Life Is What You Make It: Why Romeo and Juliet Were Doomed from the Start

Emily Kauzlarich
Life is what you Make it: Why Romeo and Juliet were Doomed from the Start
In the play, Romeo and Juliet, the Friar has a particularly important part. He not only marries Romeo and Juliet but he also is the instigator for both of their deaths. Towards the end of the play he gives a rather long speech basically summing up the play in a nutshell. For such a small role in the play, the Friar is responsible for much of the tragedy that occurs. The speech that the Friar gives near the beginning of the play when he is speaking to, and about his plants, foreshadows the love, hate and death throughout the play. The flowers and plants that the Friar is so passionate about also play a small role with much impact. Not only does the Friar use them to make a sleeping potion for Juliet but it foreshadows the death of Romeo with the poison that he drinks to kill himself. The speech suggests that a plant, or flower, can be either good or bad, depending on which way that plant or flower used (2.3.5-20). This directly relates to humans and how they can also use themselves as bad or good. It is the will of the human of whether or not they are going to act graciously or monstrously.
This speech given by the Friar has the audacity to give the idea that love in the play can possibly conquer the evil (2.3.5-20). For such a thing as love conquering the evil, the evil has to be conquerable. Two families that hate each other enough to kill one another in the streets over something incredibly minute cannot be conquered by love. It also tells the reader that it can be the other way around and evil can conquer love. This is much more realistic for the situation that Romeo and Juliet are in and it is true for the story. The Friar agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet because he wants to overcome the evil that is going on between the Montegues and the Capulets, not because he believes that they actually love each other and are meant to be. It is naïve for the Friar to think that such a thing would end the feud, rather than make it worse. Plants need time, patience and much care to grow and strive. Friar Lawrence does not allow this for the sake of Romeo and Juliet’s love. He does exactly the opposite of that and pushes for something that is bound to be doomed and surely ends up that way.
Friar Lawrence mentions in this speech about how if something is used and abused it is destined to turn evil (2.3.5-20). This is very true about Romeo and Juliet’s love and “relationship”. Love at first sight is highly unrealistic and the idea that someone is feverishly in love with another person enough to go against their own family in a matter of a few days is just immature. Immature is exactly what Romeo and Juliet are though. They are just teenagers that fell into lust with the wrong person at the most wrong time they could have chosen. The last part of the speech is referring to the flower and how if you smell it, it can make you feel good, kind of like a high, whereas if you taste it, the poison will kill you (2.3.20-30). This is also true about Romeo’s infatuation with Juliet. Admiring her from a far has no consequence, but as soon as he lets his infatuation get the best of him he will have tasted the poison and it will have been too late to save him.
Poison, I believe, has the utmost importance in the play. It is such a strange thing to have so much power but it is the reason the play is tragic and it is the link to Romeo and Juliet’s doomed fate. A type of poison is used to put Juliet into her deep sleep that fools her parents of her death, but also fools the man who will tell Romeo of his findings. Poison is what Romeo uses to kill himself when he falsely discovers his beloved is dead. Poison is what Juliet wants to use to kill herself only to find that there is none left and she will have to find another way, another way that is much more horrific than consuming poison. If there was no poison involved, the story could have gone in a completely different way and Romeo and Juliet could quite possibly still be alive in the end.
Friar Lawrence is not a bad person for marrying Romeo and Juliet, or for giving Juliet the sleeping poison, or for trying to tell Romeo of the plan that himself and Juliet had thought up. He was simply trying to make a point to the city of Verona as well as the feuding families that things could be different if they just allowed them to be. He wanted to end something so evil by helping to start something so pure. The problem with his plan was how he went about it and how naïve he was to think that something as senseless as faking a 14 year old girl’s death would bring good and not add on to the evil that was already lingering. This speech not only marks a turning a point in the play, but it puts the stamp “DOOMED” in bright red letters all over Romeo’s forehead.