Romeo and Juliet
Everywhere you look you can find pieces of tragedy. Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, is a prime example of tragedy in the classical Greek sense. This involves a character acting on a flaw and causing destruction and pain for themselves and/or other characters. Romeo, Juliet, and the Friar all display cases tragedy in this play by acting upon their flaws and causing harm in dramatic ways.
Romeo is undeniably the most tragic character in this play. Romeo shows himself to be impatient, impulsive, and overly emotional from the start. His impatience starts to show after he falls in “love” with Juliet and forgets Rosaline without a second thought. He is so eager and desperate that the morning after they confess their love
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She agrees so hastily that it shows an incredible amount of impetuosity. She further displays impulsiveness when she takes her life as soon as she realizes that Romeo is dead. Juliet is certainly deceitful in major ways throughout the play, as well. She lies to everyone in her family about her ties with Romeo, which catches up to her when she is due to marry Paris. She then lies to her family again in a much more dramatic and deadly way, when she decides to fake her death. This deceit and foolishness in the end is her ultimate demise, and her flaws all prove that her ending is a complex act of …show more content…
Though the attention seems to be predominately on Romeo and Juliet, the Friar proves to be deceitful, a coward, and oftentimes acts against his better judgement. Friar Lawrence lies to a large amount of people all throughout the play. He lies to the Capulets and the Montagues when he marries Romeo and Juliet. By doing so, he is carrying something out he knows he should not be, as the families are feuding at an extreme level. He lies yet again to the families when he constructs a ludicrous plan for Juliet and ultimately causes her to make one of the worst decisions of her short-lived life. He is a coward, plainly put. When Juliet awakes to Romeo dead beside her, the Friar makes little effort to help her and flees the scene, in fear that he will be persecuted for being involved: “I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep” (5.3.150). He then tells her that Romeo is dead and they can deal with it after they leave. He hears the guards coming and decides that being found by the watch is not worth the time and sacrifice. He says in a rush, “Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay” (5.3.158). This shows pusillanimity in the Friar which degrades the character in a major way. His lack of judgment comes out when he marries Romeo and Juliet, when he tries to help Romeo after he is banished, and at his worst, when he constructs a plan that ends
Despite his initial disapproval, Friar Lawrence agrees to secretly marry Romeo and Juliet in hopes that “this alliance may so happy prove/ to turn [their] households’ rancor to pure love” (II.iii.98-99). Although Friar Lawrence has good intentions, as he does not gain anything from the marriage, by supporting Romeo and Juliet’s infatuation, his actions will eventually create more harm than benefits, as it allows their impulsive behavior to persist. By marrying Romeo and Juliet in secret, it is evident that Friar Lawrence knows that the wedding is a bad idea, but due to his indecisive personality and the inability to make a solid choice, Friar Lawrence blindly follows through with the marriage. In addition, he does not analyze the consequences of his actions prior to his agreement to marry them, only to later express regret and warn Romeo about the dangers of their infatuated love and their impulsive behavior. Friar Lawrence’s indecisive personality is evident in his soliloquy through the excessive use oxymorons in between rhyming
sure she was ready. Though he did tell him to "woo her, gentle Paris, get her
Romeo’s actions were irrational due to the fact that he acted absurd when he quickly moved on to Juliet from Rosaline. In the play, Friar Lawrence
Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare's first authentic tragedy. It is about two lovers who commit suicide when their feuding families prevent them from being together. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot; but some have the plot revolving around them. While the character of Friar Lawrence spends only a little time on stage, he is crucial to the development of the conclusion of the play.
In Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence plays a dominate role in the eventual death of Romeo and Juliet even though he is not on stage for most of the play. There are basically three major parts that lead to the tragedy; the marriage, the plan, and the inevitable deaths in all which Friar Lawrence plays a vital role.Friar Lawrence plays an essential role in the marriage of young Romeo and Juliet. At Romeo’s request Friar Lawrence states, "In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households to pure love" (Act 2 Scene 3.) Friar Lawrence believes that this holy marriage would bring the Capulet family and Montuague family closer together, for he anticipates that the families will stop hating each other and be peaceful. His attempts to make the marriage of Romeo and Juliet are admirable but poorly planned.
After making the plan to fake her death with Friar Laurence, Juliet tells her father, “Pardon, I beseech you! / Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you” (4.2.22-23). Here, Juliet is lying to her father by telling him she will marry Paris when she really plans to fake her death. This is important because it reveals that Juliet’s eagerness to be with Romeo causes her to lie to her parents, putting the person she just met above the parents that raised her and love her very much. Not caring about how her actions will affect them may also cause conflicts later on in the play. Romeo is also deceptive to his role model, Friar Laurence. After learning that Juliet has “died”, Romeo tells Balthasar, “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars! / Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper / And hire posthorses. I will hence to-night” (5.1.24-26). Here, Romeo is being deceptive of Friar Laurence by not staying at Mantua like Friar Laurence told him to. This is important since Romeo is still banished, so going back to Verona may cause even more conflicts later in the
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
In these lines, Friar admits that Romeo is only lusting for Juliet. Being the adult, Friar shouldn't have married Romeo until he found true love. However, the Friar was immature and married them anyway. Then, Friar came up with the idea for Juliet to fake death. Juliet is distressed about Romeo being banished so Friar comes up with the plan saying, "Hold, then.
“We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us to-day.” (Shakespeare II.III. 60). Romeo’s impulsiveness is clearly shown through this quote that he states. The reason for Romeo’s impulsiveness is because he just recently met Juliet and he decides to marry her very quickly. Also this quote reveals to the audience Romeo’s hamartia. Since he is too quick and rash it will inevitably lead him to his fatal death; and through this quote you could see where Romeo went wrong and how it will greatly affect him. Furthermore Romeo leads the audience to believe that he is just infatuated by Juliet’s looks; due to the fact he was strongly in love with Rosaline and then all of sudden falls in love with Juliet and forgets about Rosaline which he claimed to be his one and only love. “Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”(II.III.65). This quote that Friar Lawrence states planted into the readers mind that Romeo might not be truly in love but rather infatuated. This tragic play takes place in fair Verona where a quarrel between two families takes place due to an ancient grudge. Both families, Montague and Capulet hate each other with a great passion. Two lovers named Romeo and Juliet are both from the two opposing families and they love and marry each other in secret without their families knowing. Because of their impulsiveness and rash decisions it causes them to lead themselves to die a tragic death. Foil characters aid to heighten or highlight an attribute in another character which furthers the plot. Romeo is heightened and influenced by secondary characters that eventually brings out his hamartia, peripeteia, and anagnorisis. These chara...
Days following, Juliet will awaken and Romeo will be there to help her run away. The Friar hopes for the best in the situation, but does not consider the drawbacks that could and will suddenly occur in his plan. He continuously tells Juliet what she wants to hear in this situation because she sees him as a fatherly figure and he sees her as his daughter. Before Juliet leaves the Friar, he tells her, “ ‘Thou hast the strength of will to sly thyself,/ Then is it likely thou wilt undertake/ A thing like death to chide away this shame,’ ” (Mackenzie 1).
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet What a fantastic story! This book had me at the edge of my seat after every page. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is the fantastic story of the romance between two younglings one from a family of the rich Montagues and the other a girl from the royal Capulets. Their love had sparked one night when there was an open party at the Capulets palace.
Romeo fights and kills Tybalt just because Tybalt slays Mercutio, despite knowing the consequence of fighting -death- he still takes it upon himself as a way to seek repentance for Mercutio’s death. He is able to restrain himself before the death of Mercutio but after his death Romeo falls to his impulsiveness and fights Tybalt. After killing Tybalt and getting banishment instead of a death sentence, Romeo refuses to look on the bright side and goes to Friar Lawrence where he says “Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’.” (Act 3, Scene 3 line 12), this shows that he deems life without Juliet life not worth living. He then continues weep then decides to take his own life, the Friar stopped him but had Romeo stopped being so quick to make decisions he would have realised banishment is much better than death and would be rejoicing instead of weeping. Romeo hears about Juliet's “death” from his servant Balthasar he instantly decides to kill himself, he doesn't mourn his loss or even cry, he simply buys poison, rides to Verona and kills himself. Had he spoken to anyone and taken any advice he would realize that suicide is not the answer but he had his mind made in a minute, he wanted to be dead with his wife. Romeo impulsiveness to make decisions is a very important characteristic for him to have and for the rest of the
He is an unstable mess by the end of the play when he is in the tomb where Juliet lies pretending to be dead because of a potion the friar gave to her. When he kills Paris and then himself the quote “ or am I mad ” ( act 5 scene 3 page 472 line 80 ) proves this by showing his unstable mental state that puts a bad influence into other people’s lives within the play with example of juliet killing herself after romeo dies. When Romeo is with Juliet he won't leave when juliet
Here in this scene Juliet had just found Romeo’s pale body lying with a dagger pierced in his heart. But what did the Friar say.? He asserted, trying to run away from the tomb, that they should leave. What more is there I ask? .. T-o-.
Romeo’s numerous rash decisions demonstrates his great impulsiveness. Romeo at first grieves over his unreciprocated love for Rosaline, but after he sees Juliet; he forgets about Rosaline entirely. His hastiness leads him to make decisions that are not intelligent or to his benefit. Shortly after meeting Juliet, he asks her to “exchange [her] faithful vow” for his ( 2.2.132). Romeo’s recklessness is evident that he does not think before he makes important decisions; prompting him to propose to Juliet just hours after their first meeting. Yet the morning before, Romeo was suffering from depression because he could never have his Rosaline. After what seems like a lifetime of loving Rosaline and promising to never love anyone but her, Romeo sees Juliet and instantaneously all his thoughts of Rosaline vanish. Romeo becomes infatuated with Juliet, with whom he exchanges less then fifty words before “falling in love.” The next morning he begs Friar L...