Friar Lawrence Is Guilty of Romeo and Juliet Death

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May 24, 2015
Let’s Call a Spade a Spade: Friar Lawrence is Guilty
There are situations in our life when guilt spreads out far and wide to all the parties but circumstances will always cry out to pinpoint on whose shoulders should the responsibility and accountability for the tragedy rest. In Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" everyone is to blame as guilt spreads out to the feuding families of the Capulets and the Montague but the bulk of the guilt rests on the shoulders of Friar Lawrence. It is a given fact that the families of the Capulets and the Montague are feuding. It is a given fact the Romeo and Juliet’s love is forbidden by their social milieu. But what is not given are the actions done by Friar Lawrence that led to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Thus Friar Lawrence must be held accountable for all his actions. Even with his good intentions, these actions led to bad results and they are the crucial links in the chain of events that led to the tragedy. Without these acts, no tragedy should have ever happened.
It is true that in the final analysis it was Romeo and Juliet who killed themselves by the knife. It was their decision albeit unwise and ill-informed and they are accountable for ending their own lives. But who gave the poison that made Romeo believe that Juliet was already dead? Friar Lawrence. Although Friar Lawrence had all the good intentions, his plan went awry. And no one is to blame for this but Friar Lawrence. He had planned this in full consciousness of the effects and with full premeditation. I quote:
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall
Like death when he shuts up the day of life. (Lines 101-103)ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Shakespeare", "given" : "William", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Cambridge University Press", "publisher-place" : "Cambridge", "title" : "Romeo and Juliet", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=a8e9663a-a782-44cd-8abe-b19afd25fd26" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Shakespeare)
Friar Lawrence is an expert on the healing and poisonous effects of plants and it was his decision to put his plan into effect. And why? Because of selfish reasons. I quote:
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valor in the acting it (Lines 120-122)ADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "dropping-particle" : "", "family" : "Shakespeare", "given" : "William", "non-dropping-particle" : "", "parse-names" : false, "suffix" : "" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Cambridge University Press", "publisher-place" : "Cambridge", "title" : "Romeo and Juliet", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=a8e9663a-a782-44cd-8abe-b19afd25fd26" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "formattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)", "plainTextFormattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Shakespeare)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" }(Shakespeare)
He hatched this plan because it was against his beliefs to marry Juliet for the second time because he had already married Romeo and Juliet in secret. It is amazing that while Friar Lawrence is trying to go against the existing social norms by marrying Romeo and Juliet he didn’t want to break his own social norm of marrying a person twice. And because of this, he plotted for the poison to work on Juliet which led to the tragic string of events. Yes you may call the tragedy an accident but all accidents have causes. Friar Lawrence cannot get rid himself of the guilt because he was the one who caused the deaths in first place.
Against the social norms of his milieu, Friar Lawrence secretly married Romeo and Juliet. Why does he do this in secret? Because he has the gall to permit Romeo and Juliet’s love to be consummated but he doesn’t have the courage to announce it to the world. He had good intentions to hope that this marriage would end the bitter fighting between the two families but never had the courage to tell the world and be accountable for his decision of marrying...