Friar Lawrence Responsible For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet

The 16th century romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a play that depicts the love story and demise of a young couple. It is set in verona, Italy where there is an ongoing feud between their families. Ultimately Romeo and Juliet both die due to the actions of many characters and their fateful misfortunes. Many characters in the play can be blamed for their role in the demise of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence and Romeo can accept responsibility for the catastrophe in the play.

In the play, the reasons for which Friar Laurence can bear some of the blame for the catastrophe are evident. In Act 2, Scene 3 Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to marry him to Juliet. The Friar said that the only reason he agrees to marry them is because “ For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love.” The Friar agrees to marry the two, because he thinks the family feud will end if they marry each other. However Friar Lawrence was very naive to think this way. As in the story after the marriage, more problems piled up eventually leading to the catastrophe. Friar Lawrence’s poor judgement of the consequences of the marriage of Romeo and Juliet caused many conflicts that became a catastrophe, so the Friar should accept some of the burden of responsibility for the catastrophe.

In the play after Romeo gets banished and Juliet must marry Paris, Friar Lawrence devises a plan where Juliet fakes her own death to delay the wedding until she can run off with Romeo. Juliet takes a drug that gives her death like symptoms and fools her family to think that she is dead. However the Friar’s plan goes amiss, when Romeo sees Juliet pale body and commits suicide. Friar Lawrence should accept some of the responsibility of the catastrophe due to his miscalculated plans that had negative outcomes in the