Friar Lawrence In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Mark Twain famously said, “Action speaks louder than words.” In the case of Friar Lawrence, this statement is true. In Romeo and Juliet, a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupted the city of Verona and caused tragic results for Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love but were forbidden to be together. Friar Lawrence secretly married them, but then Juliet’s parents arranged for her to marry noble Paris. Juliet took a sleeping potion, provided by Friar Lawrence, that made her appear to be dead for forty-two hours so she could evade marrying Paris. Romeo was to be told that she was still alive; however he was not informed, so he illegally purchased a poison so that he could be with Juliet in death. He went to her tomb, fought

The Friar is innocent because he follows through with various plans over the course of the tragedy that attempt to maintain the wellbeing of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo comes asking Friar Lawrence to marry him and Juliet, the Friar was skeptical of the intentions of Romeo’s love because Romeo was recently obsessed with Rosaline. However, he agrees to marry them because he sees the marriage as the thing that would end the feud: “But come, young waverer, come, go with me./ In one respect I’ll thy assistant be,/ For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love”(2.3.96-99). He sees that Romeo and Juliet want to be together, but he also knows that their families were rivals, which causes him to be unsure about how to handle the situation. By choosing to marry the lovers instead of just ignoring their request, Friar Lawrence demonstrates his care for the couple because even though the feud was keeping the lovers apart, he thinks marrying them would be best for their own happiness

Friar John’s alarming news that the letter to Romeo was left undelivered sends Friar Lawrence into a panic-stricken state of urgency. He declares, “Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,/ The letter was not nice but full of charge,/Of dear import, and the neglecting it/ May do much danger. Friar John, go hence” (5.2.17-20). Friar Lawrence’s desperation to correct the mishaps implies that he still remains strong in his desire to keep Romeo and Juliet together until the very end. Even though he anticipates that Juliet will wake alone and curse him for not bringing Romeo to get her, he remains loyal and promises to keep her safe until Romeo’s return. Even after Romeo’s death near the end of the play, Friar Lawrence immediately tries to protect Juliet from this awful news: “I hear some noise.-Lady, come from that nest/ Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep./ A greater power than we can contradict/ Hath thwarted our intents…” (5.3.156-159). Knowing that Romeo was dead, Lawrence’s first thought turns to Juliet. He does not want her to see her true love’s corpse because he wishes to shield her from any sorrow and anguish. His desire to keep her protected shows that Lawrence still has the best intentions for Juliet, even though her husband is dead. Some people may believe that Friar Lawrence leaves Juliet in her family’s tomb because he is afraid of