People make mistakes everyday in their lives. Ranging from messing up a math problem, taking the wrong turn or telling someone something you shouldn't have. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare is one of the world's best known devastating love stories. It tells the tale of two feuding families in Verona, Italy and how their two teenage children manage to find love within all the hate. However with the families anger comes death and the two lovers end their own life to be with each other. This story shows how everyone make bad decisions in their lives but sometimes we could have avoided it if we had thought it through and kept in mind our morals. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence is the priest that marries Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence is one of the few characters that knew about their relationship from the beginning and Romeo's previous relationship with Rosaline. I believe that Friar Lawrence's decision to marry Romeo and Juliet was unethical.
I believe that Friar Lawrence's decision two marry Romeo and Juliet for many reasons. One reason was because Romeo has always come to to confide in Friar Lawrence whenever he was in need of guidance and because he trusted him. Because of this Friar Lawrence should have lived up to Romeo's expectation of him as a mentor and warned Romeo of the consequence of his marriage because they are still only children even if they do truly love each other. In addition when Romeo first comes to Friar Lawrence with his proposal this is his reaction, "Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear so soon forgotten?" This shows his skepticism towards Romeo's true judgement of love and how he might change his mind about Juliet like with Rosaline. Also it the story he says, " In one respect I'll your assistant be, for this alliance may no happy be prove to turn household's rancor to pure love." This shows that he will only marry them not because he thinks they love each other but because he believes that it might end the hatred between their families which will in the end also improve the Friar's life and side in the fight.
In conclusion, Friar Lawrence acted unethically because even though he may have had some good intentions by ending the feud between the families, but he still took advantage of the naive Romeo and Juliet which ended in tragedy. I believe that he acted impulsively and did not consider the consequences this risky marriage could have. When he married them he knew of their histories and age and didn't even believe they were truly in love and only thought of the fact that is could end the fight. However this clearly did not end well even though the families made peace many lives were lost along the way. This shows how in life you should not always act on impulse and instead consider the possible outcomes of your decisions before it ends up negatively impacting your life and the lives of those close to you.
