Friar Lawrence, Holy Or Not?

          In "Romeo & Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet get married very quickly. This, and a few other things leads to their horrific ending. Romeo and Juliet get married after a few days of knowing each other, and Friar Lawrence marries them. Friar Lawrence is a very interesting character, because although he is a "friar", and he often guides many people religiously, and in general, he makes some very unethical decisions.
          When Romeo comes to Friar Lawrence and tells him that he wants to get married to Juliet, Friar Lawrence is surprised that Romeo had gotten over Rosaline so fast, and tells Romeo to slow it down. He says, "Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, so soon forgotten?" by which he means, 'Jeez! You got over her quickly!' Romeo informs him that he does not care for Rosaline anymore, but is the "fair daughter of rich Capulet" that now intoxicates him. To that, Friar Lawrence responds, "Young men's love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes." By that, the Friar means that Romeo is only basing his love on Juliet's looks, not her actual personality. Which, in my opinion, (sorry to you romantics out there) is definitely true. Friar Lawrence clearly thinks so, and so he is disapproving of Romeo and Juliet's relationship. He also advises Romeo, "Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast." He is telling Romeo to slow it down, and get to know Juliet a little better before marrying her. This shows that Friar Lawrence is a good, wise mentor and guide. However, during this encounter, he then agrees to marry them because he thinks it could resolve the feud between the two families. This is where ethics come into play.
          Some people might say that Friar Lawrence did the right thing by agreeing to marry them, because as we talked about in class, he did it for the greater good. Some people, like myself however, think he was partially in the wrong. I'll admit, he definitely gave Romeo a lot of advice, but it was clear that Romeo wasn't fully processing the advice, or really considering what he and Juliet were doing. Friar Lawrence told Romeo to "slow it down", but he is the one who's helping him get married. Although he does post-pone the marriage a few weeks, a few weeks probably isn't going to do much for their relationship. Since he has the power to marry, we can assume that Friar Lawrence has a fair amount of power involving the church, and that people often come to him for advice and consolation. He may have told Romeo the right things, but he didn't deliver them with much conviction, and he didn't make sure they had an impact because deep down, he wants Romeo and Juliet to get married as soon as possible. This was very unethical of him. Some people might argue that he was justified, and he did make his case, but he really didn't do all that he could. If a teacher just recited information to a class, but not a single one of them understood, that teacher would not be considered doing their job.
          Friar Lawrence is such an interesting character because although he has huge responsibilities as a "mentor", he still chooses to literally risk these two teenagers' lives to try and stop the feud. Romeo and Juliet make a lot of rash decisions, and as you go on throughout the play, they kind of snowball on top of each other. There are also a lot of people along the way who could've prevented many of the tragedies that occur during this story, and Friar Lawrence is one of them. When Romeo came to him for advice, Friar Lawrence saw an opportunity and took it. Ironically, he makes a rash decision to sacrifice Romeo and Juliet for the "greater good", and the repercussions were truly gruesome.
          Decisions are almost never just the "good" decision and the "bad" decision. Even when you try to balance things out, or make somewhat of an effort to do one thing, even when you are choosing the other, it is often the minor details that have the greatest impact, and every little decision counts. I think that was one thing that Shakespeare was trying to get us to realize: just how much every decision we make affects other people. I think it's an extremely important lesson for everyone to realize, and although this story is quite dramatic, Shakespeare eloquently displays just how one little thing can lead to another, and another, and so on and so on until you have a complete and utter tragedy.



P.S. Good luck to everyone tomorrow!!!!!