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Character, Present

Examine how Shakespeare reveals the character of Friar Lawrence ‘Romeo and Juliet’ In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Shakespeare presents Friar Lawrence in several ways, such as, a holy person, a fatherly figure but also being a coward. Friar Lawrence is a key instrument of destiny within the perform, he features good motives but ultimately ends up helping fortune to create misfortune. In the initial scene the audience see Friar Lawrence in, he is provided as being incredibly knowledgeable.

The audience observe him gathering plants and herbs and demonstrates his knowledge by simply saying ‘For this becoming smelt, recover part regards each portion cheers every part staying tasted, keeps all sensory faculties with the cardiovascular. ‘ This kind of line shows the idea that every single cure to get an illness can even be deadly if taken in the wrong manner. This shows his familiarity with plants, herbal remedies and remedies. As well as this the Health professional enters one particular scene and praises Friar Lawrence intended for his ‘good council’ simply by saying ‘O, what learning is! ‘ This emphasises the Friar’s knowledge and shows that other characters look at him while intelligent.

Secondly Shakespeare shows Friar Lawrence as not simply being a holy man but since being aware of the earth or ‘worldly wise. ‘ This is tested at various points throughout the play including when Romeo comes to Friar Lawrence’s cell and the Friar can tell that Romeo was not to sleep as they has been which has a girl. This is certainly illustrated inside the line ‘Our Romeo hath not gone to bed this evening. ‘ And also this Friar Lawrence responses on how quickly Romeo falls into love with one girl to the next by saying ‘Young men’s like then is not situated truly inside their hearts however in their eye. This shows that Friar Lawrence is aware that not every love holds true. Furthermore, Friar Lawrence confirms to get married to Romeo and Juliet therefore hastily to make certain they do not have sexual intercourse before relationship. This is verified in the lines ‘We shall make brief work for simply by leaves, you shall not stay alone, right up until holy house of worship incorporate two in one. ‘ This once again emphasises just how ‘worldly wise’ Friar Lawrence is as he realises that young people carry out have sex prior to marriage and don’t always stress about faith and what religion has to claim about their activities.

Throughout the play Shakespeare likewise presents Friar Lawrence as being a councillor and fatherly determine towards Romeo. This part is portrayed in many scenes and is demonstrated in lines just like ‘That’s my own good son’ where Friar Lawrence can be addressing Romeo as if he can his child. This is also illustrated in the collection ‘wisely and slow that they stumble operating fast’. This kind of shows that Friar Lawrence can be seeing Romeo grow up and make mistakes so that he can study from them, this really is something a father might usually say about their personal child.

As well as this the very first time Romeo greets Friar Lawrence Romeo uses the word ‘father’ which proves to the audience that this individual perceives Friar Lawrence being a fatherly number. Friar Lawrence appears to be someone who Romeo can, to seek tips and advice rather than speaking to his dad. This shows that in upper class people the relationship among parents and children is usually maybe quite a bit less strong as it is in lower class families. As well as having all of these qualities Shakespeare likewise presents Friar Lawrence being respected man among various other characters.

We see this in the final picture where the prince asks Friar Lawrence to get his bank account of incidents, the line that proves this is ‘Then say at once what thou dost know in this’. This kind of illustrates for the audience the Prince respects and beliefs Friar Lawrence’s view and opinion upon events which have occurred. Nevertheless even though Friar Lawrence is usually presented while having a lot of positive characteristics he also possesses a few negative ones, such as becoming slightly irresponsible. Examples of his irresponsibleness happen several times over the play, the first case in point being if he first confirms to get married to Romeo and Juliet by simply saying ‘I’ll thy assist be’.

This really is an irresponsible move to make because Friar Lawrence sees that he would not have either parents approval, he also knows that Romeo and Juliet only achieved the night before and thus, may not be really in like. Another sort of Friar Lawrence being presented as irresponsible is when he agrees to do a bigamous marriage between Juliet and Paris, he tells Juliet to ‘Give consent to marry Paris’. This displays he is irresponsible because bigamous marriages will be illegal and he is a priest therefore is supposed to adhere to the law.

Furthermore, the plan Friar Lawrence effects to help Romeo and Juliet be together is not really thought through completely and is generally irresponsible. This is proved in the lines ‘I’ll send a Friar with speed to Mantua, with my characters to thy lord’, this is simply not thought through completely as how will the Friar that is delivered know in which Romeo is Mantua and how will Friar Lawrence be aware that Romeo has received the albhabets in time. The full plan that Friar Lawrence comes up with is usually irresponsible when he is providing an 13 or 14 year old girl a ‘remedy’ that will give her no heartbeat and generate her show up dead, which could be possibly risky.

Finally, at the end with the play we come across Friar Lawrence being provided as acting quite cowardly, which is a contrast to what we see throughout the perform when he hazards his standing by helping Romeo and Juliet to secretly get married to. We see evidence of this if the Prince fantastic guards yield in the final scene from the play and Friar Lawrence says ‘Come go, good Juliet, I dare will no longer stay’. This can be cowardly behaviour because he is definitely willing to create a plan but then does not need to face up to the consequences than it. Friar Lawrence is provided in many different ways throughout the perform by William shakespeare.

It is apparent that in Friar Lawrence’s beginning views his better characteristics will be presented to the audience, including how educated, worldly smart, fatherly and respected he is. While towards the end of the play the audience begins to see how irresponsible and cowardly Friar Lawrence can be. Inspite of his little bit of negative features it is apparent to the audience that Friar Lawrence’s intentions are good yet because fortune had everything mapped out disaster occurred and there was nothing any of the heroes could perform to stop that.

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