Friday 17 January 2014

Did Friar Laurence rely on logic or emotion when making the decisions to marry Romeo and Juliet, to help Juliet devise a plan to fake her death,...

To look at the other side of the above argument, one could say Friar Laurence approached the situation of Romeo and Juliet with a logical frame of mind, but things outside of his control interfered. In the first situation, when he decides to marry Romeo and Juliet, he does so to try to end the feud between their families, saying:


"For this alliance may so happy proveTo turn your households' rancor to pure love"...

To look at the other side of the above argument, one could say Friar Laurence approached the situation of Romeo and Juliet with a logical frame of mind, but things outside of his control interfered. In the first situation, when he decides to marry Romeo and Juliet, he does so to try to end the feud between their families, saying:



"For this alliance may so happy prove
To turn your households' rancor to pure love" (2.3.91-2)



It is not so illogical that this would work. Both the Capulets and Montagues love their respective children and might be more likely to stand by the decision rather than disown them (though Capulet would be a hard sell). Friar Laurence does have an ultimate plan and it is driven by logic. 


As for Friar Laurence's second decision to decide to help Juliet fake her own death, he is still acting in accordance with his own internal logic, though the audience is beginning to worry about his judgment. Recall that Juliet has threatened to kill herself rather than marry Paris. In order to save her life (as well as his own reputation), Friar Laurence chooses to do something drastic and he frames it as such:



"I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent" (4.1.70-3)



Friar Laurence knows this plan is dangerous, but he weighs it against the other dangers and considers it the best choice. 


For his third decision, to run out of the tomb without Juliet, I have little defense. He seems to let his emotions get the better of him there, with both his fear of the supernatural and his likely fear of judgment from the community for his previous actions.

No comments:

Post a Comment

How can a 0.5 molal solution be less concentrated than a 0.5 molar solution?

The answer lies in the units being used. "Molar" refers to molarity, a unit of measurement that describes how many moles of a solu...