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Friar Lawrence Responsible For Romeo And Juliet's Death

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The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare seems to be a story with an inevitable ending, but the actions of a few characters led to Romeo and Juliet’s death. Friar Laurence is the main culprit for the lovers’ deaths. His role in the lives of the two teenagers made him a very influential person. With this power in their lives, the Friar led them onto a path which lead to inevitable tragedy, but he was not the only driving force. Friar Laurence himself believes he is at fault for their deaths and fits the criteria for being guilty of involuntary manslaughter; those being that his action caused death to occur, his actions were dangerous to human life, and he knew his actions were dangerous (Act V, Scene III, LIne 229-269). The Friar …show more content…

As a worker in the church, the Friar was always there for Romeo and Juliet if they needed advice (Act II, Scene II and Act III, Scene VI). From the beginning of the story, it is clear that the Friar knew many things about Romeo’s life. He was aware of Romeo’s love for and heartbreak over Rosaline and was one of the few people to know about his love for Juliet (Act II, Scene III). Friar Laurence was also close to Juliet. This is evident in his helping of Juliet to get out of her arranged marriage and how she would talk to him even after Juliet felt that she could not talk to the Nurse about Romeo (Act IV, Scene I, Line 44-126). This is significant because the Nurse had been Juliet’s only friend for the majority of her life and was like a close mother figure to her (Act I, Scene III, Line …show more content…

Before the plan was made to fake Juliet’s death, the Friar did things which brought about the circumstances that to the lovers’ deaths. He encouraged their relationship and married them in secret which he should not have done (Act II, Scene VI). Friar Laurence should have not allowed them to be together, or, if he felt they were truly in love, he should have told the two’s parents about their relationship. Juliet’s father was open to having Juliet marry whomever she wanted and Romeo’s father wanted him to be happy, so the families could probably try to set aside their differences if they felt the two were really in love (Act I, Scene II, Line 13-34 and Act I, Scene I, Line 146-156). This scenario would also have settled the families’ feud like the Friar wanted to do with Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. If these things were not done and Juliet was going to be forced to marry Paris, the Friar could have helped her escape the marriage another way. He could have helped Juliet leave the city or he could have refused to marry Juliet and

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