Friar Lawrence Is To Blame

When tragedy strikes, people often look for somebody to blame. In William Shakespeare's play Romeo & Juliet, Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet themselves and the feud between the Capulets and Montagues are to blame for the tragedy of the two lovers. These two both die because of a series of chain events mainly caused by these three reasons. Firstly, Friar Lawrence plays a large role in leading to their deaths, as he agrees to marrying the two without thinking it through and only thinking about what will come out of it for himself. Friar Lawrence is also quite irresponsible and makes unorganized plans, thinking impulsively and on the spot. Secondly, Romeo and Juliet are young lovers, meaning they are also irresponsible and quite childish. Lastly,

Friar, surprised how fast Romeo gets over Rosaline impulsively agrees to marry them. Thinking if he marries the two new lovers it will end the feud between houses, and he will be praised for his actions. He shows this when he says, “Thy love did read by rote and could not spell. But come, young waverer, come, go with me, In one respect I'll thy assistant be; For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households' rancour to pure love.” (Shakespeare 2.3, 88-92). Here, Friar states he will marry the two new lovers because he thinks it will end the family's feud for good. Secondly, Friar Lawrence makes an unorganized plan after Romeo is banished to Mantua for murdering Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. Friar makes a plan for Juliet and Romeo to be together but it is a risky one. His plan is for Juliet to take a potion and fake her death, the potion will send her into a deep sleep for 40 hours. While she is asleep, Romeo will receive a letter from Friar to know to sneak into the Capulets monument and he will be there when Juliet arises from her slumber. The plan was made so Juliet will not have to marry Paris as her parents wish and she will be able to run away to Mantua with her true love, Romeo. Instead, Juliet took the potion a day too early, as she was supposed to take it on Tuesday night. Friar did not have time to send Romeo the letter, so he had gotten the dreadful news that his

One example is, the way Juliet acts when the Nurse comes from seeing Romeo and has some news for Juliet. Juliet acts childish and yells at the Nurse to tell her the news. As shown here in the text, “Here's such a coil! come, what says Romeo?” (Shakespeare 2.5, 65). Juliet is acting quite childish, being very impatient while waiting for the news the Nurse carries from Romeo. Showing how she is very childish and should not be making decisions on the spot and have adults encourage her to do so. Another example is, when Romeo in the start speaks on how he is in love with a Capulet, Rosaline. Though he had never talked to her, he is in love with her looks. He then sees Juliet and automatically falls in love with her and forgets about Rosaline. This shows how he is also childish and is only falling in love with their looks, not their personalities or traits about them. Lastly, Romeo and Juliet met and ‘fell in love’ in the exact same night. Romeo goes to Friar Lawrence the next night and asks him to marry the two of them. Which is just another impulsive decision of the two young lovers. These prove that the childish actions of Romeo and Juliet also help lead to their