Examples Of Guilt In Romeo And Juliet

The Guilt of Friar Laurence Romeo and Juliet. One of the most timeless and classic plays ever written, it is a story about love, feud, and death. Two people that fall into a forbidden love, ending in tragedy. But who exactly caused this tragedy? Friar Laurence took several actions in the play that easily make him the character most to blame for these tragedies. Friar Laurence is the character most to blame for the tragic events in Romeo and Juliet because married Romeo and Juliet, gave Juliet the sleeping potion, and told no one about the plan he gave to Romeo and Juliet. The first action that the Friar did that led to tragedy was marrying Romeo and Juliet. He knew that their love was forbidden, but he still married them. Although his intentions were good, he wasn’t thinking about the potential consequences. When he was about to marry them, he said,”So smile the heavens upon this holy act” (Romeo and Juliet 2.6 1). In this quote, he is essentially blessing their marriage. This infers that he is going along with it. He …show more content…
This is most notable thing that the Friar did that led to the tragedy. Friar Laurence proposed that Juliet drinks the sleeping potion by saying this: “Take thou this vial, being then in bed” (Rom. 4.1 93). Friar Laurence was very short sighted here. He was not thinking about any consequences at all, except for positive ones. He was proposing that Juliet fake her death! There were so many things that could’ve gone wrong by doing that. This event led to her demise. Romeo hears of her “death” and goes to her tomb. When he sees her, he thinks she is actually dead, and kills himself. She wakes up, sees him lying dead next to her and kills herself. While this is not entirely the Friar’s fault, it could have been avoided if he hadn’t given Juliet the potion. In summary, Friar Laurence told Juliet to drink the sleeping potion, which eventually leads to both Romeo and Juliet’s