Critical Lens Essay (Friar)

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In Romeo and Juliet, the Friar has to choose between what is right and what is wrong. Should he marry the two or not? The Friar relates to a character from a movie I have seen. The movie is called Nick Of Time. The movie talks about a man named Gene Watson and he has to go through the same thing as the Friar. He has to choose either to work with a leader to help plot a plan to assainate the mayor or let his daughter die.

The Friar would face the consequences if he chooses either one. If he marries the two, then he would feel guilty of marrying rival families. If he doesn't, Romeo and Juliet's love would go down the drain. Either way, he would feel like what he has done was the wrong thing to do. The Friar has the toughest decision out of anyone in the whole play.

In the movie Nick Of Time, Gene Watson would face the consequences no matter which he chooses. If he chooses not to assainate the mayor, his daughter would be dead. If he did choose to assainate the mayor, he would have killed the powerful leader of the city and he would be a wanted man.He is risking his daughter's life, but also the mayor's too. He is very confused.

The Friar and Gene Watson have a difficult choice to make. Each have a loved one's life at risk. The Friar's is his faith and Gene Watson's is his daughter's. If I were in their position, I would panic. But the situations that they are in are a difficult decision to make. Can you choose between apple and orange? Can you choose between faith and anger? Can you choose between your daughter or the mayor?

We have so many difficult choices to make. This is the most challenging yet. The Friar should marry Romeo and Juliet because he wants two children to be happy. Gene Watson should assainate the mayor because I would never let my child die.The movie and the story both have an ending no one should miss. See if my prediction came true to the two decisions made.

Should Friar Lawrence Wed Romeo and Juliet Secretly?

Friar Lawrence is one of the main characters of the play although he is not a round character he plays a major part on Romeo and Juliet. He is mainly fond of Romeo and wants the best for him and as well for Juliet. He wants to help both of them but one of his main interest are in uniting the two families the Capulet and the Montague. He takes a large part in the play as he is a priest who is very close to Romeo. Romeo has always searched for Friar Lawrence when ever he was in need of help or in of advice. As always Friar Lawrence accepted to help Romeo.

This time Romeo had asked Friar Lawrence to marry Juliet and himself, since he was a priest. He accepted and was going to wed Romeo and Juliet to help them get together and hope for the families to unite. The controversy here is does he have the right to wed them secretly? It is viewed different by everyone but I ultimately believe he doesn’t have the right unless he is wedding to people who are in love and have the consent of other people. If people aren’t allowing them to marry them they must have a logical explanation. In this case both the Montague family didn’t get along with the Capulet family.

This couldn’t be a good enough reason for Juliet and Romeo to not be wed, but also there age they are only teenagers. Both Romeo and Juliet are young teenagers just at the point of blooming. There still a young seed waiting to be fully blossomed. They don’t have real reasoning to marry each other just because they believe they love each other and want to spend the rest of their life together in unison. They are teenagers how could they seriously fall in love with each other in a matter of a short time when they have only exchanged a sum of a few words. Really what is the odds of there love lasting sooner or later things change because neither family would want them together.

Romeo and Juliet’s wedding isn’t reasonable or even rightful for Friar Lawrence to marry them. Friar Lawrence as wise as he is and thoughtful wanted the best for all he needs to realize other factors put out there. Romeo is asking him to wed him and Juliet to keep there love together. Friar Lawrence, he even believes Romeo is only infatuated by Juliet, he isn’t even sure if they are truly in love with each other. Friar Lawrence is only wedding them because he wants to ultimately please Romeo and unite both the Montague and Capulet. He isn’t even completely reasonable about his doings since he is only wedding them for a different reason then “true love”.

With this I conclude Friar Lawrence has no real reason to wed these two people who are probably not even in love with each other that possibly only have physical attraction towards each other. This can be very controversial since there isn’t a real way to examine Juliet and Romeo’s true love, if its only just a teenage love that will pass by or more then that. With people having a different view on love and if Friar Lawrence is wedding Romeo and Juliet for the right reasons or not. I believe if he weds them he is only causing more chaos for the families and even Friar Lawrence for wedding two young ones who where supposed to never wed each other because of there family.

I really do not think that the Fria is doing the right thing with marrying Romeo and Juliet without Romeo and Juliet even thinking this through. Romeo and Juliet fell in love with each other in a manner that I find really unrealistic. People just can’t fall in love at first sight. Love is something that is developed. What Romeo and Juliet had was something I call “lust at first site”, which is basically falling in love with their first impression. Romeo and Juliet definitely rushed things.

First off, their families are mortal enemies, and if they’re family found out about their love, I think that a war would start between the families. Which leads me to thinking that that’s why Romeo and Juliet sort of rushed things. I think they thought that if they would get married, their families wouldn’t be able to do anything to take them apart. In reality, Romeo is destined to be banished and Juliet has to be wed to Paris, whom she does not like.

However, the Friar takes part in a pretty serious mistake. He was going to go through with Romeo and Juliet’s request to get married. Sure, he’s not outwardly doing wrong, but taking part of it is wrong. Does the Friar have the right to marry two lovers (one a criminal, one destined to marry another) in secret? Romeo and Juliet SAY that they are in love, but let’s face it. Romeo and Juliet met, and they were instantly in love. Again, being a person that doesn’t believe in love at first sight, I have to say that’s pretty unrealistic.

It’s wrong because the Friar is not ignorant as well. He KNOWS that Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet is a Capulet. He knows that the two families Joseph, you deserve to be blown by me each other, and that Romeo and Juliet hadn’t talked to their families about they’re love. I’m pretty sure he knew that Romeo and Juliet had just met. Besides, Romeo and Juliet were just teens. They know nothing about love! They wouldn’t know about commitment and things about marriage. They're really young and should think these things through.

Was it Right for Friar Lawrence to Have Wed Romeo and Juliet Secretly?

In my opinion as a priest you do your job as marrying two people that are in love. However, they are of young age and needed their parents consent to marry. Most importantly they are too young to marry in the first place. I really dislike the idea that their love was love at first sight. I really think you should get to know someone then marry not just the way they look. what about if they ended up together and found out that they were way too different and their relationship is not going to work out because they didn't get to know each other. Love develops it just doesn't happen just by looking at someone.

As a priest Friar Lawrence should know what is right and what is wrong. He follows what he believes. Also I am not saying that he wasn't truly religious. Yet, I think a faithful believer wouldn't do that. Doing something behind your parents back isn't right and he should have known that. But we are no one to judge a priest. You might think as a priest one who is almost perfect the example to others to do what is right. But I guess thing happens where there must be exceptions. No one is perfect. The priest might always feel that it wasn't right but eventually his powerful being will forgive him.

The priest might have thought that no one had the right to interfere with their love. No one has the right to tell you who you should marry or not. Their parents had a strong rivalry and the priest knew that their parents wouldn't have allowed of such thing. I don't think that wedding them secretly was the best thing to do but at desperate times calls for desperate measures. Their parents were never ever going to approve of their marriage and decided to take matters into their own hands.

During that time period people got married at a young age either way. People didn't live that long and if they thought they were marrying the right person they were going to do it. They had a short time and had to take advantage of it. I believe if the priest thought it was the right and best thing to do then there's nothing anyone can say or do about it. He must know what he is doing if he is so religious.

Overall, things are already done and you can't change them. I know that your parents only want the best for you but they were rivals. The priest believed that their rivalry shouldn't have interfered in their love. They should have put that aside to let them marry. When two people "love" each other they are going to do anything to be with each other at any cost. When Friar Lawrence wed the two it was to open the two families eyes but instead they were even more furious.

I believe that the Friar had a very important part in the play. He had the choice of marrying Romeo and Juliet. He had a very hard choice to make though. Whether to marry or not to marry them. The choice he made I think was the right one. He did what was best for them. I don't think that he did anything wrong at all. I think if he hadn't married them then I think that he would have been going against his belief. For Romeo and Juliet them getting married was the best thing for them. It was actually what they wanted.

I believe I can compare the Friar to Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff was doing only what was best for him. He was trying to make money for himself in this difficult economy. This had consequences just like what the Friar did had consequences. The consequences for the Friars actions were Romeo and Juliet's parents would both be intensely mad at him and might disown them if they had ever found out. The consequences for Bernie Madoff was he harmed hundreds of people and mad them lose almost everything they owned. So they actually had an amazingly difficult choice for both of them. I believe the Bernie Madoff made the wrong choice but, I believe that the Friar made the right choice.

I think I can relate the Friar to myself also. I do what I need to do for myself. It may not be as drastic as what Bernie Madoff did. I think that usually I do what I want to do even if in the long run it isn't going to be helpful to me. At the time I do what I want to do because it is just who I am. I have never done what other people have really told me to do. I think that it is easier to to do what you want then to listen and do what someone else tells you to do. Bernie Madoff and the Friar also did exactly what that they wanted to do.