Friar Laurence Is The Cause Romeo and Juliet Death

a tragic love story between two protagonists that come from different families. Romeo and Juliet met at a banquet and immediately fell in love, wanting to get married after knowing one another for less than a day, which led to their demise, and that of many others. Friar Laurence is the cause of Romeo’s death, because he agreed for Romeo and Juliet to marry in secret, created a potion for Juliet that would make her seem dead, and could not successfully get his message to Romeo to keep his death from happening.

Friar Laurence is the cause Romeo’s death because he agrees to marry him to Juliet in secret. When Romeo sees Juliet at her family’s banquet, he immediately falls in love with her, and Juliet shares the same feelings. Romeo then tells Friar Laurence he’s forgotten about Rosaline and has fallen in love with Juliet, the Friar advises Romeo to take it slowly and not make decisions too quickly. He is shocked Romeo got over Rosaline so quickly, but later decides the two should marry because he thinks it’ll help end their family feuds.

The play says “These violent delights have violent / ends / and in their triumph die, like fire and powder’ (Romeo and Juliet 2.6.9-11). Friar Laurence thinks the love between Romeo and Juliet is only infatuation and extreme passion that would not last long. However, Friar does not act accordingly to his own advice; “Wisely, and slow. They stumble that / run fast” (Romeo and Juliet 2.3.102-103), and still approves of the marriage between Romeo and Juliet, getting them secretly married within the following day, as the play says “…I’ll thy assistant be; / For this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (Romeo and Juliet 2.3.97-100).

This shows how even though Friar’s intentions were peaceful, since he hoped the marriage would end the feud between the families, marrying the two in secret caused more trouble because since Capulet did not know Juliet was married to Romeo already, he arranges for Paris to marry Juliet and tells her to prepare for the wedding the day after. Therefore, instead of advising Romeo and Juliet to be more patient and bringing up the thought of marriage to their parents, Friar Laurence agreed to get the two married, in secret. Since the two were married and nobody was informed, it resulted in bigger consequences later on,  proving that Friar Laurence is at fault for Romeo’s death.

Friar also made a potion for Juliet that would make others think she was dead, which led to Romeo thinking she was actually dead, and made him want to kill himself. When Capulet arranges for Juliet to marry Paris, Juliet said she would preferably die than marry Paris and be an unfaithful wife to her husband, Romeo, as it says in the play “Be not so long to speak. I long to die / If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy’ (Romeo and Juliet 4.1.73-74).

Because Friar Laurence is the priest, he knows he cannot marry Juliet to two men, so he had to think of a plan to help Juliet, showing how secretly marrying Romeo and Juliet was a bad idea. When Juliet approached the Friar after Romeo was banished, she made suicidal threats, which made the Friar reply urgently by saying, “Hold daughter! I do spy a kind of hope, which craves as desperate an execution as that is desperate to prevent” (4.1, 68-70), causing him to come up with an irrational idea to satisfy Juliet.

The Friar should have figured that Juliet’s suicidal threats were only vile acts of confusion caused by overwhelming emotions. He was wrong to have advised a minor to lie to her parents and fake her death. Friar Laurence then made very careless actions to ensure that Romeo got the message that explained his plan. Friar Laurence had Friar John bring the letter to Romeo in Mantua. He encounters some difficulty along the way and returns back to Verona without successfully delivering the letter. Romeo now has no chance of knowing Juliet’s death was faked and is on his way to her grave with the poison he bought from the apothecary.

This shows how Friar Laurence’s plan was poorly planned out, and he is responsible for Romeo’s death. Friar Laurence could have personally deliver the letter to Romeo himself, that way he could confirm that Romeo knows about the plan. Friar could have also informed Balthasar, Romeo’s faithful servant, the plan and have requested for him to deliver it to Romeo. Since Balthasar saw Juliet’s funeral, he goes to notify Romeo. Due to the unreceived message, Romeo thinks what Balthasar said is true and thinks Juliet is dead. In numerous ways, Friar Laurence could have stopped this from occurring.

Friar Laurence plays a big part in the death of Romeo because he secretly marries him to Juliet, since he thought it would end the family feud, without thinking of the consequences that may arise later on. He then gives Juliet the potion which made Romeo think she was dead, and fails to deliver the letter to Romeo, so he kills himself. Even though his heart was in the right place, his actions disregarded the chances that many things could go wrong.

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