Why Is Friar Lawrence At Fault In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a well-known love story that ends in tragedy, a play written by William Shakespeare with the character Friar Lawrence as the culprit of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic death due to his negligence and ignorance despite his title as a Friar. Evidence of the Friar’s blame is seen when Romeo asks Friar Laurence to marry him and Juliet. Reasonably, Friar Laurence scolds Romeo for quickly disregarding his love for Rosaline and ridiculing him for not taking love seriously. Despite this, instead of convincing Romeo not to marry Juliett, he instead agrees to marry them without a second thought, Stating “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (Act II, Scene III, 90-95) The quoted text shows Friar Lawrence expecting Romeo’s request despite him already being married, as well as not thinking of the consequences that would come from marrying Romeo and Juliet, even though he is aware of the families’ aggressive hate towards each other. As a Frier, Laurence is a trusted guiding

Evidence of this can be viewed when he fails to steer Juliet away from reckless action when she threatens suicide if he can not assist her in not marrying Prince, instead, he proposes an equally, if not more dangerous plan. By sharing this plan and not thinking of the many things that could go wrong, as well as disregarding Juliet's grief, he not only sets Juliet up for failure but also fails his duties as a Friar by not guiding the grieving Juliet, even stating “O Juliet, I already know of thy grief. It strains me past the compass of my wits” (Act IV, Scene I, 47-50) this quote shows that Friar Laurence was already aware of Juliet's grief and does not know how to console and or her and not taking the attempt to try, the only thing he can hope to achieve is giving her a half thought plan that would eventually lead Juliet and Romeo to their