Is Friar Lawrence To Blame In Romeo And Juliet

In the play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence is mostly to blame for the tragic outcome of this play. Shakespeare uses this character to push the plot forward and develop themes like, forbidden love is impossible to overcome and going into things without thinking will have major repercussions.

In this play written by William Shakespeare he uses the priest, Friar Lawrence as the main cause of the tragedy in the story. This can be proven with many of the actions done by the priest throughout the story. First of all, Shakespeare writes, “FRIAR- O, she knew well Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell. But come, young waverer, come go with me. In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; For this alliance

Others might argue that it is mostly Romeo’s fault for the tragic end, because of his reckless actions and not thinking anything though. In the text we can see his reckless actions, “ROMEO- I do protest I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise Till thou shalt know the reason of my love; And so, good Capulet, which name I tender As dearly as mine own, be satisfied. … MERCUTIO- Come, sir, your passado! ROMEO- Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons. Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage! Tybalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath Forbid this bandying in Verona streets.” (III,i,65-85) Romeo tries to stop Mercutio and tybalt from fighting instead of helping Mercutio which gets his friend killed. He tries to stop them from fighting because tybalt is now Romeo's brother in law and he does not want either one to die. Romeo would have most likely not done this if Friar Lawrence had not married Romeo and Juliet earlier that day, making Romeo and Tybalt brother’s in law. Another quote that could be used to argue that Romeo was the main cause of the tragic ending is, “A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear Aw will disperse itself through all the veins That the life-weary taker may fall dead.” (V,i,60) As soon as Romeo finds out that Juliet is “dead” he decides he is going to but a poison to kill himself. Even though Romeo is extremely irrational with this decision,