Examples Of Friar Lawrence

When one thinks of a reckless character from Romeo and Juliet they’d think either Romeo or Juliet. When they consider who is the most fallible it is either Romeo or Juliet, but the most reckless and fallible character is the presumed holy and astute Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence is the one who had the most impact on causing most of the characters’ death because of his influence on the whole city, how he made mistakes in his plans, and had an even bigger impact than Romeo himself.
Mistakes are made by everyone, but when people look up to you and hold you to a high standard, most people don’t expect errors from you. That is the situation for Friar Laurence and the city of Verona. Friar Laurence has been highly influential to the city of Verona,

The first mistake that most people would assume Romeo made was requesting Friar Laurence to marry him and Juliet “Hence will I to my ghostly friar’s close cell,/ His help to crave and my dear hap to tell” (II,ii,191-192). Romeo’s supposed mistake is rushing into the idea of marriage and that’s how he messes up, but this action would not have been a mistake if it weren’t for Friar Laurence who agrees to marry them in secrecy. The second misconception about Romeo is that it’s his fault that Tybalt and Mercutio died, and it is true that Romeo says “Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” (III,i,91), before killing Tybalt. Although if Friar Laurence had never married Romeo and Juliet, Romeo would’ve stood up for himself against Tybalt and at least one death could’ve been avoided. Another solution could’ve been the option of Friar Laurence making the marriage public would have stopped Tybalt from confronting Romeo since they would be family preventing both Tybalt and Mercutio’s deaths. Lastly some might say Romeo’s greatest blunder is his action of committing suicide. This was done because, Romeo thought Juliet was dead and couldn’t imagine being alive without her, so he drank a vial of poison. This crucial moment could have been avoided if Friar Laurence was true to his word of using Balthasar as the messenger like he said he would in act 3 scene 3 lines 171-173 “I’ll find out your man,/ And he shall signify from time to time/ Every good hap to you”. Using Balthasar as the messenger would’ve changed the ending of the story because as Friar John says in act 5 scene 2 lines 14-17 “I could not send it-here it is again-/So fearful were they of infection”, Friar John wasn’t able to get into Mantua but as it says in act 5 scene 1 lines 32 and 33 Romeo