The Friar hopes that the wedding will end the feud between the Montague’s and Capulet. This is most probably the only reason that he supports Romeo and Juliet, because he knows all about Romeo’s crush on Rosaline, so he can not believe Romeo that he is serious about Juliet. He helps because; he hopes that Romeo and Juliet getting married will end the constant feud between the two families, he says, “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be. For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households’ rancour to pure love.”
Even though he approves of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage he seems to know that things will go wrong. Although the Friar is hoping that the wedding will have happy results, he says quite a few things that make it sound like he knows that things will end up going wrong no matter what happens. The advice that he gives Romeo just before he gets married is particularly prophetic, “These violent delights have violent ends...” the Friar is worried that Romeo is so wrapped up in his feelings that he will let things get completely out of control, and this is exactly what happens.
The Nurse is Juliet’s nanny. She has looked after Juliet since she was a baby. In the time that the play is set, lots of rich families employed nurses to bring up their children, some were almost like an adopted mother who took care of the breastfeeding as well as looking after them. This could most probably mean that the Nurse is actually closer to Juliet then her own Mother. The Nurse and the Friar are the only characters who know Romeo and Juliet’s secrets and not Juliet’s parents.
Obviously the Nurse is much attached to Juliet as she has raised her since she was a baby. The Nurse is more affectionate with Juliet than Juliet’s mother ever has been. For example she has pet names for her, in Act 1, Scene 3 she calls her a “lamb”, a “ladybird”, and a “pretty fool”. When Juliet seems to be dead on the morning of the wedding to Paris, the Nurse is more genuinely upset than any of the other characters, she says emotionally, “She’s dead, deceas’d, she’s dead. Alack the day… O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day… O day! O day! O day! O hateful day… O woeful day! O woeful day!”
The Nurse helps Romeo and Juliet arrange their marriage. The Nurse has no choice about helping Juliet marry Romeo, as Juliet is the boss and she is the servant, “I am the drudge and toil in your delight.” although, the audience wonders whether the Nurse should act more responsibly as she has a duty of care. The Nurse later in the play thinks that Juliet would be better off with Paris, as when she is under pressure from her parents, the Nurse advises Juliet to do as they say, “I think you are happy in this second match, for it excels your first” Juliet thinks that the Nurse is being a hypocrite and almost despises her for this. This is a very dramatic moment in the play. Shakespeare uses the character of the Nurse to introduce comedy into the play.
The Nurse is very talkative once she starts talking it is very hard to get her to stop. The Nurse is really bad at telling stories and passing on messages or information, because she takes so long to get to the point. For instance when Lady Capulet asks the Nurse to call Juliet, she tells a long story about Juliet when she was a little girl, “On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. That shall she, marry! I remember it well…”the Nurse can go on for ages but she does her best for Juliet.
In some ways the Nurse is a bit like Friar Lawrence, they can talk for ages but always try to be helpful.
Romeo and Juliet looked doomed from the start. We like to think that we are in control of our lives, but there are some parts of Romeo and Juliet that seem to suggest that it is all down to Fate and the stars. Right at the start of the play, the Prologue says that Romeo and Juliet are doomed to die, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” The Prologue’s saying the stars control Romeo and Juliet’s lives, and that the stars are against them. It’s basically the same idea as astrology; believing you can read what will happen in the pattern of the stars.
Romeo seems especially obsessed with the idea that the stars control everything. The first time he mentions it is when he is talking to Mercutio on the way to the Capulet’s party, “…my mind misgives some consequences yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this night’s revels.” In another scene, Romeo has just found Juliet and thinks that she is dead. He is just about to kill himself, and then says that he wants to be free from his unlucky stars, “And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-weird flesh.” It is very depressing. Basically Romeo is saying that even if he does not choose to kill himself now, Fate will do something else terrible to him later and so he is better off dead.
There are many different causes of Romeo and Juliet’s death including fate. Here are just a few reasons that may have caused the tragedy. The feud means that everything that happens in Verona ends in violence, Friar Lawrence should not have suggested such a dangerous plan he knew that he was playing with their lives, The Nurse should have stopped Juliet from getting involved with a Montague, or she could have been on Juliet’s side when she did not want to marry Paris. Romeo and Juliet were too in love to think straight, they should have taken things more slowly. Juliet’s parents did not pay enough attention to what Juliet felt or wanted, it was all just a coincidence or just bad timing.
These are only a few of the main reasons of what may have caused Romeo and Juliet’s death. There are loads more reasons in the play for why it all went wrong, but there is not one reason that explains it all.
Romeo and Juliet never had a chance of ending the play with a happy ending. With everyone slightly pushing them closer to death and, with even the stars against them the odds were never really on their side.
The Nurse and Friar Lawrence played a relatively big part in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. They both took part in Romeo and Juliet’s wedding and talked them into changing their minds about things that they were going to do. But the Nurse and the Friar only pushed them onwards they did not actually kill them. At the beginning Shakespeare hinted we knew that the stars were not on their side and this meant that they were always going to die in whatever circumstances no matter who intervened.
