Although Friar Lawrence’s intentions were good, his decisions and actions were the sole cause of Romeo and Juliet’s death. Do you agree? Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the story of two young lovers who fall for one another only to realise that due to the feud their families’ share their love is destined for destruction. With all good intentions the minor character, Friar Lawrence was one of, but not the complete cause of their tragic end. There are three dominant aspects of their deaths, the feud between the two families, Friar Lawrence and most importantly, fate.
Indeed, one could view Romeo and Juliet as a transitional play in which Shakespeare merges the comedic elements perfected in his earlier work with tragic elements he would later perfect in the great tragedies -- Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. This mixture of styles ultimately hurts Romeo and Juliet, exposing the immaturity of the playwright. The heroes of the play must contend with external forces that impede their relationship, but, unlike the great tragic heroes, they are devoid of the inner struggle that makes for great tragedy. The influential Shakespearean scholar, A.C. Bradley, went so far as to neglect the play entirely in his well-known collection of lectures on the great tragedies, Shakespearean Tragedy. While no one can deny the merits of Shakespeare's powerful, inspired verse, the themes Shakespeare stresses in Romeo and Juliet also seem to reflect his immaturity as a writer.
He talks to himself about many things, but the main theme is theduality in any situation, meaning how something bad can so easily be turnedto good, and vice versa. While he seems to be focusing his entire speech tohimself on this idea, Friar Lawrence so easily contradicts it only a fewscenes later, when he marries Romeo and Juliet. By marrying the youngcouple, Friar Lawrence is not even following his own ideas, because eventhough marrying Romeo and Juliet is a good act, doing it so hastily makes it abad one. This ties in to another, closely related one of Friar Lawrence’sideas, which is that a good action done in a bad way can form a bad action, ashe says: “Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied…” (II.ii.17). This againshows that the good act of marrying Romeo and Juliet, if done wrong bydoing it too quickly, can become bad act.
Friar Lawrence makes fun of Romeo saying that young men only love what they see. They do not love with their hearts but with their eyes and thoughts. Their love is shallow and superficial. He questions whether Romeo shed a single tear for Rosaline before moving on. Friar Lawrence brings out Romeo’s fickle minded nature by showing how he falls in love with a new woman, Juliet, in a very short time frame.
Romeo managed to swear his love for two women - Rosaline and Juliet - in one night, which only proves how impetuous he is. However love is not the only emotion that causes Romeo to make groundless decisions. When Mercutio tries to pick a fight with Tybalt, Romeo, trying to soothe the fight, interferes, and in result, Mercutio gets killed under his arm. While dying, Mercutio says "Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm" (3.1.105-106).
Three critical character in the play that completely display a character flaw are Hamlet with his over- thinking nature, Ophelia with her emotional weakness and Polonius with his absolute loyalty to the king. One of Hamlet’s most popular character flaws is that he over thinks matters of controversial value, and situations in which actions need to be taken. The most important part of the play, where Hamlet displays his flaw of over thinking matters, is when he is about to kill King Claudius. He ultimately does not go through with the plan, and says that he could not kill Claudius when he was in confessional because then Claudius would go to heaven, and that would not conclude in revenge. Hamlet also demonstrates his flaw when he says “That would be scanned,”(Shakespeare III.iii.76) which basically means that he wants think more about the situation at hand, before following it through.
Also in the play Tybalt was basically asking to be killed because he started with them for no reason. Before Romeo killed Tybalt Lord Capulet actually liked Romeo and Tybalt wanted him to not make him like him anymore and it worked. And now Juliet has to lie to her father about everything and how she wants to marry Paris but she really wants to marry Romeo. So Tybalt basically ruined everything that Juliet wanted. Yes, Romeo does help us see them as complex human beings because it puts together how Tybalt and everyone else in the story and how they are all connected and how they all are different in the
Friar is Not Neutral In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence is a key character since he is partly responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet by providing them assistance; making him a character that is not neutral in the story. Friar Lawrence hesitantly agrees to marry the couple after advising Romeo that these “violent delights have violent ends” therefore asking the couple to “love moderately” (II. vi. 9/14). He understands that this marriage is based upon an impulsive decision made by the couple since he knows how Romeo reacts to love.
Shakespeare presents the concept that deceptive decisions lead to tragic events. Romeo’s rapidly changing character makes irrational and unwise decisions which link up to a strong and prominent theme in the play; deception. Through Romeo’s character Shakespeare juxtaposes true love against infatuation, he does this by showing his melancholy state over his loss of his infatuation Rosaline, then shows how he has found “true love” with his “bright angel” Juliet through his poetic dialogue, although they are from feuding family’s they decide “what’s in a name”, and she implores him to “doth thy name” and “swear by the god of [her] idolatry”. Shakespeare shows the changing of Romeo’s moral compass throughout the play, he goes from an elated state of mind as life was perfect with “thee”, and then, as the “plague on both (their) houses” is begun by the death of Mercutio, Romeo’s unchecked emotions cause him to commit the disloyal act of murdering his wife’s cousin, Tybalt. Despite of his blundering, Juliet see’s this only as dreadful because of his “banished”.
To Love or Not to Love The greatest loves have the most tragic endings. Love is something that everyone desires, and most people will do anything to obtain it. Once they have it, they will to anything to keep it. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare demonstrates how youth and inexperience, when combined with love, can lead to impulsive decisions that result in tragedy. Romeo’s rash actions, Juliet’s fast-paced response to love, and their fatal choices tragically end their lives, showcasing the unfortunate outcome of their quick actions.