Thursday, May 22, 2014

In Act III scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet, how does Shakespeare bring out Friar Lawrence's anger towards and concern for Romeo?

This is of course the scene where Romeo famously tries to
stab himself out of anguish because of what he has done in killing Tybalt and his
subsequent banishment. In response to his attempt to stab himself, the Friar gives a
long speech which both conveys his anger towards Romeo and his concern. Note how his
anger is communicated at the beginning of his speech:


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Hold thy desperate
hand.


Art thou a man? Thy form cried out thou
art;


Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts
denote


The unreasonable fury of a
beast.



The Friar thus begins
by attacking Romeo's manhood, suggesting he is not actually a man, as he is behaving
like a woman with his tears but also like a "beast" in his wild actions. The Friar then
goes on to point out all of the things that Romeo can be thankful for, refering to how
they form "A pack of blessings light upon thy back." His care and concern for Romeo is
shown in the way that he paints a picture of how this horrendous situation can be
resolved. Talking of Mantua, where Romeo must stay in exile, the Friar
says:



Where
thou shalt live till we can find a time


To blaze your
marriage reconcile your friends,


Beg pardon of the prince,
and call thee back


With twenty hundred thousand times more
joy


Than thou went'st forth in
lamentation.



Thus in this
speech Friar Lawrence shows both his anger at Romeo's attempt to kill himself and also
his deep abiding love and concern in the way that he makes Romeo see that there is hope
even in the most hopeless of situations.

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