Friar Lawrence Responsible In Romeo And Juliet

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life. (Prologue.5-6).” Most people have at least heard of the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet. What some people may not have realized is who is actually responsible for this tragedy. That person would be the ‘wise and trustworthy’ Priest, Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence is responsible for the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet because he is cowardly, selfish, and irresponsible .
In the play, Friar Laurence is believed to be the wise and responsible Priest, when in reality his irresponsibility is a major factor in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. In Act 2 Scene 3 Romeo goes to Friar Laurence in hopes that the Friar will marry him to Juliet, at this time

What Friar Laurence should have done was be the adult and tell Romeo that it was irresponsible to get married so fast and refused to marry them. And while he does express concern, “Wisely, and Slow. They stumble who run fast (II.III.94),” he still chooses to ignore his own logic. Even though he marries them with good intentions, he still at the very least has a clue that marrying them would end up having a negative consequence. All of this is what makes Friar Laurence irresponsible. In fact this irresponsibility is what pushes pretty much the entire plot of the play. If Romeo and Juliet had never gotten married the rest of the play could not have happened, meaning they never would have died.The second thing that can be seen is when, in Act 4, Friar Laurence's selfishness puts Juliet in possibly harm's way. It is Scene 1 of Act 4 when Juliet goes to Friar Laurence to figure out how to avoid a marriage with Paris, what he does is provide her with a fake poison that will make her seem dead, “Thou has the strength to “slay” thy self… take thou this vial, being then in bed… a cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse shall keep his native progress (IV.I.93-97).” Explaining to Juliet, Friar Laurence

In Act 5 Scene 3 Friar Laurence discovers both Paris and Romeo dead in the Capulet's tomb, he then notices that Juliet is just about to wake up, he tells her to run to the nunnery and hide. After doing this he quickly runs out of the tomb and leaves an obviously grieving Juliet alone with a dagger. Stopping Friar Laurence, the Prince basically interrogates him on why he left Juliet, Friar Laurence responds with, “She wakes; and I entreated her to come forth and bear this work of heaven with patience; But then a noise did scare me from the tomb (V.III.260-261).” This shows that he feels guilty for what happened to Juliet after he ran away. He deliberately chose to lie to the Prince about why he ran away. Typically people do not lie about something they are not/do not feel guilty for. Him lying also shows his cowardliness, he was afraid of being held responsible for what he knew he did wrong. Him leaving Juliet was one of the biggest mistakes he made for Romeo and Juliet throughout the whole