar Lawrence’s fault because he knew about Paris, and shouldn’t have gone along with it.
Juliet is to blame in this tragedy because she was so immature, childish and foolish. She had just seen Romeo at the party from a glance, and within a few minutes, they were to be married. This was incredibly hasty and ridiculous to say the least. They didn’t even know each other, and Romeo had a crush on another lady. I would say that Juliet is most to blame for the tragedy in this play. She was FAR too young for anything like that (although in those days, it was perfectly acceptable), and she was rushing things quite a lot.
At the party, Romeo flirted with her, and they liked each other. What should have happened next was that Juliet would go along with it, and forget about it the next day, but she had already fallen in love, and it was too late to go back. The signals she gave out were that she was a virgin, and wanted Romeo. Romeo, who had the crush on Rosaline, should have refused, but it all got far too complicated, and that was that.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
This is Juliet asking Romeo to kiss him. She is now flirting him, because she wants sex from Romeo. This is all she wants at this stage, it is later on when it gets more complicated, and the “true love” mucks everything up.
Deny thy father and refuse thy name:
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Here, Juliet is saying that she loves Romeo so much that she will give up what she is (A Capulet) so that they can be together. She has fallen for Romeo and cannot seem to bear life without him, and she gets all this from seeing him at a party, at which they only spoke for a little while, and that was all. Juliet did fall in love with Romeo primarily, but it was Romeo who came on to Juliet primarily:
Romeo came on to Juliet and gave her the signals that he wanted her badly. It was Romeo who went to Juliet’s balcony after the party to serenade her. So in all, Romeo was to blame for the tragic ending of this play more so than Juliet was. This is because Juliet may never have had the courage to come up to meet and greet Romeo, but Romeo just barged his way in and wooed Juliet. Romeo went to the party to get over the unrequited love between himself and Rosaline, which he did do. He got over Rosaline, and forgot about her completely, but he should never had gone to the party in the first place, because the Prince had put a law on the towns people, and if there was any fights between Montagues and Capulets, then there would be execution as a punishment. He could have risked his life by going to the party, (which he did in the long run).
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle pain is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
It is obvious here that it is Romeo who is flirting Juliet. He asks for the kiss, although he knows it is wrong and against the rules. He flirted with her, she felt attracted to him, and this is where it all went wrong. However, I do not think that Romeo was looking to Juliet for long-term relations. He wanted her for a fling, to get over Rosaline, but he became too attracted to her, and there was nothing that could be done of it. However, to a Renaissance audience, they all believed in love at first sight and would accept Romeo and Juliet’s passion as being uncontrollable.
In conclusion to the second question:
Fate. Some people blame fate or “the stars” for their good luck.
Were the characters really to blame for what happened to them?
How much of this tragedy was just bad luck, or sheer accident?
A Renaissance audience would believe in fate and having their lives planned out for them. The characters in the play certainly did:
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
This is Romeo talking about how the stars have predicted something bad happening on that night- the night of the party.
The audience in Shakespeare’s time would believe that it was because of fate that the tragedy happened. However, to a modern audience who don’t really believe in fate (although some do), they would think that fate or “the stars” had nothing to do with the tragedy of this play. They will believe it was all Romeo and Juliet’s fault that the tragedy happened. They fell in love with each other, and this was from their hearts. It wasn’t particularly a fault on their behalf’s, but more a sheer accident. Romeo went to the Capulet party to forget about Rosaline. That is all. He did that when he met Juliet, and that was that. However, he found he suddenly became attracted to her, and she to him, and before long, they had found true love. This was a total accident. Two people at the right (wrong) place at the right (wrong) time. If Romeo had never gone to the party/ never broken the rules of Verona, then there wouldn’t have been a tragedy. Romeo would have been miserable chasing after Rosaline. Juliet would have been miserable living with her husband Paris. But:
Neither of them would know who the other was and so couldn’t miss each other.
They would never have died at that precise moment in time.
Tybalt and Mercutio may not be dead either.
The worst thing of all would be that the families would still be at war. Romeo and Juliet dying brought the two families brought together and if Romeo and Juliet had never met/died, then the families would still be feuding. Although death is not particularly a good thing, their deaths brought peace among the land, which is a good thing.
So really, although there was a lot of misery after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, the next generations of Montagues and Capulets would live in a peaceful, safer Verona.
Scott Humm
