Friar Lawrence : Where would Romeo be without him

          Instead of writing a normal blog post about the book i'm currently reading, I thought that it might be interesting to do more writing on Romeo & Juliet and sort of begin to get an idea of how my Literary essay was going to be laid out and it's focus .Through this post I hope to finish my first 3 paragraphs

     "Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast". I think this quote really does a good job of summarizing Friar Lawrence's character throughout the book. He acts almost like a father to Romeo throughout the book and is always there at Romeos side when he's needed until the end. My theory is that Friar Lawrence's purpose in Romeo & Juliet is too guide Romeo too good decisions and prevent him from  actually going through with the almost crazy decisions that Romeo is going to make. I think without Friar Lawrence's guiding hands Romeo would be dead halfway into the book.

    The first example of Friar Lawrence playing this leading part is in Act 2 Scene 3 where Romeo finally consults Friar Lawrence about his new beloved love and gets the exact feedback he needs.Throughout the scene Romeo expresses that he has a strong love for a girl named Juliet. Friar Lawrence brings up a reasonable point that Romeo has taken a lot of time thinking and weeping about Rosaline and he is sad it's gone to waste. Friar Lawrence goes on to say "Women may fall when there is no strength in men". This  is one of the first points the Friar brings up that really stand out as good guidance to Romeo. Even thought this might almost seem like an insult to Romeo, really in reality it's not. Friar Lawrence just wants Romeo to get over his past emotions with Rosaline, the woman that brought Romeo numerous counts of sadness. Rather than trying to make Romeo feel bad because he is "without strength", he's just trying to teach Romeo the lesson that you can't expect a women that doesn't like you to suddenly have feelings for you when your weeping over the women and thinking about her constantly.Romeo agrees with him and says that Friar Lawrence "Scolded him often for loving Rosaline". Friar Lawrence goes on to say that he wasn't scolding Romeo for liking Rosaline but for "obsessing" about her even when Rosaline had no love for Romeo. At the end Friar Lawrence mentions that he will help Romeo with a marriage with Juliet. He also mentions that the marriage might help to break the bonds of hatred that the Montagues and Capulets share with each other.

      The second example of Friar Lawrence once again taking on this Leading role of Romeo appears in Act 2 Scene 6. In this brief yet important scene, Friar Lawrence leads the marriage of Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo comments that anything bad that happens wont stop Romeo from feeling great joy that he is married with Juliet. Friar Lawrence's comment to this is very smart. He says "These violent Delights have violent ends and in their triumph die like fire and powder". In this line he is saying that even the joy Romeo feels today can abruptly change and quickly disappear. He is really trying to set up Romeo so that if something does come in the way of his joy he wont do something irrational and instead be ready for it. Another really important quote he makes is that too much honey tastes great but it makes you sick to your stomach. He then tells Romeo to love in moderation in order to half a long successful relationship.