The Role Of Friar Lawrence To Blame In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare most of the blame can be pinned to Friar Lawrence because he married Romeo and Juliet in private, he devised a dangerous scheme to get Juliet out of a wedding, and he left Juliet alone at the site of Romeo’s death.

One piece of evidence that puts the blame on Friar Lawrence is that he married Romeo and Juliet without their parent’s knowledge. In Act 2 Scene 6 of the play Romeo goes to Friar to get married to Juliet. Friar Lawrence knows the two had met only the night before yet he still married them. He also did not talk to either the bride or groom’s parents about the marriage at all, they found out only after Romeo and Juliet had killed themselves. If Friar had told the Capulets and Montagues about the marriage most of the tragic events in the play

In Act 3 Scene 5 of the play we see how Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris, but if Friar Lawrence had told the Capulets that he married Juliet to Romeo they would certainly be vexed but they would not force Juliet to marry Paris. The arranged marriage took a toll on Juliet’s mental health, leading her to threaten taking her life multiple times. The scheme Friar concocted involved Juliet drinking a potentially harmful potion that would simulate death. The idea behind that plan was that shortly after Juliet was placed in the Capulet’s sepulcher and awoke from her artificial death, Romeo would be there to take her to Mantua.However the entire plan was centered on Romeo receiving a letter from Friar. However, Friar only sent one letter, and he never checked to confirm Romeo received it. Friar never thought to send a second note, he just hoped Romeo would receive it. Romeo never obtained the message and because of this he thought Juliet actually died so he killed himself. This single oversight from Friar Lawrence was the cause of four more