The Tragedy Of Friar Lawrence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Responsibility and tragedy seem like two ideas that do not fit together. The play, Romeo and Juliet breaks that stereotypical thinking. Two star-crossed lovers who mistakenly and tragically take their own lives, and someone is responsible for their ends. Friar Lawrence is most responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death because he is the one who marries them “in secret,” and he also poorly executed their plan to escape to Mantua, where Romeo had been exiled to.
Friar Lawrence is most responsible because he is the one who marries Romeo and Juliet. The Friar could have easily said no to Romeo and Juliet, but the Friar instead married them in hopes to unite the two families and he became involved in their lives and he eventually leads them to their deaths. The day after Romeo meets Juliet, he rushes to the Friar to tell him he wants to marry Juliet. Friar agrees and tell him, “ In one respect I’ll thy

Friar Lawrence leaves Juliet alone in the tomb after she wakes up. After Juliet, Romeo, and Paris are found dead in the tomb, Friar tries to explain what happened, “But then a noise did scare me from the tomb, and she, too desperate, would not go with me, but, as it seems, did violence on herself” (Act 5.3.262-264). Juliet kills herself because there is no one there to stop her. Friar had ran away from protecting Juliet to protect himself. The Friar should have stayed with her to keep her safe. The reason he came in the first place was to make sure Juliet was safe after she awoke. Friar ran away instead and Juliet died because Friar wasn’t there. In the big picture, Friar Lawrence is the one responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. He made many mistakes along the way including marrying them in secret and messing up his plan for them to escape to Mantua. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy and the biggest tragedy is that Friar Lawrence let them