“baleful weeds and precious-juicéd flowers”
These lines and many others that he says portray a good and bad side to things in life in general. He talks about there being good and bad in everyone which is ironic to talk about it at this stage as we see him as good and bad throughout the play, in his best moments and his worst. To start the Friar is portrayed as a non-meddler as he is on his own and is then approached by Romeo.
We see the Friar from many aspects, sometimes playing the hero, meddler and occasionally the fool. It is hard to work out the consequences of what may have happened if Friar Lawrence did not become involved and make his decisions. The end may have been a lot worse for the families overall.
The Friar plays the hero at first before he goes through the stages of being a meddler then a fool. Making decisions was not the Friar’s best quality and he needed to think his decisions through properly before putting them into practice. This is how the point of the Friar can be argued. The Friar may be a meddler but he interferes with good intentions.
The Friar gives sensible advice at first but is then motivated by the fact that he can solve larger problems such as ending the conflict between the two families of the Capulets and the Montagues. He feels that if he can unite these families that he will have achieved something major and may be praised for his actions.
“For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love”
Even though he is a philosophical figure he does not consider the consequences of the task he is trying to do and this is why it results in a tragedy. During the play the Friar does not seem to show any bad motives and is only trying to do his best to help others. However, this does not always work.
Tragically meddling is not really the Friar’s major role in the play and if his does interfere it is due to others asking for his help. Romeo talks to the Friar a lot as a “father” figure and asks for his help on many occasions. When Romeo is banished from Verona by the Prince, the first person he turns to is the Friar who comforts him. This is the very caring side of the Friar but this changes in another part of the play.
“An hour but married, Tybalt murderèd,
Doting like me, and like me banishèd”
It is clear to see that Romeo would rather face death than to be banished as if he was dead then he would not be able to think about or long for Juliet. The Friar returns with the comment that he is ungrateful but tries to provide a solution so that he will still be able to confirm his marriage to Juliet and everything will be fine when he returns from Mantua in a few months. This soon becomes sorted and at this stage the lovers have backing from Juliet’s nurse.
The parents of both the lovers are unaware that their only child have got married and are just about to confirm this. This comes across, as the Friar is the one who is helping them. Both families could stop the wedding at any point and this is where the Friar risks losing his respect from others by helping them and agreeing to go ahead with the marriage. However, Juliet’s parents have found Juliet an eligible man to marry, named Paris, and so have arranged a marriage ceremony with the Friar. They do not really consult Juliet with this. This is another point in the story where a character approaches the Friar for help; this time it is Juliet concerned that she will be forced to marry Paris, the eligible chosen man to be her husband.
It is at this point that the Friar thinks up a plan to stop the marriage from taking place and the idea of a sleeping potion is the best that he can think of. The Friar cannot have thought this through properly as if he had he would have seen all the disadvantages that were involved. Juliet needs to be guided on using the potion and so the Friar gives instructions. It is this scene, Act 4 Scene 5, that the audience can see a different side to the Friar and how he reacts under pressure. It is actually in the Capulet’s mansion that the audience see the Friar’s reaction in a stressful situation and it is also where several of the Friar’s scenes take place. All the settings that the Friar can be seen in are very personal. For example he is first introduced when he is in his cell. Another place is a room in the Capulet's mansion.
Lord and Lady Capulet find Juliet “dead” in her bed on the morning of her marriage to Paris. The Friar is called to bless the body and this is where the Friar can be seen as uncaring. He is abrupt with the Capulet’s as they do not know what is going on but he knows she is not really dead.
“Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary”
“Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment”
This is how the Friar rebukes the family for grieving over Juliet’s “death”. He says that she is much better in heaven away from the cruel world so to stop crying and get her to church. With the having to organise the funeral and the news of Juliet’s death spreading quickly the Friar cannot deliver a letter to Romeo personally explaining what is going on so he sends someone else to do this. This message is very important and as it cannot be delivered due to a disease, this starts another major problem. In my opinion, the Friar should have given the letter to Romeo before he gave Juliet the potion but the Friar had to act instantly for Juliet so he could not have done this. Romeo hears the news by word of mouth and does not get the actual explanation of what is going on. He therefore immediately travels to see Juliet’s body.
Once again the Friar has interfered with people’s lives and the problem that he thought he had solved for Juliet has only created an even bigger problem for himself with regards to Romeo. I think that the audience, if shown in a dramatic performance, could become very tense here as the pace of the play is increasing and whether or not Romeo will get the message in time keeps the audience in suspense. It is clear to see the desperation of Romeo to be with Juliet, dead or alive, and he does not hesitate to break his banishment and visit her instantly.
“I’ll be with thee straight”
“And if man did need a poison now”
It is in the last crucial scenes that most of the action takes place. The viewer has to be paying attention or they can lose track of what is going on. Romeo visits Juliet and kills himself just as Juliet wakes from her “sleep”. She realises that she cannot use any of the poison he used to kill himself so instead takes Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself. The Friar was in the tomb as she woke but fled as he heard people coming. Juliet would not have killed herself if the Friar had not have left. At the end of the play the Friar asks for forgiveness from the Prince, as he feels guilty for all the things he has done. He is granted forgiveness as the Prince realises that the Friar did not mean to meddle and that he just got tangled up between two lovers in need.
Many, in anti-catholic audiences, may see the Friar as a meddling character. This was in Elizabethan times when the new Church of England had just come about and many did not like Catholics. Friar Lawrence was a Catholic and this may be another reason why people may feel he meddles and causes problems. It is fair to say that individual audience members will view this play differently, maybe even in accordance to their own lives. Some will consider the Friar as a meddler while others could see all along that he was good natured and just wanted to help the lovers who already had fate against them. He tries to show consideration for both families throughout the play and I think that at the most stressful point of the play in the Capulet's mansion that the Friar shows he is only human and this is where he realises that he should not have interfered and starts to panic.
At the end of the play it is clear to see that the Friar has changed and has learnt a lesson of not meddling with peoples’ lives. He can see that although his intentions were good, they caused trouble and that truth was the best option to use when dealing with both families. The audience may take pity on the Friar because he does apologise to the Prince and all involved and ask to be punished proving that he realises his mistakes.
