How far do you think Friar Lawrence is to Blame for the Tragic Events at the End of the Play?

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C/W                                                                                    06/04/2004

How far do you think Friar Lawrence is to Blame for the Tragic Events at the End of the Play?

        Friar Lawrence is an intelligent herbalist with great knowledge of plants and a father figure to Romeo. He is the confidant to Romeo and Romeo would rather come to Friar Lawrence than to his father. Friar Lawrence is a pivotal person in Romeos world. Romeo comes to the Friar to marry Romeo and Juliet and after this he kills Tybalt and is banished. He then relies on the Friar to sort out the problem and to rejoin Romeo and Juliet. The Friar is aware of the feuding between the two families and when Romeo comes to see whether the Friar with marry Romeo and Juliet the Friar thinks he can turn the “households rancour to pure love”. The Friar thinks he is vital to the joining of the two families as he is asked to give advice by members of all families: Romeo, Juliet, Paris and the Nurse.

        It could be argued that Friar Lawrence is partly responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as he performs many actions throughout the play that speed up the fated demise of Romeo and Juliet, including their marriage, even though he is doing this with good intentions. He is not entirely to blame though as the Friar did not kill Tybalt and did not abandon Juliet when things began to go wrong, nor did he start the feud between the two families or have a hand in fate.

        We first see him in Act 2 Scene 3 where he is talking about plants and their seemingly magical properties and displays a great knowledge of plants. This information is important, as it is needed to believe events at the end of the play. Romeo then rushes in explaining that he doesn’t love Rosaline anymore:

“With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.

I have forgotten that name, and that name’s woe.”

This is important, as Romeo’s love for Rosaline was not pure love like the love that he has for Juliet. The love that Romeo has for Rosaline is not real, as he is not enjoying the love; his description of it is full of oxymorons such as “O brawling love, O loving hate”. These show that Romeo’s love for Rosaline is fake and in chaos, however Romeo’s love for Juliet is pure as when they first meet at the ball they use religious images.

“…For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,

And palm to palm is a holy palmers’ kiss.”

Romeo then confesses that he loves the daughter of Capulet: Juliet and wants to marry her tomorrow. This causes a problem to the Friar as he cannot see into the future and can only gamble on what the future may hold for the two lovers. At this point in the play the Friar is being very unselfish, he doesn’t know whether he will get punished for marrying the two lovers or could the two lovers be punished quite severely but he can only hope that the union can turn the “…households’ rancour to pure love.” It is his hope that the marriage can bring the two families together that the Friar agrees to join Romeo and Juliet together. This shows that at this point in the play at least the Friar has noble intentions.

Later on in the play after Romeo has killed Tybalt, Romeo hides out in the Friar’s cell waiting for any news about his punishment or from Juliet. It falls to the Friar to give Romeo the good news that “A gentler punishment vanished from [the princes] lips:/Not body’s death but body’s banishment.” Romeo does not react well to this punishment and he feels that there is “…no world without Verona walls…” so being banished from Verona is like being “…banished from the world, /And worlds exile is death. Then “banished”/ Is death mis-termed…” These words by Romeo show how desperate and fragile Romeo is feeling at the moment. The Nurse then enters the room and tells Romeo how Juliet is feeling. Romeo upon hearing this draws his dagger to kill himself but the Nurse snatches it from him. This emotional statement by Romeo promotes the Friar into action and he reprimands Romeo by saying that his “…tears are womanish…” This telling off by the Friar brings Romeo back to his senses and this is when the Friar quickly thinks of a daring plan to move Romeo to Mantua, which is an area just outside Verona walls. His plan is for Romeo to see Juliet one more time in her bedroom but to be away before nightfall. He then says for Romeo to go to Mantua and wait until there becomes a time where it is suitable for the newly wedded couple to “…blaze [their] marriage…”. This desperate plan was thought of hastily and at first glance should have worked. The problems with it were; would the Friar know when the social climate was right so he could make the marriage public; it was highly unlikely that the Friar would be able to “reverse a prince’s doom”. However the plan was secure enough for Romeo to believe that it was going to work, so he wouldn’t kill himself right away but at least wait. This is a desperate plan for desperate people, as the Friar and Romeo both needed reassuring, as they both feel responsible. This especially applies to the Friar as he is thinking that this would of never happened if he had refused to marry together Romeo and Juliet. His plan is as much to get himself out of the problem, as it is to keep Romeo and Juliet together and alive.

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The nest plan that the Friar has to offer is seen even later in the play in Act 4 Scene 1. This scene comes after Romeo has gone to see Juliet before he goes to Mantua and after Juliet has found out she is to marry Paris tomorrow. Juliet is in a fragile state not knowing what to do, she has come to the Friar as the Nurse has left her and her entire family is threatening to banish her from the family if she refuses to marry Paris. She has come to the Friar and is surprised to see ...

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