As we mature in life, we experience more and learn how to deal with difficult decisions, but along the way we all make mistakes. In some cases our mistakes can lead to hurting someone’s feelings or in other cases, our mistakes can be fatal. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a play focused on two star crossed lovers who take their own lives due to the unjust world they live in. Their families are in a long lasting feud and when Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love, a tragedy changes their city for the good and the bad. Living in a world where pleasing themselves and pleasing their authority doesn’t come hand in hand. Shakespeare uses time and the youth of his characters to develop the theme of individual vs. society through Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and Romeo. …show more content…
Romeo approaches the Friar the morning after him and Juliet meet in hopes that he will marry them. Knowing that marrying them will lead to trouble, the Friar refuses but shortly after he comes up with the idea, “This alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love”(2.391-92). In the rushed marriage of Romeo and Juliet, the Friar is aware the marriage will end badly, but he believes that it will help the town of Verona by solving the feud of the Montagues and Capulets. Romeo and Juliet have both just been found dead due to their marriage and their parents’ hatred. The Friar begins to reiterate the story and the causes of their deaths, ending with, “Miscarried by my fault, let my old life / be sacrificed some hour before this time / unto the rigor of severest law”(5.3.267-269). Knowing that he failed at pleasing both Romeo, Juliet, and the city of Verona, The Friar accepts the punishments that lie in front of him. Just as Juliet and Friar Lawrence struggled with maintaining their wants and the society’s wants, Romeo experiences the