Who Is Friar Lawrence To Blame In Romeo And Juliet?

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, is a tragic love story of two teenagers, Romeo and Juliet. Their relationship is made complicated by the fact that they yield from feuding households, the Montagues and Capulets. After falling in love instantly, Romeo and Juliet are forced to marry secretly in order to avoid further escalating their families’ conflict. As teenagers, Romeo and Juliet seek the guidance of an elder, Friar Lawrence. Unfortunately, as a result of poor guidance on Friar Lawrence’s part, the play results in the deaths of the main characters. Because Friar Lawrence desires civil adulation, oversteps his boundaries as a fatherly and priestly figure, acts hypocritically, devises a plan out of haste and with little

Friar Lawrence intends to take credit for his plan to restore peace in Verona. If he had been successful, he could have called for an audience with the prince--the Montagues and Capulets in attendance, naturally. Then he could have informed the Capulets that their daughter was not dead, as they thought, but was alive and happy…The friar could then have informed all present of the end that his resurrection scheme served: to end the feud and so restore civil harmony by marrying Romeo and Juliet…He would receive civil adulation…[a]nd such praise would vault the friar over the prince as Verona's miracle worker, its true leader. (Brenner 5)
His motive for marrying Romeo and Juliet, is to settle their families’ feud. The Friar could easily manipulate the story to make it sound as if he is responsible for solving the town’s major conflict, and he would receive praise from those around him, thus labeling him a hero. At first, when Romeo approaches Friar Lawrence about marrying him and Juliet, the Friar is taken aback by the lack of time it takes for Romeo to move on from Rosaline. He later sees the motivation in marrying the two lovers: But come, young waverer, come, go with