Friar Lawrence Is To Blame In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet many people try to pinpoint the ultimate cause of Romeo’s and Juliet’s death. Some blame Friar Lawrence, others the nurse, and some their families’ feud. While still some blame Romeo and Juliet themselves. A reason for placing the blame on the two teenagers is because of the type of lovers Romeo and Juliet are. When classified using the taxonomy of love,Romeo is a Manic Lover, while Juliet is an Eros Lover. Their taxonomy is ultimately why their deaths rests with themselves.

Romeo exhibits many of the qualities of a Manic Lover. Manic lovers are often depicted as someone who is not in control of their own feelings. Throughout the play Romeo can be seen losing control of his feelings. For instance when he’s in Friar Lawrence’s cell (II.ii.70-73) he states, “Doting like me, and like me

Eros lovers are often seen someone who idealizes their love a lot. This trait can be demonstrated when Juliet states “Give me my Romeo and when he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.”(III.ii.20-31) In this line Juliet romanticizes Romeo by calling him so beautiful that when he becomes stars, no one will like the day but they will instead love the night. She is exaggerating Romeo’s appearance because that's exactly what Eros lovers do. Another characteristic of Eros lovers is that their love begins with a partner who is a stranger. This quality is shown when Juliet first meets Romeo at the party and falls in love with even before she knows who he is. She even states this, “My only love sprung from my only hate!Too early seen unknown, and known too late!”(I.v.138-139). Juliet states that she fell in love with her enemy and how she fell in love not knowing who he was, which demonstrates the “love at first sight” trait of an Eros