Essay On Friar Lawrence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Words: 648
Pages: 3

Many events in the world take place with cause and effect. People often commit small things that lead up to great more bigger

things later on. One such example is in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. In the story the actions committed by Friar

Lawrence lead up to the deaths of several characters.

For example, in the beginning when Romeo comes and asks him to allow the marriage of him and Juliet, Friar Lawrence

agrees. Seen in 2.3.87-92, the Friar agrees to oversee the marriage because he believed the marriage of Capulet with a Montague

would end their fighting and bring them together. In hindsight one should never marry their arch nemesis as this practically

intertwines them in tragedy later on. This is shown when Juliet comments of Romeo
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Finally in the end, Juliet wakes up to Friar Lawrence and a dead Romeo, Friar doesn't take the blame of what he did and

keeps on referring to how the heavens and a higher power were responsible for the actions that took place. In (5.3.151-159) Friar

doesn't stay and try to explain the situation to Juliet but instead leaves a sucidal teenage girl alone because the friar didn't want to

be caught. He was very wrong to do this because he could have saved both Romeo and Juliet's lives if he had stopped to comfort

Juliet and earlier on In 5.2.13-17, When Friar Lawrence sends out friar John to deliver a message but he was delayed. He could have

just cut out the middle man thus insuring that the letter would be safely delivered and Romeo and Juliet would be together forever.

In conclusion, the conflicts that took place in Romeo and Juliet can be traced to one person, Friar Lawrence. With the friar's

hesitant decision of allowing the marriage of two teenagers who are also arch enemies, his brilliant idea of putting Juliet in a coma,

and lastly leaving Juliet alone with her dead husband instead of comforting her can all be lead up to the deaths of Romeo and