Why Is Friar Lawrence Important In Romeo And Juliet

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Sometimes parental figures have good intentions but end up hurting and leading their children in the wrong direction. In the tragic play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespear Friar Lawrence is a priest in Verona. Friar plays a significant part in the story as he is responsible for the marriage of Romeo and Juliet and as he acts as a mentor to Romeo. He also gives Juliet a potion that knocks her out as a part of his plan to help the two young lovers, that eventually ended up with Romeo killing himself because he thought Juliet had died. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence acts as a fatherly figure towards Romeo and does not perform his duty as mentor appropriately. Friar Lawrence had good intentions of trying to help Romeo but was …show more content…

One of the most careless acts is when Friar Lawrence finds Romeo dead body in Juliets tomb while Juliet is just waking up and he decides to flee. “Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.” (5.3.64) While Friar Lawrence does try to convince Juliet to come with her and say that he will “dispose of thee, Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.” (5.3.61-62) Juliet refuses the offer and stays with her dead husband Romeo. Further examining the facts that Friar Lawrence felt the need to run away from this situation implies that he felt responsible for what had happened. Romeo looked up to Friar as a mentor and Friar Lawrence fled from Romeos dead body and from guilt. A while later as Friar Lawrence comes back to the scene, he informs everyone of the events that had taken place over the last week. As Friar Lawrence recounts the information, he mentions Juliets nurse “Her nurse is privy” (5.3.277 Friar Lawrence is simply telling everyone including the prince that the Nurse had known everything that was going on. While the friar was telling the truth he was also throwing the nurse under the bus. The fact that the nurse knew everything was not information that he needed to share. The friar was trying to save his own skin. He figured that if the Price knew that the Nurse had also known about everything that had happened, he wouldn’t get as severely punished or punished at all. Friar Lawrence may have very well wanted to help Romeo, but he wanted to help himself more, and therefore was not a good