Adults have great influence over the young impressionable minds of children, especially as parents or parental figures. It is their responsibility to help lead and guide them down a safe, successful path. However, many misuse this power, intentionally or not, causing more harm than good. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet’s lives are ended early due to the poor choices made by two adults they’d trusted: Friar Lawrence and Juliet’s father, Capulet. Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths are caused by the ignorance, leading to rash decisions, of Friar Lawrence, and the abuse of parental power and unrelenting demands for Juliet from Capulet. First of all, Friar Lawrence’s plan to help Juliet was dangerous …show more content…
Then, through letters, Romeo will be informed of this, to meet her as she awakes in the tomb, and they will run away together to Mantua. His plan has many variables that could go wrong, yet he does not consider the precariousness of any of it. He does not know whether the potion will even work in time for Romeo to find her, if at all, or if it will be her groom Paris to find her “dead”, or what would happen if Romeo does not receive the letters. The fact that he never even thinks about all of these major dangers demonstrates his naïvety. As the knowledgeable adult in the situation, what he needed to do was to guide Juliet to safer alternatives, perhaps discussing with Capulet. Instead, he offered her this carelessly created plan. His failure to realize its instability and how his actions could affect Romeo and Juliet was ignorant and caused Romeo’s death. Though Romeo was supposed to receive a letter, the passage to his abode was blocked. He had only found out about Juliet’s “death” through a friend. Unfortunately, because he was not informed of the plan, he mistakenly thought she had truly passed away. Heartbroken, he found Juliet’s body, still affected by the potion on her tomb. He drank a poisonous potion so he could die beside her. When Juliet did eventually awake, she was greeted with the sight of her dead lover and stabbed herself