essay first draft

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the character of Friar Lawrence is extremely pivotal to the plot. His dual nature and personality is a key element to the plot, as his twin morals impact the entire outcome of the play. As an actor, I tried to portray his internal conflicts through body language and facial expressions using influence from my own prior experiences and emotions. While Friar Lawrence does display two major conflicts throughout the play. The more prominent one would be his choice between if he ought to decide to act morally incorrect but chance saving the city and ending the feud, or if he should choose to remain faithful to his ideals but risk plunging Verona into even more violence and chaos. In addition to this life threatening decision, Friar Lawrence’s other display of duality lie within his coexisting beliefs in both science and religion, two concepts that are known to frequently contradict each other. However, his opening monologue from Act 2, Scene 3, illustrates something that isn’t contrast—but isn’t collaboration—through the frequent juxtaposition of flowers and morals:

“Within the infant rind of this weak flower,

Poison hath residence and medicine power;

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part,

Being tasted, stays all senses with the heart.

Two such opposed kings encamp them still

In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;” (2.3.23-29)

These frequent displays of comparison between virtues and herbology provides us with an interesting view into the perspective of the friar. While he is a man of the cloth, and a highly respected one at that, he isn’t a traditional priestly figure, one who tries to accept both walks of thought but still has to struggle with the consequences of doing so. He does manage to find parallels between these two schools of thought, such as when he refers to how both eukaryotic and prokaryotic forms of life are able to contain and be influenced by good and evil powers. Unfortunately, these parallels do not stop him from being constantly reminded of how he is meant to commit himself to one philosophy regarding life, which in turn cause the dissonance between his two mindsets regarding the situation of the young lovers. As a man of faith, he knows he should choose against marrying them in secret. But, as a man who strives for what he perceives as the greater good, he also wishes to have them wed, even if in secret. During his entire conversation with Romeo, Friar Lawrence first presents himself to the younger male as a wise monk who preaches piety to his confidante. And yet, even though he chides him for his foolish love and advises against hasty action, he can’t help but soon switch to thinking of helping the star crossed lovers as well as the city. As I’ve already mentioned, I attempted to portray this hidden contrast by placing emphasis on my speech, as well as body language and facial expressions. Due to Shakespeare’s notorious lack of stage blocking in his writings, I used the script to determine how I thought characters would speak and move based on their lines. Because of this, I thought of Friar Lawrence as a character that would not make his uncertainty obvious through his dialogue, and more through his movement and expressions. My way of trying to demonstrate this was where I tried to show that every movement was performed and executed with slow and wise caution, something I tried to contrast to the dynamic and energetic being I envisioned Romeo would be during his rush to beg the Friar to perform the secret marriage. While my partner was not wildly vivid, he was lively enough for me to feel as if I were making a large enough contrast between fast youth and slow age. Aside from these thoughtful motions, I choose to show his inner clash via my speech. While I didn’t follow the iambic pentameter that Shakespeare wrote in, I decided to place extra emphasis on a few key words to help the audience take note of the Friar’s more prominent dual beliefs, which, like I believe Shakespeare intended, was meant to be noticeable for the audience so they would associate the character with being at a constant crossroads.