Friar Lawrence's Death In Romeo And Juliet By William Shakespeare

Sometimes the best love stories end in tragedy. In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, the main characters who are married both die horribly. The character who is most to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death is Friar Lawrence because of his selfishness and sloppy plan executions. First of all, the Friar could have told the prince about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage after Romeo’s banishment. Because Romeo murdered Tybalt, the prince forbid Romeo from entering Verona (act 3 scene 2). If the prince knew about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, he may have taken pity on Juliet since she didn’t have her husband to take care of her and would likely pardon Romeo. Romeo could have come back the Verona and his marriage with Juliet would be official.

You can see Romeo’s impetuosity throughout the book, like when he slays Tybalt right after Mercutio is murdered without thinking about the consequences (act 3 scene 1). Or when he so quickly becomes obsessed with Juliet and wants to marry her within hours of meeting her (act 2 scene 1). So it’s no surprise that Romeo is so quick to decided to commit suicide when he thinks Juliet has died. However, this Friar Lawrence knew how rash and heedless Romeo was. At Juliet’s funeral, Friar Lawrence likely saw Balthasar but didn’t chase after him. If he had stopped Balthasar, Romeo wouldn’t have thought Juliet was dead and wouldn’t have killed himself. Even if the Friar didn’t see Balthasar at the funeral, knowing how Romeo would react if he thought Juliet was dead, he could have gone to Mantua himself to tell Romeo of the plan instead of sending Friar John. This would have made sure Romeo received the message. As you can see, Romeo’s personality should not be condemned for the tragedy at the end of the play because Friar Lawrence knew about Romeo’s spontaneousness but didn’t take any precaution for it would surely be to much trouble to simply travel to Mantua himself, being the haphazard person he