Who He Is
Friar Laurence is a Franciscan friar of Verona, confessor to Romeo (whom he calls his spiritual father) and to Juliet. He gathers herbs at dawn and knows that the same plant can give poison and remedy. He is the one who marries the two, who sets up the potion plan and who arrives too late at the tomb.
Trajectory
In Scene 3 of Act II, he meditates on the powers and dangers of herbs when Romeo appears, without having slept. He is surprised that the young man has forgotten Rosaline so quickly and reminds him that young men's love dwells in the eyes and not in the heart, but agrees to marry them in the hope that the union will reconcile the two houses, and tells him to go slowly.
Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.(II.3)
In Scene 6 of Act II, before the ceremony, he asks heaven that the act not bring sorrow afterward and warns that violent pleasures have violent ends, and that the sweetest honey cloys by its own sweetness. He advises moderation and leads the two to the church.
These violent delights have violent ends, / And in their triumph die(II.6)
In Scene 3 of Act III, he tells Romeo that the Prince spared him death and banished him, and calls the banishment mercy. Romeo calls it torture and rejects the philosophy the friar offers. When Romeo draws his sword, the friar rebukes him (he says he has a woman's tears and a beast's rage) and lists what remains to him: Juliet lives, Tybalt would have killed him and was killed, and the law that threatened him with death made him an exile. He sets out the plan: spend the night with Juliet, leave before the watch is posted and go to Mantua until he can announce the marriage and reconcile the families.
In Scene 1 of Act IV, he hears Paris speak of the wedding set for Thursday and says aside that he wishes he did not know why the wedding should be put off. Juliet threatens to kill herself, and he proposes the potion that will make her seem dead for forty-two hours, with a letter to warn Romeo.
In Scene 5 of Act IV, when the household discovers the bride dead, he consoles the parents with words about heaven and says that she is best married who dies married young. He orders the tears dried and organizes the procession, knowing she is alive.
In Scene 2 of Act V, he learns from Friar John that the letter did not arrive: the other friar was locked in a house suspected of plague. He sees the danger, asks for a crowbar and goes alone to the tomb, where Juliet will wake in a few hours. He intends to write to Romeo again and hide her in his cell.
In Scene 3 of Act V, he arrives too late: Romeo and Paris are dead. Juliet wakes, and the friar, hearing the guard, calls her to leave, promises to deliver her to a convent of nuns and flees without her. The watch catches him with the pickaxe and spade, trembling and weeping. Before the Prince, he tells everything from the marriage on, says that the Nurse knows of it and offers himself to the law. The Prince replies that he has always held him for a holy man.
Themes Embodied
The friar embodies a virtue that the text itself says can turn into a vice. In Scene 3 of Act II, before Romeo arrives, he says that virtue turns into vice when misapplied; in Scene 6 of Act II, that violent pleasures have violent ends.
His plan is born of a good reason, reconciling the houses, and depends on a haste he criticizes in others. He asks Romeo, Juliet's parents and Juliet herself for patience, but his plan allows no time: the wedding takes place the same day, the potion depends on a letter that a friar cannot deliver, and at the tomb he arrives too late and flees. What remains of Scene 3 of Act V is a friar who, before the Prince, presents himself as the most suspect and the one who could do least, and who offers his own life to the law.
Relationships
- Romeo: the ward he rebukes for loving Rosaline out of folly, marries the same day and stops from killing himself, before sending him to Mantua.
- Juliet: the penitent who comes to him with a knife in her hand and who drinks the potion he prepared.
- The Nurse: the only other person who knows of the marriage, according to what the friar tells the Prince.
- Capulet: the father who praises him when Juliet returns from confession and whom he consoles, on the morning of the wedding, with words about heaven.
- Paris: the groom he receives in the cell and whom he finds dead in the tomb.