Suicide In Romeo And Juliet

“To love is to burn, to be on fire.” - Jane Austen. This prominent quote rings true in more ways than one. While true love ignites a spark, a sense of passion and intense emotion, it can just as quickly burn to the ground and leave a pile of nothing but dust and ashes. This theme is remarkable in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, where the renounced love story of the two young lovers ends in a tragic double suicide. In this play, Romeo and Juliet fall victim to two secondary characters whose behavior contributes to their downfall and leads to their deaths. Friar Laurence’s hastiness and Lord Capulet’s inconsistent actions throughout the play ultimately hold them accountable for the downfall of young Romeo and Juliet. Friar

By doing so, he ensures that the two lovers have time to fully understand the dangers of their relationship before getting married. Instead of being patient and carefully considering what situation this marriage puts Romeo and Juliet in, Friar Laurence hastily marries the young couple, stating, “For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone / Till holy church incorporate two in one” (2.6.36-37). As a result of this marriage, Friar Laurence inadvertently puts Romeo and Juliet in a position where they must continuously hide their relationship from their families and deceive everyone around them. This situation creates many problems for the two lovers, notably after the prince bans Romeo for killing Tybalt. This ban forces Juliet to choose between her faith in her newly banished husband and her loyalty to her family. To stay with her husband, Juliet chooses to betray her family and leave the city of Verona. Had she not been married to Romeo so hastily, she would not have had to make this decision, and subsequently, she would not need to take such drastic measures to be with her lover; drastic measures that include

Young Juliet beseeches Friar Laurence to help the two lovers reconcile, begging him to reunite her with Romeo and, once again, the Friar hastily agrees to help and immediately curates a plan that goes as follows; Juliet will take a potion that makes her appear deceased and upon receiving a message from the Friar informing him about the plan, Romeo will meet Juliet at the cemetery as she wakes up, where the lovers will reunite and run away from Verona together. However, Friar Laurence creates this plan so hastily that he fails to see the risks and potential dangers. It is up to young Juliet to question his plan, saying, “What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?” (4.3.21-22). The Friar fails to question his plan and foresee the risks. His hastiness is so evident in this scene that he does not consider all that could go wrong, nor does he create a backup plan in case of faults, which shows his lack of foresight and planning. On the occasion that he pondered the flaws in his plan, Friar Laurence would have realized that there are far too many loopholes. Juliet could awaken in an empty tomb all alone, Romeo could run into someone on his way to find Juliet, and