Friar Lawrence

Play

Romeo and Juliet

Summary

A Franciscan friar who becomes Romeo and Juliet's secret ally and confessor. His plan to give Juliet a sleeping potion, fake her death, and smuggle Romeo back from exile is motivated by genuine desire to end the feud and help the lovers — but it depends on perfect communication and is undone by a single failed message. His combination of genuine wisdom (his opening meditation on plants and their dual power to heal and harm is the play's thematic keynote) and catastrophic practical failure makes him one of Shakespeare's most studied figures of well-intentioned disaster.

Notable Quotations

"The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb; / What is her burying grave, that is her womb." *(II.iii)*

"These violent delights have violent ends, / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which as they kiss consume." *(II.vi)*

"A greater power than we can contradict / Hath thwarted our intents." *(V.iii)*

Cross-references

• Romeo and Juliet — the play
• Tragedies
• character_romeo — whose secret marriage he performs
• character_juliet — whom he gives the sleeping potion
• character_nurse — his ally in keeping the lovers' secret