Romeo and Juliet were going to meet again but Juliet was shocked after she heard that her cousin Tybalt is dead. When she heard that he got killed by Romeo, she was compeletly surprised. It didn’t take too much for Juliet to get the other bad news. It was the prince of Verona saying that Romeo got banished from the city. As soon as Friar Lawrence heard that news he looked for a solution and adviced Romeo to go to Montua.
When Romeo was at Montua Juliet’s life was getting harder and harder. Her cousin was dead, her husband was banished. But her life was going to get harder by the news coming up. It was about her future. Her family decided to do the marriage of her and Paris as soon as possible. She now started to look for a way to kill herself when she heard the marriage date of her and Paris. Lady Capulet said: ‘today is monday, the earliest it can be organised is thursday. She went to the nurse who looked after Juliet since she was a baby. She asked for her advice and the nurse betrayed her by saying, ‘I think it best you married with the county.’ Now Juliet was on her own she only had one more person to go and it was Friar Lawrance. She went to Friar Lawrance and explained him what was going on. The Friar quickly looked for a solution and came up with an idea which was I think interesting. He gave her a potion which would make Juliet asleep for two days but she would look like she is dead. When Juliet asks about Romeo he said he will inform Romeo by sending a messenger to Montua. Juliet accepts the plan because it was the only thing she could do. One day before marriage ceremony Juliet went up to her room and prepared herself to drink the potion. In the other hand she was scared to die and completely had no trust on Friar. I can understand that when she says, ‘Lest… he should be dishonoured. Because he married me before to Romeo.’
The plan goes wrong. The messenger goes to Montua, to the place where Romeo lives. He knocked the door but noone was in there. The messenger went back to Friar Lawrance and told him that he couldn’t deliver the message. As soon as Friar Lawrance heard that messenger couldn’t find Romeo, he went to the Capulet’s vault where Juliet was sleeping at. He went in and he saw Paris and Romeo on the floor. They were dead and Juliet was going to kill herself as well. Friar asked her to go out with him but she refused her and killed herself. Then he had nothing to do except going out. He went out to reveal the truth. I expected that the prince is going to punish him because he punished Romeo by bunishing him. That all happened because Romeo killed Tybalt. The prince didn’t do the same agianst the Friar Lawrance. He excused him by saying, ‘We still have known thee for a holy man.’ The prince made a kind of favour to him by not punishing him. Because the Friar Lawrance punished himself. The punishment is that he has to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life which I think is the worst punishment.
In my point of view fate has also to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death. There are some examples of fate in the play as follows; If the messenger delivered the message to Romeo he would know that Juliet is still alive so he wouldn’t kill himself. Another example is when the Friar reports to the prince that he did what he can to get Juliet out of the vault and saying, ‘bear his work of heaven with patience.’ When the prince says ‘heaven finds means to kill your Joys with love.’ Capulet and Montague shake hands and promise that there won’t be any other fight between the families. This was what the Friar wanted to see and hear but it cost a bit much which is two young persons life.
There were dramatic moments which make the audience to feel like they are getting involved. Example for this is when the nurse says ‘marry Paris’ to Juliet when she knew that Juliet was already married to Romeo. At that time light blue lighting on actress who acts the character Juliet would make her look like frozen and shocked.
At the end Friar Lawrance did what he wanted to do. He brought peace between families but two young lovers paid it by their lifes.
ALEX GUVENEL