Friar Lawrence In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare starts with a conflict between two families Capulets and Montagues. Romeo, one of the Montague family members, has a one-sided love with Rosaline. Attracted by Juliet’s extraordinary beauty at a party, Romeo immediately falls for Juliet, who is from the Capulet family. They know this love will be a big problem because their families are feuding. The couple get married in rush with the help of Friar Lawrence, whom they trust very much. Friar Lawrence does this because he hopes it will bring the families together. Then during the time when Tybalt and Mercutio fought, Romeo decided to end the fight by killing Tybalt. As a result of this Romeo was banished from Verona and had to go to Mantua. This …show more content…
“In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, /For this alliance may so happy prove/To turn your households’ rancor to pure love (Shakespeare 2.3.97-99).” This shows that Friar Lawrence got Romeo and Juliet married just because it would end the fighting between the two families, but does not believe they are in true love because he thinks that Romeo is in love with Rosaline instead. In spite of this knowledge, Friar Lawrence allowed Romeo to marry Juliet (Shakespeare). Ideally, Friar Lawrence’s goal was to end the fighting between the two families through this marriage. He could have tried other ways to achieve this goal, for example to persuade the two families first before rushing for their marriage or first confirm that Romeo and Juliet do really love each …show more content…
“Take thou this vial, being then in bed./And this distilling liquor drink thou off (Shakespeare 4.1.95-96);” This shows that Friar Lawrence plans to have Juliet appear dead by having her drink the vialon that he gave her while she is alone in her bed. This idea was not even trusted by Juliet herself who is suspicious that the potion might not work or may be a real poison and kill her. Juliet also had concerns that what if she dies of suffocation before Romeo arrives to the tomb or be stuck there alone, and the potion would end up in a failure (Shakespeare). This shows that Friar Lawrence’s plan about the potion may not be successful because Juliet herself had doubts about