The Friar's Death In The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

937 Words4 Pages

Love can be deadly, and that is the most prevalent theme In The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet. Written by William Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, the children to two feuding families, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love with each other and start a chain of events that lead to their own deaths and countless more members of their families perishing. There are many people in the story who could be the main reason why Romeo and Juliet died. The Friar, who is a holy man that married Romeo and Juliet, married them in secret, came up with the plan that caused both Romeo and Juliet to die, and left Juliet alone in the tomb when Romeo died, the person who caused the deaths of Romeo and Juliet is the Friar. The first way that the Friar is responsible for …show more content…

He decides to help Juliet escape the marriage to Paris and her family by having her drink a potion to simulate the effects of death and to have Romeo sneak her out of Verona after they bury her. This plan has multiple problems, such as: what if the potion doesn't work? What if the potion poisons her and she actually dies? What if she wakes up while they are burying her? What if Romeo doesn't show up? The Friar gives the potion to Juliet despite all of the risks, and this causes miscommunications that lead to the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Many people believe that the Friar only gave the potion to Juliet because she threatens to kill herself, and that the Friar was just trying to come up with the best plan in a bad situation. However, this does not take into account the fact that the Friar could have come up with a safer plan that does not rely on everything going exactly as planned, like sneaking Juliet out of Verona at night. “If, rather than to marry county Paris, Thou has the strength of will to slay thyself, Then it is likely that thou will undertake thing like death to elude away this shame.” (Act 4, scene 1, lines 71-74) This quote demonstrates that the Friar is giving Juliet the potion only because she is desperate enough to kill herself in order to not marry Paris,