Abby Who Is To Blame For The March 15/23 Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, tells the tale of two young and lifeful star-crossed lovers whose lives are cut short by others around them. While there were many factors contributing to Romeo and Juliet's tragic death, the character seems to be the one appearing most in these events. Throughout his character he seems to make impulsive decisions and leave others with the consequences. From when he was marrying two lovers in secret, to giving Juliet a potion to fake her death, Friar Laurence’s actions ultimately lead to the wistful and fatal end …show more content…
Friar Laurence had many opportunities to tell Juliet's parents but never did. Even when Juliet's dad spoke to Friar Laurence about marrying Paris and Juliet, Friar Laurence still stayed quiet. Supposedly, Friar Laurence was protecting his job, as if Juliet's father found out about the secret marriage he may execute Friar Laurence. When Paris, Juliet and Friar Laurence are talking about the marriage once Paris leaves, Juliet threatens to kill herself if Friar Laurence does not find a way to stop the marriage. “Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, Do thou but call my resolution wise, And with this knife I’ll help it presently” Juliet explains with a knife in hand (IV. …show more content…
It is understandable that Friar Laurence was only trying to help, but if he quit making impulsive decisions he may have thought to just talk to Juliet's father and explain how deeply in love Romeo and Juliet are. With Juliet so devastated about the marriage she made the foolish mistake of taking the potion. The moment Romeo races to find Juliet after she is put into the Capulet's tomb and declared "dead," things start to go wrong. Once Romeo sees Juliet lying there “dead” he decides to take his own life with a death potion, “Here's to my love!...Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” Are his last words (V. III. 3065-3069). Only seconds later Juliet woke up, after seeing what Romeo had done she couldn’t stand to be in a world without him, and took her life with Romeo's
When a young girl comes to ask him for advice, he decides to explain a way for her to persuade her loved ones into thinking that she is dead by giving her a potion that would make her fall into a death like sleep. He gives her this deathly potion that could potentially harm her without realizing the death he will cause because of it. He also decides to send a letter to her husband explaining what is going to happen without taking into consideration that there might be a way quicker way for news to travel. This resulting in Romeo not receiving the news of the plan before the news of Juliet’s ‘death.’ Friar Laurence could have easily avoided all of these problems if he thought ahead like a responsible adult should.
Even though Friar Laurence was trying to do the right thing for everyone, he still put Romeo and Juliet’s life in danger. Act V Scene 3 line 158 Friar Laurence tells Juliet that she can stay and then he leaves, “Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay (Shakespeare 383).” Friar Laurence leaves Juliet there so he isn’t questioned about the death of Romeo and Paris.
The letter needed to get to Romeo so he would be aware that Juliet was not actually dead. By this point, Friar Laurence should be expecting the unexpected. Romeo’s and Juliet’s threats of suicide if they couldn’t be together should alert the friar that the flaws in his plan could lead to death for Romeo or Juliet or both. Subsequently after Juliet drank the vial, Friar Laurence made three lesser mistakes; yet, these mistakes would still lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence made his first mistake when he encountered Friar John, who was sent to Mantua to deliver the message to Romeo that Juliet was indeed alive.
First off, Friar Laurence should have been more responsible and told the prince about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage . Besides the Friar’s confession in 5.3, the Friar never tells Prince Escalus of Romeo and Juliet's secret marriage. The Prince would have accepted the marriage as it is in the confines of the law (Canon 219). With Prince Escalus’s support, their would be no reason for Romeo and Juliet to keep their relationship a secret and they would be accepted by Verona. However, Friar decided to keep it undisclosed.
Friar Laurence is responsible for the death of both Romeo and Juliet because of his attitudes towards the situation. He is full of pride, short-sightedness, and is intentionally ignorant. These trait of his ultimately leads to the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo first asked Friar Laurence to arrange a marriage for him and Juliet, He Refused and rant about how young people are blinded by lust and can’t think clearly through love, but then he changed his mind and agreed to help them because he thought it would help end the feud between the two lovers families. “Wisely and slow, they stumble that runs fast” (Shakespeare
Because of the feud between the two families, Juliet can’t be seen with Romeo. Juliet has to hide her love for Romeo as she says untruthfully, “It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate…” (3,5,123). This is why Juliet could not tell her parents of her marriage to Romeo; leading to her death-like sleep from the Friar’s potion, to avoid marrying County Paris.
If he would have stayed with Juliet, Juliet would be alive. Instead, he was selfish and thought about himself first. Because of neglectance of the letter, Romeo’s death, and Juliet’s death, Friar Laurence is to blame. He always had very bad plans especially when trying to help Romeo and Juliet. This ‘plans’ lead to many grievances injuries, banishments, and even death’s.
Friar Laurence realizes that Romeo not being aware of Juliet faking her death can cause much danger and escalate the outcome of their ‘happy’ ending. If he had made sure Romeo read the letter and had confirmed the plan before he poisoned Juliet, Romeo would not have killed himself seeing Juliet’s body. After he finds Juliet dead in her tomb, his oblivious reaction is demonstrated after saying, “O my love, my wife, / Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.” (5.3.91-93).
His being a father figure means that he took the actions he took because he wants the best for Romeo and thinks this is what will make him happy. However, this claim is invalid because if he really wants what is best for Romeo he would not give Juliet, the source of his happiness, a potion that can put her in danger and might possibly kill her. Friar Laurence himself explained the potion saying, “For no pulse/ Shall keep his native progress, but surcease;... Each part, deprived of supple government,/ Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death” (4.1.96-97,102-103). This quote describes how the potion will, essentially, kill her and then bring her back to life.
Who is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s Death? In the devastating romance, Romeo and Juliet shows an illustration of how young love is able to cause destruction, not only in their lives but also the people’s lives around them. It also shows how other actor’s thoughts affected the people close to them, but the main question is, who is responsible for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet? The death of Romeo and Juliet was not their fault but Friar Lawrence's. Friar is to blame, not only for one action that contributed to their death, but for three actions.
(Shakespeare IV.i.91-94). Friar completely disregards any thought of what the family might act out as or think toward Juliet’s position in life. He gives no advice toward what is truly right and just keeps his pride by helping Juliet plan out and get away with a very risky plan. This plan later back fires in the play and gets both young lovers killed all because of Friar Lawrence’s unorganized
Even after Mercutio 's death and Romeo 's banishment, Friar Laurence did not see the destructiveness of Romeo and Juliet 's marriage. Instead, he continued to attempt to keep Romeo and Juliet together. The plan he concocted for this, however, was shortsighted, poorly thought out, and risky. Friar Laurence devised the plan in haste and in desperation because Juliet was there in the friar’s presence threatening suicide rather than marry Paris. “Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
The Capulets and Montagues would punish Friar Laurence because he unrightfully married them and since the two families are enemies it might’ve made the situation even worse. After Romeo gets exiled out of Verona for killing Tybalt, Juliet goes to Friar Laurence to seek help from him in finding Romeo. From there, the Friar makes up a whole plan. This plan includes Juliet drinking a potion to fake her death which will prevent her from marrying Paris. He gave Juliet a potion that made her look dead, he did this knowing there could be complications like Juliet might not wake up and get buried alive.
Friar Laurence is saying he would marry him and Juliet. He thinks that both households are going to get along after Romeo and Juliet are married. He has to keep the marriage private because later on in the play, Lord Capulet forces the marriage between Paris and Juliet and he didn’t want anyone knowing that he is marrying Juliet twice especially with Romeo who had killed Tybalt.
The solution to Juliet’s problem, after she threatened to kill herself if the Friar did not have a solution, was to drink a potion that would make her look like she is dead. If Friar Laurence had not given the potion to Juliet, and instead gave her another plan such as possibly helping her escape Verona, Romeo and Juliet would have still been alive. Without the potion, Romeo would not hear that Juliet “died” and would not have rushed back and act carelessly. Also, the problem with this was that he trusted a child to fake her own death by herself without anyone else knowing while he thought of a plan to get Romeo back in order to dig her up after she was buried. If friar had not told juliet to keep her fake death a secret and told the nurse or someone, they could have