HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/schoolsucks/romjul18.txt

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 4KB | 62 lines

By Anthony Chan 10A

            Romeo & Juliet.



    Romeo and Juliet is
one of Shakespeare's plays about tragedy.  It is about two lovers who commit
suicide when their feuding famillies prevent them from being together.  The
play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line.
 Some characters have very little to do with the plot but some have the plot
revolving around them.  Friar Lawrence does not have very much time on stage
but the time he does have is crucial to the plot line.  Through his words Friar
Lawrence demonstrates the he is a good intentioned, yet sometimes short-sighted,
man who is not afraid to take risks to help others

One of Friar Lawrences
most favourable traits is how good intentioned he is.  He may do something
out of the ordinary if he thinks the outcome will help someone he cares for.
 For example, when he says "In one respect I'll thy assistant be; for this
alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households rancour to pure love."(Act
2, Scene 3), he is saying that the only reason he will marry Romeo and Juliet
is because he hopes that the marriage will end the hostilities between the
two houses.  When he says "Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither
shall he come; and he and I shall watch thy waking, and that very night shall
Romeo bear thee to Mantua." (Act 4, Scene 1), he tells Juliet how everything
will be all right.  Unfortunately, for all his good intentions the play still
ends in tragedy.

Friar Lawrence is a man who is not afraid to take risks
when he feels it is neccesary to help someone.  For example in Act 2, Scene
6, when he marries Romeo and Juliet, he is risking his reputation as a Friar
so he can help the two lovers.  Also, when he says "Take thou this vial, being
then in bed, and this distilled liquor drink though off;" (Act 4, Scene 1),
he is suggesting that Juliet drink a potion so that she might feighn her own
death and avoid marrying Paris.  This is an extremely risky thing to do because
anything might happen to Juliet while she unconscious.

Even after all Friar
did to help Romeo and Juliet the play still ended in tragedy because of Friar
Lawrences' short sightedness.
When the Friar married Romeo Juliet in secrecy,
he did not think of all the complications that would arise but instead went
on with the marriage because at that time he thought it was the right thing
to do.  In Act 4, Scene 1, he gave Juliet a sleeping potion without thinking
of the possible outcomes of such an outrages plan.  He admits that much of
the fault of the tragedy lies in his hands when he says "And her I stand both
to impeach and purge myself condemned and myself excused", and  when he say
"Her nurse is privy; and, if aught in this miscarried by myself..." (Act 5,
Scene 3).

Although Friar Lawrence does not have an especially large role,
his role is none the less important.  It is because of his good intentions
that he was willing to help his friends that Romeo and Juliet were married
- a key event in the play.  It is because of his willingness to take risks
for his friends that Juliet aqquired the sleeping potion - another key event
in the play.  Finally, it was the shortsightedness of his actions that in part
led to the deaths of the two lead characters.  This demonstartes that Friar
Lawrence was a man who was a man with good intentions who was willing to take
risks to help his frieneds.  If he had been any other way, the play might not
have turned out the way it did.