Friar Lawrence To Blame For The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

How can one small, harmless decision here and there lead to something so terrible in the end? Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare is about “two star-crossed lovers” that come from two families that hate each other, but no one really knows why. Romeo and Juliet then meet each other at a party that is held at the Capulet mansion, but neither of them know who the other is at first. Later, they make plans to get married in secret, which ultimately will lead to their death in the future. After the two get married, Romeo got into a fight were Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, died. Therefore, he gets exiled from Verona and has to go live in Mantua. Friar Lawrence made a plan for Juliet to fake her death, so she didn’t have to marry Paris and run off with Romeo.

One of those reasons was marrying Romeo and Juliet. He knew that Romeo had just been in love with Rosaline and heartbroken from her not loving him back, but he agreed to marry both Romeo and Juliet shortly after thinking that it would stop the feud. In Act 2, Scene 3, the Friar first tells Romeo, “Not in a grave, To lay one in, another to have” (2.3.83-84). He then shortly later tells him, “For this alliance may so happy prove/To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.3.91-92). This shows that he impulsively changed his mind without thinking about any of the possible consequences. Another reason he is to blame is because he gave Juliet the potion to fake her death. He gave it to her because she was so upset about Romeo getting exiled, Tybalt dying, and her having to marry Paris. When he gave the potion to her, he thought that it would make things better for her, but he didn’t think through to the end of the plan and think about which one would’ve had less of a consequence. A final reason that he should be blamed is because he left Juliet alone with a dead Romeo, and Romeo had a sword. He shouldn’t have left Juliet alone if Romeo had a sword with him in the state that Juliet was in, and he should’ve realized that she could do something terrible. Some might say that the Friar had a reason to leave Juliet alone in the Capulet tomb. They think that because Juliet should have some time alone

For example, Romeo’s impulsive action to go to the Capulet party. He tells Benvolio, “I fear too early, for my mind misgives/Some consequence yet hanging in the stars/Shall bitterly begin his fearful date” (1.5.107-109). He is saying that knows something will go wrong, but he still ends up going to the party only because he wants to see Rosaline. Another example was the fight scene in Act 3, Scene 1. He didn’t want to fight with Tybalt at first because he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but he changed his mind once Tybalt killed Mercutio. Romeo acts out of anger and doesn’t think things through once again. According to James McCue, “Brain studies show the frontal lobe-which is responsible for decision-making, impulse control, sensation-seeking, emotional responses and consequential thinking-does not finish developing until our early-to-mid 20s.” This helps to show why Romeo made these rash decisions because his brain hasn’t fully developed, and he was only thinking about the best decision for that moment in time, not the best for his future. Finally, both Romeo and Juliet rushed into getting married shortly after meeting each other. Romeo is mostly to blame for this because he was rushing into things with Juliet, and Juliet thought that it was the best because she thought she loved Romeo. However, Juliet doesn’t really have someone at home