Lander 1

Claire Lander

Ms. Woelke

Pre-AP English 9A

10 December 2018

The Friendship of Romeo and Friar Lawrence

In William Shakespeare’s eminent play, ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, ​the brave

Montague Prince Romeo and the faithful Friar Lawrence​ ​share a father-son relationship which

then cause a chain of events throughout the production. The setting takes place near the early

1300s in the beautiful city of Verona, Italy. The play is written around the lives of the

star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, their families in constant quarrel, and their tragic love

story. In the beginning of the play, the audience is told of the fateful deaths of the young couple,

although, the audience has to stay through the play to see how the lover’s lives end.

Relationships play a key role in contributing to the deaths of these young dreamers, but the

partnership which lead them to their inevitable deaths was none other than Romeo and Friar

Lawrence’s friendship. This relationship caused change in their lives, the lives of people

surrounding them, and in future incidents.

The father-son relationship between Romeo and Friar Lawrence leads to countless

alterations in their lives. Romeo plead the Friar to marry him to his love Juliet and the Friar was

shocked at how quickly Romeo’s love interest had changed, but he had a plan for the two lovers.

Friar Lawrence believed that the marriage between these two would end the everlasting feud

between the couple’s families and he agreed to marry them “In one respect I’ll assist thy be”, in

order to help the lovers and the their families(Shakespeare 2.3 97). Because of Romeo and Friar
 Lander 2

Lawrence being so close, Friar Lawrence assisted Romeo by marrying the star-crossed lovers

secretly and fight to keep the truth from their families and the community. Later on in the play,

Romeo is banished from Verona, charged for the slaying of Tybalt, and because of this, Juliet’s

parents arrange the marriage of her and Count Paris to raise her happiness. Juliet asks the Friar

for a better solution to her misery than suicide. Friar Lawrence shows her a vial of sleeping

potion which “Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death” while she is in a sleep-like state,

and soon after her family discovers her they presume her “dead” (Shakespeare 4.1 105). This

meticulous plan constructed by Friar Lawrence takes a turn into a series of unfortunate events

upon him and Romeo. Romeo does not receive the letter notifying the fake death of his love, and

is in unconditional melancholy upon the news of his wife’s so called “death”. The relationship

between the two brings many new events and changes into their lives.

Romeo and Friar Lawrence’s relationship not only affected the lives of themselves, but

also the others around them. Once Juliet’s family found her lifeless body, they broke into

miserable and sorrow crys. Her father had been so unbelievably hurt by this event that he let his

intimidating side fall when he explains ,“Death, has ta’en her hence to me wail, / Ties up my

tongue and will not let me speak”, while sobbing over his sweet child’s perishment. Juliet’s

“death” brought heaps of grief among her family. Although, Juliet was not dead because of the

potion Friar Lawrence had given her, it gave the effect that she had died in her sleep that night to

others who were not informed of the drug she took. Montague and Capulet mourn the deaths of

their children. Capulet realizes the insignificant use of the feud and reaches out to “O brother

Montague” and gestures to him “give me thy hand” to make peace with his lifelong enemy

(Shakespeare 5.3 306). Friar Lawrence brought the star-crossed lovers to their deaths by the
 Lander 3

perilous plan he had given to Juliet, which lead to the mending of the feud between the grieving

families. Friar Lawrence lead his dear friend Romeo to his perishment by the sight of his “dead’

wife. Juliet, the Capulet family, and the Montague family were all affected by the relationship of

Romeo and Friar Lawrence.

The choices Friar Lawrence and Romeo made together changed the fate of themselves

and the others around them. Because the news of Juliet’s death spread quickly, her disconcelate

husband decided to take his life next to his sweet wife’s tomb. He had purchased a vial of poison,

set off to Juliet’s tomb, and downed the poison in which, “Thus with a kiss I die”, was followed

with the death of Romeo(Shakespeare 5.3 120). If Friar Lawrence hadn't given her the sleeping

potion, the outcome of the play may have been much different. Since the Friar is so loyal to

Romeo, he wanted to help his friend in any way which lead to the solution to Juliet’s misery,

which the result of the solution was the death of his dear friend Romeo. Romeo’s sweet wife saw

her husband’s body lying next to her and she quickly decides to join her husband in the after life.

She sees the dagger she had kept for if the plan took an awful turn, and describes the dagger as

“thy sheath”, in which she picks it up and “There rust, let me die” were the words spoken before

she used her dagger (Shakespeare 5.3 175). The plan of Friar Lawrence lead to the death of

Romeo, which then turned into the suicide of Juliet. If the plan had not been enforced, the

outcome of the play would be much different. Romeo and Friar Lawrence’s close relationship

brought the fate of the two lover’s deaths.

To conclude, Romeo and the Friar’s relationship lead to much sorrow to themselves, and

their loved ones. Their friendship was healthy and loyal, but they helped each other in ways that

became sorrowful. The marriage of Romeo and Juliet, the plan for the solution to Juliet’s
 Lander 4

marriage, family feuds being broken, and the deaths of two star-crossed lovers were the results of

Romeo and Friar Lawrence’s father-son relationship.