Friar Laurence

What’s a friar?

From the Latin fratr-, frater, meaning “brother”

A member of any of several Roman Catholic orders [groups] that originally forbade ownership of property, thereby making them dependent mostly on alms [money, food, or other donations given to the poor]

Friars took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in service to a community spread across a wide geographical area (such as a province. Therefore, he will typically move around spending time in different houses of the community.His

Day to day work could include duties such as being a doorkeeper, cook, teacher, nurse, gardener, etc.

Friar Laurence

•Works with herbs and plants•Has a friendly history with Romeo (e.g. knows about his infatuation with Rosaline)•Works with others (Friar John makes an appearance later)

Act II, Scene iii

Plants and Humans

Friar Laurence speaks of how plants are much like humans: they can be easily manipulated; they contain both positive and negative aspects [duality]; their lives are cyclical.

The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb.What is her burying grave, that is her womb…

“Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,/So soon forsaken?”

Friar is surprised to hear Romeo’s affections are no longer aimed at Rosaline.

If so, he continues, then young men love only with their eyes (lust), and not their hearts (genuine love).

“Salt water” = Romeo’s tears “season” = to salt a dish (Rosaline)

Why season the food, the Friar argues, is you are not going to “taste” it?

And, the Friar wonders, if Romeo had been speaking truly, how could his sadness at his unrequited love possibly vanish so quickly?

“How much salt water was thrown away in waste, To season love, that of it doth not taste!”

“Pronounce this sentence then:/Women may fall when there’s no strength in men”

The Friar has a lesson for Romeo: one cannot expect loyalty from women when men are as fickle as Romeo.

“Not in a grave to lay one in, another out to have”

The Friar clarifies that he only scolded Romeo for “doting” on Rosaline [having a one-sided crush], not for loving her genuinely.

“Not in a grave to lay one in, another out to have”: the Friar did not mean for Romeo to simply cast aside one love and replace it with another.

“She knew well/ Thy love did read by rote, which could not spell”

The Friar defends Rosaline’s perceptiveness, comparing Romeo’s love for Rosaline to a student who can read from memory (“by rote”), but has no understanding of what he was reading (one who cannot spell).

In other words, Rosaline knew that Romeo’s “love” was simply infatuation, and not the real thing.

Beyond Act II, Scene iii

Friar continues to counsel Romeo, and also Juliet.

His role as advisor plays a pivotal role in the outcome of the story.

His motives are never clear—he says he has good intentions, but he often acts un-friar-like…

Works Cited

http://www.enotes.com/romeo-and-juliet/q-and-a/what-friar-laurence-saying-about-love-act-2-what-159955

http://www.enotes.com/romeo-and-juliet/q-and-a/what-relaionship-does-friar-lawrence-see-between-157399