Was Friar Laurence partly to blame for Romeo and Juliet's deaths

Friar Laurence is a highly respected Holy, profoundly religious man, that is regarded with respect and has a reputation of deep wisdom with a high social status, as he is well a well-known member of society, in the city of Verona. For many years he has received countless confessions and has strong beliefs in his religion and in life itself.

Romeo knows the Friar very well, and he has known him for a long time, Romeo is a very close friend of Friar Laurence’s, as Friar Laurence would often here many of Romeo’s problems, dealing with young Romeo’s dilemma’s and lovers, sharing his wisdom and experience with Romeo, to help him through his troubled times.

Bringing them closer together, Romeo giving the trust and confidence that he can confide everything with the Friar.

Romeo is Cleary very fond of the Friar and would regard the friars decisions and advise often as the very best, and with high priority.

Which means Romeo would take Friar Laurence’s advice seriously and could easily follow any misjudgements that the Friar could possibly make. Both the feuding Capulet’s and Montague’s are close with the Friar, and I am sure Friar would have given countless advice and heard many confessions each family, giving him massive insight and knowledge into both families and the spiteful, ancient dispute between them.

Friar Laurence would know an awful lot about both families, but he is known as a good man and has (as far as we no in the play) not used this information against the two families, which he could easily do, but obviously he does care, about the families, and particularly in Romeo.

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After a very short debate and curious interrogations, Friar Laurence’s quickly ready to marry Romeo and Juliet.

But Friar Laurence is surprised by the speed in which Romeo has become so deeply in love with yet another girl, as only a week before was Romeo pouring his heart and shedding many tears over his painful love for Rosaline, in which the Friar had spent many hours comforting Romeo. But no he is so quickly in love with a knew lover that it takes the Friar in someone irritated surprise, ” So soon forsaken? .. Hath wash’d thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! How much salt water thrown away in waste… ” Friar Laurence is stating in this Quotation, and emphasising how amazed and shocked he is at Romeo change in lover, he is saying all the times he has cried over Rosaline has been in vein, when he could not of loved here truly, and just how he has suddenly got over Rosaline.

But then Romeo tell of him and Juliet wooing and their marriage, and how deeply in love they are, the Friar Laurence seems to become slightly more convinced, and he vows his alliance, mainly because of their friendship, but I think he may see a further benefit of this love, ” In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your houses rancour to pure love”. Then he offers Romeo some more advice “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast. ” Basically he is saying slowly down in your ventures, if you go to fast he will fail, nice and slow and he will prevail.

However, I think this sudden dramatic chance in lover, could of dampened the Friar’s confidence or trust in Romeo’ actions and Romeo’s love integrity, as he is shocked of his suddenly getting over his desperate love for Rosaline, as he mentions, ” Good pardon sir, wast thou with Rosaline? None of this dissuasion in Romeo’s love integrity and actions is profoundly shown, but I think it could be a possibility, due to the number of hours the Friar spent comforting Romeo for his love for Rosaline, and now for him to simply go and love another woman, this could of irritated the friar a lot.

And as the Friar is a wise and intelligent man, this would obviously make him query the reality of Romeo’s love, but still he doesn’t say this to Romeo, he merely states that Romeo could benefit also from it and it could make his dream of true love come true. So I think Friar Laurence isn’t telling the entire story of what he thinks or knows to be true. Section 2 Friar Laurence only confides his discrete marriage in the nurse, and there could be several reasons for doing so.

One reason is that maybe he only told the nurse because he wants to claim the credit for ending the long lasting feud with the two families, or maybe he simply wanted to help Romeo and Juliet, and doesn’t want to be revealed to be involved because he doesn’t want to be found out and at the brute of the blame, that the two battling families will inevitably crash down on some poor soul. There could be serious consequences for the marriage, as the thought of uniting one person from each of the feuding families in holy matrimony is laughable, because they hate each other so much.

However, on the other hand Friar Laurence could be keeping discrete so he can monitor the outcome of the families reaction, for example if the families took the marriage well, and saw the good attributes that it could have, the Friar would claim the credit for coming up with the plan to marry two of their family members, whereas if the families took it badly and they were in uproar, Friar Laurence would attempt to remain discrete and rid himself of all involvement.

But there could be many reasons for the family’s acceptance of the marriage, such the marriage reuniting the families and bring peace to the streets of Verona. Using it as an escape route out of the bloody hate that the two feuding families have shared for centuries, and bringing them together. So Friar Laurence may have foreseen the possible outcomes and done all of this in an attempt to help Romeo, but also for a greater good of bringing peace to the two main bodies of Verona.

So what if he wants o bask in the glory of the amazing feat that he could off achieved? But I believe he didn’t mention the plan to anyone else because it is a very serious matter, and as I said before their could be serious consequences if all went wrong. Section 3 scene 3 Friar Laurence conceals Romeo and sends him away in scene three. Telling no one except those concerned of his plans, and keeping his thoughts and ideas to himself. This plan of his can have many good or bad effects.

It could be a bad idea because by concealing Romeo and telling more lies, he is making things a lot more complicated. Leading to him having to wind more webs of lies, this plan also makes him a criminal, and could have some very serious effects on Friar Laurence. This however also shows the Friars loyalty and could emphasize his closeness with Romeo, helping him get away and burdening himself with the high responsibility for Romeo and Juliet’s lives.

He has taken on a huge burden, making it now up to him that everything goes all right and Romeo stays in concealed, as well as the marriage. There can be many attributes to Friar Laurence’s decisive tactics, such as saving Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, and possible their lives, because marrying them puts their lives in danger, but they could of committed suicide for being apart like they did at the end, as the Friar possibly has some understanding of Romeo’s emotions, by hiding their marriage and concealing Romeo he has proved himself very honourable.

Whilst Romeo is in hiding, Friar Laurence works furiously to negotiate between and reunite the two families but also to reconcile Romeo, which if it works would inevitably soften the blow of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, ad by negotiating the Friar could bring the two families slightly closer together, so It appears that all the Friars motives are o the highest quality, honour and loyalty, because he is putting himself at risk by trying to unite the families and trying to save Romeo and Juliet, and importantly reconciling Romeo, which puts burden and responsibility on him.

Section 3 Act 4 scene 2 Friar Laurence after much heartache and dramatically shed tears from Juliet offers a very serious proposition, and possible escape route for Juliet. This is of course the plot to give Juliet a very strong sleeping draught (potion) so she will appear dead, and defying her father and to avoid her marriage with Paris. Again this is a completely secret affair, only Friar Laurence and Juliet knowing, not even Romeo.

This plot id a very serious matter, as the outcome could go many ways, and unfortunately no one knows how Friar Laurence wanted the future of the plot to hold, he could of planned it so the two families are so sad of Juliet’s passing, that it would soften the blow when they find out Romeo’s terrible deeds, and possibly bring him reconcilement. Hopefully then their marriage to be accepted and the two families to be brought back together, because they would just be pleased with the retuning of their two relatives Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence could be keeping this a secret merely because he wants the best for Romeo and Juliet, or he could be keeping low key because h wants to see the initial families reaction, if they accepted the marriage and the families reunited, he would claim the credit and gain much glory and reward, but if they were not to take it well he would maybe deny all involvement. But of course this is not a very priestly dead to commit, isn’t his role to reveal truth and encourage honesty?

Could he be solely acting out of self-interest? Or is he doing everything for Romeo and Juliet? Either way he has not acted very priestly, but if his motives are for Romeo and Juliet, and for the future of the two families, he has acted very loyal and honourably. As the consequences of the marriage on Romeo and Juliet far excel his own, maybe he is frightened of his bigamous performance of marriage, so providing Juliet with the sleeping potion could be his method of protecting himself.

But in the past he has proved much loyalty for both Romeo an Juliet, and all others, out of no self merit or no feather reward than religious and personal satisfaction, and with this plot comes as much danger for his reputation and his life as the reward for bringing the families together, bringing Romeo back and saving the marriage.

Also the two families are both extremely powerful, he simply cannot afford to offend either, yet he is putting his life and reputation on the line to save Romeo and Juliet, but if Juliet persists with her threat to kill herself, the truth could come out and the Friar will be blamed, so he could be doing this to keep Juliet quite, or he could be doing it to save the marriage.

There is much danger involved, yet he still persists with his dramatic plot, having no escape now, he has preformed the marriage, he is very much involved now, all he can do it go forward and persist. Section 4 In act five scene 3, Friar Laurence asks Friar John to deliver the letter to Romeo, telling all of his plot and of Juliet’s deep slumber. But Friar John would no take the letter to Romeo, nor would any messenger, due to their fear of infection from Romeo, because they believe he is diseased with evil, and they do not want to catch it to be sent away.

Friar Laurence no’s that Romeo is not diseased, yet he still will not take the letter to Romeo, Friar Laurence insists upon Friar john taking it but he does not, so the letter explaining Juliet is not really dead never reaches Romeo. Instead Romeo gets the new that she is dead, Friar Laurence should of predicted this and his reaction, because he knows Romeo very well, but I think he may question Romeo’s love integrity and therefore underestimate his reaction.

The correct thing to do for Friar Laurence was deliver this important letter himself, or maybe explain in person. So this was a big mistake of Friar Laurence’s. Section 5 In act 5 scene 3 Friar Laurence has a very brief told with Friar John, asking him to deliver the letter to Romeo, and to get the crowbar, I cannot understand why Friar Laurence does not get the crowbar himself, as he is the only one that understands the urgency of the situation, and Friar John would be slow in getting it because he does not no of the rush Friar Laurence is in.

This could of delayed Friar Laurence quite a bit and could of lead t him being late. I do not believe he took him time purposely because he obviously wanted to get their before Romeo, but maybe Friar Laurence didn’t understand the urgency of the situation himself, because he could of misjudged Romeo’s reaction, so two very big mistakes. Section 6

I think it could have been fate that caused the events to occur in that way, and Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide, and that maybe Friar Laurence could have just been another victim of the events already laid of by destiny, but I believe you can change he stars and fate, and I believe that Romeo and Juliet would not have die if Friar Laurence had judged the situation correctly and arrived earlier.

But a whole series of overlaying events happened to make the final devastating deaths happen, so it could have been fate, and no matter what Friar Laurence did the same thing could of happened. Conclusion I think there are many things that Friar Laurence could and couldn’t have done to lead to this final dramatic ending. I believe he is partly to blame because he got himself involved and took the responsibility of Juliet’s life, without taking into consideration Romeos reactions.

The friar took to long to get to the tomb, and he made a huge mistake by not giving Romeo the letter in person, or explaining the situation in person to Romeo. But I think Friar Laurence had no intentions of hurting either of them, he proved himself loyal and honourable, and had very loyal motives, he put himself at risk for the better of the two families and Romeo and Juliet, but he obviously did not think through the plan enough and that makes him party to blame.

I think he could of prevented them from dying by thinking more about what he was doing and the implications of Juliet’s fake death o Romeo, but if the Friar had not been involved I think Romeo and Juliet would have just got married by another Friar, so I do not blame him for getting involved, he had no choice, because each of their feelings were so great for each other they would have done whatever it took to be together.

So Friar did a loyal good thing and married them, with the hopeful intention he might bring together the too families by doing so, but it was not his fault the feud f the families were so strong, and Romeo and Juliet’s feelings were so great they could not bear to be apart.

I think a large amount of the blame lies with the families, the Capulet’s tried to force Juliet into marrying Paris, whom Juliet didn’t love in the slightest, and with both families because they took the feud so seriously and fought any respects they might have for each other and looked upon each other with severe spite and distaste, that it was all rather petty, if their was no feud, Romeo and Juliet would not have died.

I believe Friar Laurence should not be blamed because he was a good man that only had everyone’s intentions but his own at heart, and he only wanted what was best for the families and Romeo and Juliet, he only made a few mistakes that lead to very dire consequences, but I do not blame him for those mistakes.

He may not have acted in a very religious Friar way, and at the start of the plot it was hard to see the Friars intentions and that they weren’t solely of self-interest, and that his discreetness was because he wanted all of the glory and reward, but this is not the case. I think he kept it a secret and told very few because if anyone else new word would get out and his plan of Romeo and Juliet living together happily, and the families reuniting, would be destroyed.