Friar Lawrence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friar Lawrence (or Friar Laurence) is a character in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. He plays the part of an advisor to Romeo in the play, along with aiding in major plot developments. Alone, the innocent Friar gives us a sign of wisdom with his soliloquy. When Romeo requests that the Friar marry him to Juliet, he is shocked, because days before he was infatuated with Rosaline, a woman who did not return his love. Nevertheless, Friar Lawrence decides to marry Romeo and Juliet in the attempt to end the civil feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. His extensive knowledge of herbology is revealed in his soliloquy, and when Romeo is banished, he tries to help the two lovers get back together using this talent; using a death-emulating herb to fake Juliet's death.

Brother Cadfael, the fictional detective in a series of murder mysteries set in Medieval England (by the late Edith Pargeter writing under the name "Ellis Peters") seems to be, in a way, the literary descendant of Friar Lawrence as nearly each book in the series had a pair of star-crossed lovers who get the monkish protagonist's full sympathy and help (with much better success than in the case of his Shakespearean predecessor).