Friar Lawrence In William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, as per usual in a Shakespearean Tragedy, it ends with the death of very many people. The star crossed lovers die, along with Paris, Mercutio, and Tybalt. The deaths of many could have been spared if not for one man. This one man not only egged Romeo and Juliet on by doing favors for them, but he also gave the sleeping potion to Juliet which is what killed the two lovers. This man is none other than Friar Lawrence. While he only tried to be the 'old wise man', what he really ended up doing is marrying the two lovers which created the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, which ended in the death of both, and then later, giving the potion to Juliet was what killed Romeo and Juliet, and because of the plan he made intended for …show more content…
He was fully aware of the feud, but he married them anyway: "Come, come with me, and we will make short work; For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till holy church incorporate two in one." He thought that marrying the two, without consent of the parents of either household, would some how end the feud. However no one knew of the wedding, and if they did most likely the houses would have another huge fight, and what ended up happening was Mercutio fought on Romeo's behalf because he refused to fight his now brother Tybalt, and when Mercutio was killed, Romeo killed Tybalt in a fit of anger and …show more content…
Although Juliet was prepared to kill herself, Friar Lawrence proposes his idea of the sleeping potion: "Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, Then is it likely thou wilt undertake A thing like death to chide away this shame, That copest with death himself to scape from it: And, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy. " The sleeping potion had a plan revolving around it, and that it would have Juliet lying in the tomb "dead" with Romeo there at her waking. However the plan did not reach Romeo and when he tried to go to the tomb he killed Paris, and went in to find Juliet. Romeo, at the sight of his "dead" lover, proceeds to kill himself with poison, and then the Friar walked in, unable to stop him. Then Juliet wakes up, and can not stand to live without her husband, tries to drink the poison from his lips, and when that fails, she takes his dagger and kills herself.

However, one could argue that the sleeping potion deaths aren't the Friar's fault, it would actually be the courier's fault for not actually getting the word to Romeo in time. However it is still undoubtedly the Friar's fault. He came up with the plan in the first place, and knowing that the only way to get word to Romeo was a single courier that did have a chance of failing still went through with this plan. Then, knowing that the courier failed did not reach the tomb in time, allowing three more deaths to