Who’s At Fault in Romeo and Juliet Essay Sample

Wise, selfless, and caring. These are common qualities of a priest. Friar Lawrence is the Priest in Romeo and Juliet; however, he lacks these qualities. This puts him at fault for the outcome of the play. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, Friar Lawrence is the primary cause of Romeo and Juliet’s death due to his selfishness, impulsive decision-making, and lack of morals.

Friar Lawrence is to blame because he marries Romeo and Juliet at the beginning of the play, conscious of the feud between the Capulet and Montague houses. When Romeo approaches Friar with his idea to marry Juliet (after knowing her for less than 24 hours), he approves of the marriage for his personal reasons.“In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, / For this alliance may so happy prove, / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (Shakespeare 2.3.97-99). In this quote, Friar explains how he will assist in Romeo and Juliet’s marriage and how their marriage will bond the Capulet and Montague households. Friar’s motivation for marrying the couple is to be the one who ended the feud between the households. If he unites the families, he will be seen as a hero. He overlooks the fact that marrying Romeo and Juliet could cause them problems in the future. He puts his self-interest above the wellbeing of the families, and this resulted in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Additionally, Friar marrying Romeo and Juliet created a very strong bond between them, the bond that eventually led Juliet to fake her death when forced to marry Paris. When she faked her death, Romeo mistakenly thought she was dead and killed himself. When Juliet awakened and found Romeo dead, she killed herself too. If Friar were not to have married them, Juliet would have been less opposed to the idea of marrying Paris. Furthermore, Romeo wouldn’t have had such a desire to kill himself to “join” Juliet.

Friar Lawrence is also at fault because he gave Juliet a death-simulating potion that ended up causing Romeo to kill himself. “If, rather than to marry County Paris, / 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 cop’st with death himself to ’scape from it; / And if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy” (Shakespeare 4.1.72-77). Juliet, being 13 years old, takes the potion from Friar and follows his instructions. Juliet trusts Friar because he is a priest, supposedly wise, and she has no better options. Friar Lawrence takes advantage of the fact that Juliet’s trust and gives her the potion, even though the plan has room for error and isn’t well thought out. This is extremely irresponsible and careless. There are many safer alternatives that would’ve both allowed her to miss the wedding and for Romeo to live. The fact that Friar’s first thought was to give Juliet this dangerous potion shows how he is not to be trusted and isn’t wise. This also goes against many aspects of priesthood. Priests should never come in contact with witchcraft and definitely shouldn’t endanger a child. This potion simulates death and to murder is against the ten commandments. Breaking one of the ten commandments as a member of the catholic faith is extremely prohibited but as a priest he could be threatened with ex-communication. As stated before, when Juliet takes the potion, it works. The news of Juliet’s death spreads, and eventually reaches Romeo by Balthasar. Romeo wants to join Juliet in heaven, so he purchases deadly poison from an Apothecary. When he arrives at Juliet’s side in her tomb, he takes the poison and kills himself. Juliet awakens and finds Romeo dead at her side. She then takes a knife and plunges it into herself with the goal of reuniting with Romeo. If Friar wouldn’t have given Juliet the potion, a reluctant Juliet would have married Paris, and Romeo and Juliet’s marriage would remain in secrecy. In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet would both still be alive.

The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are the fault of one character, Friar Lawrence. Without Friar’s selfishness, impulsive decision-making, or lack of morals, Romeo and Juliet would still be alive. In the hopes of uniting two families, he ended up killing a member of each.