Friar Lawrence's Fault Essay Example

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare is about two teenagers that fell in love with each other. The two teenagers' families hated each other, and because of that a lot of problems arise throughout the story that tries to prevent them from being together. Out of all the people to blame in “Romeo & Juliet” by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence is the most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

In the 2nd act, Friar Lawrence agrees with Romeo to get Romeo and Juliet married to each other. Friar Lawrence says “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. 90-93).

Friar Lawrence knew it was wrong to get Romeo and Juliet married to each other because of the conflict between their families but he still agreed to get them married. Friar Lawrence was more of a father figure to Romeo in the story so when Romeo went and told him about Juliet and how he wanted to marry her, Friar Lawrence couldn’t easily disagree so he agreed to get them married. Friar Lawrence also wanted the fights between the families to stop, so on top of that, Romeo goes and asks him to have himself and the daughter of the opposing family get married in secret by him. Friar Lawrence saw it as a great chance to stop the fighting between the two families so he happily agreed.

Furthermore, Friar Lawrence gives Juliet a vial of poison that would put her in a deep sleep. According to Friar Lawrence, “(gives her the vial) Hold. Get you gone. Be strong and prosperous” (Shakespeare 4.1. 122-123). Juliet went and secretly spoke to Friar Lawrence because she didn’t want to marry Paris and she would rather die than do so. Friar Lawrence then tells Juliet of a plan that would make everyone think that she would be dead so she wouldn’t have to marry Paris and so she could spend her life quietly with Romeo. He then gives Juliet a vial of poison that would put her in deep sleep so the plan would work. Later, Romeo would find out and it would cause both Romeo and Juliet to kill themselves. In the end, if Friar Lawrence didn’t give her the poison, Romeo wouldn’t have killed himself because of him not knowing of the plan.

Finally, Friar Lawrence's letter couldn't get properly sent out. In the play Romeo & Juliet, Friar Lawrence says “ could not send it here it is again Nor get a messenger to bring it thee So fearful were they of infection. Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, The letter was not nice but full of charge, Of dear import, and the neglecting it May do much danger.” (Shakespeare 5.2. 14-20). Friar Lawrence’s letter ends up not being delivered because no messenger wanted to deliver the letter. The messengers thought that he had the Black plague so they were afraid of getting it from the letter. Friar Lawrence also said that if the letter wasn’t delivered, there would end up being a lot of danger soon. Just as Friar Lawrence said, and because the letter couldn’t get to Romeo, He ends up not knowing about the plan and he ends up committing suicide. When Juliet woke up, she saw Romeo’s dead body on the floor next to her grave. She then goes and also committed suicide after seeing Romeo dead.

Even though many different people contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, Friar Lawrence made some decisions that made the play change drastically Three things that he did to cause Romeo and deaths are: Getting Romeo and Juliet married to each other, him giving Juliet a sleeping poison, and having his letter to Romeo not properly sent out to him. After seeing all that evidence, It is clear that Friar Lawrence is the one who should be mostly blamed for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.