Exploring Friar Lawrence's Protagonist Role in Romeo and Juliet

This essay explores the character of Friar Lawrence in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, arguing that he functions as a protagonist within the play. The analysis highlights Friar Lawrence's crucial role in supporting Romeo and Juliet's love, particularly his efforts to marry them and his hope that their union would bring peace to Verona. The essay examines his foresight, his encouragement of Romeo, and his knowledge of medicinal plants, including his creation of the potion for Juliet. Ultimately, the essay concludes that while Friar Lawrence's intentions were noble, his plans were thwarted by fate, contributing to the tragic end of the lovers. Desklib offers a variety of resources, including solved assignments and essays, to aid students in their studies.

1FRIAR LAWRENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET
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FRIAR LAWRENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET
Romeo And Juliet is one of the best compositions written by William Shakespeare. In the
play the character of Friar Lawrence can be described as a protagonist (Mackay). The character
of Friar Lawrence is observed to be one of the primary sources of help for the young couple of
the play, Romeo and Juliet. The character plays a major supporting role in the play and helps the
leading characters of the play Romeo and Juliet get married with the intention of establishing
peace in Verona.
The central storyline of the play represents a romantic comedy. Romeo And Juliet
revolves around the love-story of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. The couple is deeply in
love. However, the Montague family and the Capulet family are at war barring the couple from
the tying the nuptial knot (Snyder). Nevertheless, the lovers are found to be uninterested in the
feud that exists between the families. Therefore, they decide to marry and they receive numerous
favors from Friar Lawrence. The Franciscan Friar represents a common friend to both the male
and the female lead characters of the play. The friar, a proper civilian, is always ready with a
plan to help the star-crossed lovers. The friar ultimately marries the young couple in the hope
that this act might help peace to settle in the city of Verona (Collins). The friar might also be
stated to have a farsighted nature which is revealed in his description of Juliet in the Act Scene 6
of the play,

2FRIAR LAWRENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET
“A lover may bestride the gossamers
That idles in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall, so light is vanity.”
[Act II; Scene vi; lines 18-20] (Levenson and Shakespeare)
The friar is very supportive of Romeo and asks him to hold patience. He encourages
Romeo throughout the play and provides him with the moral support that he needs to sail through
the difficult phases of his life. This is revealed through the words,
“Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
Or ill-beseeming beast in- seeming both!”
[Act III; Scene iii; lines 119-23] (Levenson and Shakespeare)
The friar is also observed to have a great knowledge of the medications that can be
obtained from the plants as well as the uses of them. The friar is known to have prepared a potion
which would help Juliet fake her death (Collins; Mackay). He had devised the plan to help the
lovers unite once and for all but “unhappy fortune!” had failed his plans thereby leading to the
tragic end of the lovers (Levenson and Shakespeare).

3FRIAR LAWRENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET
In lieu of the above discussion, it can be safely deduced that the character of Friar
Lawrence played the role of the protagonist in the play. The character is observed to be one of
the primary sources of help for the young couple of the play.

4FRIAR LAWRENCE IN ROMEO AND JULIET
References
Collins, Michael J. "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare Bulletin35.2 (2017): 335-338.
Levenson, Jill L., and William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. Manchester University Press,
1987.
Mackay, Robert E. "Finding a normative place for a recast restorative principle of peacemaking:
Peacemaking and conflict responses in a threefold typology of temporal focus, level of
formality and locus of conflict–with an application to Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet." Routledge International Handbook of Restorative Justice. Routledge, 2018. 98-
114.
Snyder, Susan. "Romeo and Juliet: Comedy into tragedy." Romeo and Juliet. Routledge, 2015.
73-83.