Friar Lawrence is a holy man which holds high regard and reputation in the city of Verona. He also holds a strong allegiance with Romeo and Juliet due to their admiration for one another. His role in the play parallels that of the Nurse. It is his plan which goes wrong and causes the fatal tragedy. He is a kind-hearted man, but rather naive in his actions, who thinks himself careful and wise but who proves to be over-ambitious in his plans. His intentions seem good, but he is too optimistic in hoping that the marriage of Romeo and Juliet will bring the two feuding families together. In the end it is their deaths which bring the Montagues and Capulets to their senses.
We first encounter Friar Lawrence gathering herbs. The Friar is immediately conscious that Romeo must be troubled if he seeks him at such an early hour. When Romeo desires that the Friar marry him to Juliet, he is quick to point out Romeo’s former obsession with Rosaline and queries his love for Juliet, forcing Romeo to think clearly and be patient. He blames Romeo “For doting not for loving pupil mine”. We then discover that the Friar has a soft spot but at the same time compassion and he believes that marrying Romeo & Juliet will bring an end to the feuding families, so he agrees to marry them.
Friar Lawrence demonstrates that he is a moral and holy man. He wants to ensure that Romeo & Juliet’s love is sacred in the sight of God before their love is consummated, “For by your leaves, you shall not stay alone, till holy church incorporate two in one”. Friar Lawrence knows Romeo and Juliet are acting against their parents wishes and he justifies this by saying "In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households' rancour into pure love”. Romeo & Juliet blackmail Friar Lawrence into involvement by two suicide threats.
The Friar takes on the role of counsellor to Romeo, who is devastated when the Friar informs him he is to be banished to Mantua for killing Tybalt, where he can live until the time is ready. “To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, /Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back”
By now the Friar is deeply tangled in the tragedy and when Juliet comes to him for assistance in act 4 scene 1, he comes up with a third plan. We already know that he is some kind of an herbalist from his first appearance and he draws on this knowledge to disentangle Juliet from the deep trouble she now faces. The cynical might wonder if the Friar might at this stage be thinking as much about his own skin as that of Juliet. Certainly the thought crosses Juliet’s mind, as she prepares to take the potion, wondering if he has poisoned her, “Lest……he should be dishonoured/because he married me before to Romeo?” She realises that she must trust that the Friar gave her the correct potion and has her doubts of the plan until she remembers that it is the only way to see Romeo, "Romeo, I come! This do I drink to thee." That is another very important decision she makes to risk her own life and safety just to be with Romeo. Her actions show how her strong love and faith pull the entire story together. Her love and determination keep her from marrying Paris and that adds another important element to the story. When Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead at her side, she is devastated. She resolves their love by killing herself. This is undoubtedly a very important decision on the young woman's part. She was still alive and could have gone on with her life as a widow, but her loyalty to Romeo made her want to be with him in life and death. If she had not made that decision, the Montagues and Capulets may have continued their feud and Juliet would not have been content without her love. It is very obvious that Shakespeare meant for Juliet to be the protagonist of the play. The play is meant to tell a love story, but it is also meant to show Juliet mature from a girl to a woman.
The plan goes wrong when the message to Romeo in Mantua is not delivered due to a plague. So the Friar scurries to the Capulets’ vault to be with the waking Juliet. He tries in vain to persuade Juliet to leave the dead Romeo and escape with him. When she refuses, he deserts her. Eventually he comes forward to reveal the truth. We might have expected that some dire punishment will follow but the Prince excuses him with, “We still have known thee for a holy man”. It is a somewhat soft reprimand nonetheless Friar Lawrence’s true sentence is that he will have to live with the cost of his own mistakes for ever.
The power of fate is introduced in the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet when it states that the two are "death-mark'd." From that point on, fate deals the lovers its worst and ends as predicted, with death. Fate is the force that predetermines events, but since the story takes place in a Christian context, fate can also be interpreted as Providence, or God. In Romeo and Juliet, fate is the biggest force opposing Romeo and Juliet. It is more powerful than the hate between the families because the lovers found ways to beat the hate, but there is no way to beat a predestined death. Some might call these events coincidences, but it is written as fate in the Prologue.
William Shakespeare begins his play with the Prologue to make it clear that the fate of the lovers is not their fault; they are not entirely responsible for their misfortune." The Prologue states, "The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love," which implies that the fate of their love is death. The first coincidence of the play is that Romeo and Juliet shared the unfortunate fate that they are from feuding families. It is not very likely that of all the people to fall in love with, they had to choose each other. If the two had never met, there would not have been any tragedies, therefore any play. Without the fate of the young lovers, the story would not have existed. There are many smaller details of fate that lead to the couple's demise, but none as important as the fact that the end is stated in the beginning.
The first small detail of fate comes when Capulet's illiterate servant asks Romeo to help him read the guest list for a party that night. When Romeo sees Rosaline, his love, is on the list, he decides to crash the party disguised with a mask. At the ball, Romeo found Juliet and forgot all about Rosaline. The fact that the servant asked Romeo and Benvolio for help is definitely a coincidence that affects the entire story. If he had not known about the ball, he may not have met Juliet and fallen in love. Theoretically, if Romeo had found Rosaline at the ball and she returned his love, he may have passed Juliet by to be with Rosaline.
The enemy of fate is discussed again in the wedding scene, this time by Friar Laurence. He warns the couple of their destiny when he says, "These violent delights have violent ends." He knows the situation will not work, but he marries them because he thinks it will end the feud. When thinking of fate, we also start thinking of "what if" questions. The most prominent one at this point in the play is 'what if Friar Laurence had told someone that he had married Romeo and Juliet?' The feud could have ended right there if the Montagues and Capulets had learned of their children's marriage. They might have been angry about it, but there's not much they could do after the wedding had already taken place. Unfortunately, fate keeps the Friar from announcing the wedding and the marriage remains a secret. The next "what if" comes right after the wedding scene.
What if Romeo and Mercutio hadn't been in the street when Tybalt showed up? If these three characters had had different timing and not come in contact with each other, there would not have been a fight. Tybalt and Mercutio would not have died, and Romeo would not have been banished. Another work of fate in this act is that the Prince decides to banish Romeo rather than kill him, which is the usual punishment. The list of "what if's" is very long for this portion, but it is obvious that fate controlled the actions of this segment, which led to disaster.
The following incident is an example of how the Friar contributed to the deaths of the star-crossed lovers. He marries Romeo and Juliet, fully aware that they do not have their parents consent. He should have refused to marry them or sought the advice of an older and more experienced member of the church.
It was the Friar’s idea that Juliet swallows the remedy. This was a very rash decision, and, if thought out properly, he would have realised the dire consequences and complications that could occur.
Another work of fate comes when Capulet orders Juliet to get married immediately. It may seem like an insignificant detail of fate at the time, but it affects the entire story. If he had not ordered the wedding so soon, Friar Laurence would have had time to bring Romeo back and get the couple back together. Capulet's orders cause Juliet to take the potion and make Romeo believe she's dead. This part of the play leads to one of the most significant acts of fate when Romeo does not receive the letter that Friar Laurence sends.
Friar Laurence gives Friar John a letter explaining his and Juliet's plan. Unfortunately, the letter doesn't make it there because of a plague in Mantua. Balthasar reaches Romeo and tells him that Juliet is dead. Stricken with grief, Romeo heads to an Apothecary to get a potion to kill himself next to his love. Fate had not killed the couple yet, it had one more action to finish them off.
Fate's final blow was to make Romeo arrive at the tomb just minutes before Juliet awoke. If he had arrived after Juliet had woken up, the plan would not have been necessary and the lovers would have had a chance at a happy life together. Though their physical deaths were their own decisions, fate is what made them want to die. Their deaths led to the end of the ancient feud. The predetermination of fate led one catastrophic event into another. If destiny had not shown up at one place, the lovers might have lived. Fate may have been brutal to Romeo and Juliet, but it had its motive, which was to end the feud. It is indisputable that fate is the most dominant force in the play and it is most responsible for the devastating death of the young lovers.
Friar Lawrence largely contributed to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet by marrying them despite their ages, giving Juliet the poison and by not thinking things through clearly. Instead he always tried to find a “quick-fix” solution. However, he has a kind disposition, and honestly tries to help Romeo and Juliet in whatever way he can. And, to give him his due, he did confess his sins, and offer to sacrifice his life. This confession, added to the tragic deaths of the young lovers, ceased the age-old fight between the Capulets and the Montagues.
Like Romeo and Juliet, we must all separate from our families, as the children we used to be growing into the adults we must become and build a new family. In this play, however, the sin of breaking away proves fatal because of the deadly context into which these young lovers are placed. Overwhelmed by feud, plague, dysfunctional relatives, and a sense of isolation, Romeo and Juliet become “poor sacrifices” to the antagonism of their elders through their vain attempt to transcend family for love and empathy for self-identity. The loss of childhood becomes real rather than symbolic, and the cost of leaving the family emphasizes the shortness and fragility of young love just as it confirms the price of revenge in a world where forgiveness has never been a virtue. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet achieve, therefore, a tragic beauty which allows us to see the brilliance of their devotion to each other set within the dark hatred of the family feud. Ironically, in separating from their families, they lose their lives at the exact moment that they find themselves.
