Friar Lawrence Responsible For The Deaths Of Romeo And Juliet

Davidovich 1
Jesse J. Davidovich
Mrs. Rudolph
English 9-7
25 April 2023 Lawrence did it!

Friar Lawrence's poorly put together plan, as well as his cowardly and untrustworthy actions, were ultimately the sole cause of Romeo and Juilets deaths. “The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare is a Tragedy play in which two young lovers in a 15th century Verona fall in love, but must keep it a secret because they both come from two warring families. Friar Lawrence in the end is responsible for the suicides of both Romeo and Juliet, who were both greatly influenced by him, making him more responsible for their deaths than anyone else in the tragedy.
One of many reasons as to

Juliet has just woken up from the sedative, and has found Romeo dead on the ground after poisoning himself, Friar Lawrence is present when this happens and tries to tell Juliet to get out of there with him, but when he hears the approach of the nightwatch, he panics, tells Juliet to leave, and when she refuses, he doesn’t try to further reason with her, and he leaves her there. “For the watch is coming, come, go good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.” (Shakespeare-5.2.158-159). Leaving Juliet alone with her dead husband was ultimately the worst thing Lawrence could have done, because without the guidance of the Friar, and with her emotions heavily influencing her, she decided to kill herself. If Friar Lawrence would have stayed to help her, and if he would have further reasoned with her, she would most likely have not killed herself. So since he did not help her, she had no one to stop her from killing herself. This piece of evidence greatly supports the Friars responsibility in the deaths, as well as this next piece. The Friar has just pleaded with Juliet to leave and says he dare no longer stay, without further reasoning with Juliet, he leaves, even with Juliet telling him to leave, saying she would not leave. “Go- get thee hence, for I will not away”

Some may argue that he had good intentions and did what he deemed necessary when helping the two lovers. These opposers may feel he did it all with good intentions, but if Friar Lawrence really wanted to help them to the best of his ability, he could have taken the time to more carefully think his plan through more, because it all ended up failing miserably. The fact that he was all ready to give up the plan to save Romeo and Juliet just to save himself in the tomb really proves that his so-called “good intentions” were not so good after all. Even after finding out that Romeo doesn’t know about the plan, he makes no major effort to inform Romeo himself, causing Romeo to kill himself over a reason that was not even true. “then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in capels monument, and her immortal part with angels lives” (Shakespeare-5.1.17-19). Since Romeo has been misinformed, and the friar knows about it, he could have saved Romeo's life if only he had gone to look for Romeo before he killed himself, but they never once seemed like something he thought he could do. This was such a preventable tragedy and clearly the Friars actions in this situation were not very smart ones. Since Romeo is greatly impulsive and is easily saddened, the friar could have taken much more alert to this, and since he