Why Is Friar Lawrence Important In Romeo And Juliet

In literature, characters are incorporated into the work that both help the characters and hinder the characters. This is the case with William Shakespeare’s tragic play Romeo and Juliet. The play is about two lovers who are from feuding families, and eventually take their lives. The character in this case is Friar Lawrence, a religious monk who people of Verona look to for guidance. In the play, Shakespeare uses the character of Friar Laurence to create a figure that is both helpful and detrimental, by being a fatherly figure to Romeo and making mistakes, respectively, to the characters of the play.

Friar Laurence’s actions to help Romeo in the play shows how he is important as a parental figure. When Romeo tells Friar Laurence that he has

Friar Laurence marries off Romeo and Juliet, thinking that it might end the feud. Romeo and Juliet want to get married, and go to Friar Laurence to marry them. Friar Laurence: “For this alliance may so happy prove, / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (33) Friar Laurence: “These violent delights have violent ends, /And in their triumph die; like fire and powder” (41). This is a major mistake on Friar Laurence’s part. He marries Romeo and Juliet off in hopes that the feud might end. He seems at first unaware of the consequences that the secret marriage might entail. However, in the scene where he marries them, he hints that he is actually aware but he will ignore the consequences in the hopes that the marriage will be beneficial and end the feud instead of make it worse. Friar Laurence gives Juliet the vial of poison but does not consider what might happen if the plan goes wrong. Also, when Juliet does not want to marry Paris and she goes to Friar Laurence for help. Juliet: “Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help! … Tell me…Friar…how may I prevent it” (68) Friar Laurence: “Hold, daughter: I do spy a kind of hope, /Which craves as desperate an execution/…If…rather than to marry County Paris, Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,/Then it is likely thou wilt undertake…Take thou this vial…When the bridegroom…comes…there art thou dead [for 48 hours]”