Romeo And Juliet: The Nurse And The Friar Lawrence

1046 Words5 Pages
Both the Nurse and the Friar Lawrence play a very big role and contribute negatively (the Nurse) and positively (Friar Lawrence) to the life (and death) of Juliet. The nurse blindly helps set up the marriage of Romeo and Juliet without thinking about what could potentially happen. The Friar knows to, that it is wrong but he is wise when marrying the two, but he doesn’t know what’s to come. He agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet even though he knows it’s risky. The Nurse and the Friar both mean well in everything they do for the young couple and they know they’re accessories in the marriage of the opposing families, and later their deaths as well. When Juliet tells the Nurse about Romeo, the Nurse doesn’t hesitate to help. This is mostly because…show more content…
He doesn’t have negative intentions in, he just wants these two young lovers to be together, because, unlike the Nurse, he believes their love is real. He even questions Romeo before the marriage (because of “loving” Rosaline so recently) saying “young men’s love, then, lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” (2.3.71-72). Friar Lawrence takes a little while to think about the marriage but eventually agrees to it. Most of the reason why he agrees to the marriage is because he thinks it could possibly end the feud between the families. He expresses this bluntly when he says “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households’ rancor to pure love.” (2.3.97-99). Although he says that the marriage might fix the feud, he doesn’t notify either of the families about the…show more content…
He even tries to help Juliet when he finds out about the plans of marriage with Paris. Friar Lawrence doesn’t just help because he doesn’t want to be responsible. He helps because he wants to and he truly believes in Juliet’s love for Romeo. He gives Juliet the drug to fake her death and agrees to help her out when she wakes up. He even tries to inform Romeo about the plan but when that goes wrong, it ultimately leads to her death. Even after all goes wrong, the Friar sticks to his plan and goes to the tomb to see if Juliet has awaken. When he hears people coming toward the tomb, for a second he panics and pleads for Juliet to run away with him because he does not want to be involved in the death of Romeo and the story of their marriage. When Juliet refuses, he runs off alone making him seem cowardly but he pulls though in the end when they find Juliet and Romeo newly dead in the tomb. He owns up to it at the end, when both Romeo and Juliet die. He tells everyone what happened, regardless of the consequences. This was a very selfless act because he could’ve just done what the Nurse had done and not said anything but the truth would’ve come out wither way, in the letter Romeo wrote to his
Open Document