The Nurse and Friar Laurence are Responsible for Romeo and Juliets Death

The things most responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s death are Friar Lawrence, themselves, and the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Friar Lawrence causes the deaths of Romeo and Juliet by marrying them too quickly, advancing with his plan too quickly, and running away instead of helping Juliet. When Friar Lawrence is approached by Romeo and learns that Romeo wants to get married to a girl he met a few hours ago, he is initially shocked. He asks Romeo how he is over his previous love, Rosaline, so quickly and is unsure about allowing this union. Then, Friar Lawrence has an optimistic thought; this marriage could turn your households’ rancor into pure love (2.3.92). And with that, Lawrence decides to marry Romeo and Juliet, without a second thought. Friar John’s optimism, in this case, is his fault because if had told Romeo to spend more time with Juliet, they would have been able to confirm they were in love, not in lust. If the Friar would have waited longer, or at least let Romeo and Juliet disclose their love, Juliet would have had a reason not to marry Paris and several deaths would have been avoided.

Friar Lawrence

A while later, Juliet’s parents decide that she and Parish shall get married the next morning to help ease her sadness from Tybalt’s death. Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for help, and he tells her about a plan to give her a potion that will make her fall into a death-like sleep, and In the meantime, against thou shalt awake, / shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and he and I/ Will watch thy waking, and that very night/ shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua (4.1.113-117). With this, Juliet goes home and drinks the potion, and Friar Lawrence sends the important letter to Friar John, who gets held up and is not able to reach Romeo.

If Friar John were to deliver the letter himself before having Juliet drink the potion, Romeo would not have rushed over and committed suicide. Friar Lawrence’s last fault of the play is leaving Juliet after she had just woken to find her husband dead. Because Friar Lawrence’s letter had not gotten to Romeo, he had to rush to the Capulet tomb to wake up Juliet and hide her in his room before Romeo saw her dead. Instead of staying and trying harder to convince Juliet to come with him, he says Stay not to question, for the watch is coming./ Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay (5.3.158-159). If Friar were to stay a bit longer and convinced Juliet to hide with him, Juliet’s life could have been spared. Romeo and Juliet are responsible for their own deaths because they fell in love too quickly, they fell in love with an enemy and told no one, and they chose to commit suicide.

Nurse

During the majority of the first act, Romeo can think of no one but Rosaline, who he wanted to sleep with but she wanted to be a nun, so when Romeo shows up at the Capulet party and lays eyes on Juliet, they instantly fall in love. After Nurse tells Juliet that Romeo is a Montague, Juliet says My only love, sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me/ that I must love a loathed enemy (1.5.139-142). Juliet accepts that she should not have fallen for him so easily, but at the same time, she can not help falling so fast. Romeo feels the same way, and soon enough they are married. It is understandable that they could not exactly control how they felt for each other, but they could have tried to show some restraint by starting off slow instead of meeting and immediately getting married. In the same vein, they both acknowledged that they were in love with an enemy, but no one knew except for one another, the Nurse, and Friar Lawrence. If either of them had told their parents or a friend about their forbidden love, Juliet would not have had to try to avoid getting married to Paris., preventing Juliet from having to go through with a desperate plan.

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