Sample RJ Persuasive essay

Orange = attention getter (intro) / tie up loose ends (conclusion)
Blue = background information
Red = argument (beginning) of thesis
Teal = first reason / proof for thesis
Green = second reason / proof for thesis
Purple = third reason / proof for thesis
Brown = quotes and citations

Nothing compares to the loss of a child or loved one. Families attempt to cope, sometimes separate, and leave behind a mere shell of what previously existed. However, in some cases, families may unite under the circumstances. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tells a tragic story of pain, hatred, and death. It began with a grudge, one that the two families could neither understand nor remedy, and this grudge ended only after their two children committed suicide out of love for one another. The children fell in love before knowing each other’s parentage, and thus sought to keep their relationship hidden from their families. In the end, one may suggest no one forced Romeo or Juliet to end their own lives. Romeo made a conscious decision to buy poison, break into Juliet’s tomb, and willingly take his life, just as Juliet readily snatched the dagger from Romeo’s cold body and replied “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die” (RJ 5.3.170) ending her own life as well. However, a powerful man of the church clouded the judgment of two highly influential, naïve children and inadvertently led them to their dooms. The responsibility of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths rests on Friar Lawrence because of his selfishness, his unreliability, and his unlawful behaviors.

The audience witnessed Friar Lawrence’s selfish behavior since Act II. When Romeo approached the Friar after his late-night meeting with Juliet, he never suspected Romeo fell in love with an enemy. “God pardon sin!” he says to Romeo when he discovered he never went home the night prior. “Wast thou with Rosaline?” (RJ 2.3.44). Romeo explained his newfound love with Capulet’s daughter and expressed his wish to be married that day. Friar Lawrence responded angrily, claiming Romeo merely liked Juliet because of her looks, not because he truly loved her. Yet later, Friar Lawrence agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet, because he saw a possible ramification of his actions: “To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (RJ 2.3.92). He refused to offer help when Romeo requested it until he realized what glory he might receive through his efforts to unite the families. However, his future actions proved he never retained this initial desire to end the feuding.

Friar Lawrence remained one of the most unreliable characters in Romeo and Juliet. Romeo questioned the friar’s ability, or lack thereof to provide careful advice toward the young lovers. “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. / Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, / An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,...Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair” (RJ 3.3.64-67). Yet Friar Lawrence managed to retain Romeo’s trust and promised that which he could never ensure: “…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” (RJ 3.3.150-154). He also made a promise to Juliet he could not keep. “Romeo by my letters [will] know our drift, / and hither shall he come, an’ he and I / will watch thy waking, and that very night / shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua” (RJ 4.1.114-117). He promised Juliet he would notify Romeo, and his plan failed horrendously and his initial intent—to unite the families—no longer existed at this point. Friar John later arrived, revealing his failure to deliver the message to Romeo. Friar Lawrence faced an opportunity to apologize and tell the families of his mistakes, but he continued to believe he could make Romeo and Juliet’s doomed relationship work. So, his deceit and dishonesty spread beyond Romeo and Juliet. He arrived at the Capulet residence happy and full-aware of Juliet’s death-like condition after taking the potion. However, he continued his fraud toward the mourning parents and bridegroom. “Come, is the bride ready to go to church?” (RJ 4.5.33). He lectured the Capulets why they should not mourn the loss of their young daughter, and instead, encouraged them to dry their tears and move on. He could not empathize with their loss because he knew Juliet merely took a potion—a potion he provided.

Friar Lawrence’s unlawful behavior included marrying Romeo and Juliet, knowledge of botanical potions, and fleeing the scene of a crime. Even as a man of the church, and confidentiality remaining of utmost importance to his Congregationalists, the secrets he sought to keep involved mere children. He warned Romeo before the wedding “love moderately: long love doth so” (RJ 2.6.14), perhaps realizing the negative consequences of the union. Even as he agreed to marry in order to unite the families, he never encouraged Romeo or Juliet to reveal the marriage to their parents. He performed the ceremony in his cell—a closed area, without witnesses, and without parental consent – all laws in effect during the setting of the play. Also, ironically, he introduced his knowledge of plants and their powers in a rambling speech concerning the damage they might do when placed in the wrong hands: “Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied” (RJ 2.3.21). He never heeded his own warning. When Juliet approached him after Romeo’s banishment, she realized he must hold the key to this predicament which he enabled. Capulet decided to allow Paris to marry Juliet, and instead of encouraging Juliet to confess her current marriage to Romeo, Friar Lawrence devised a plan of further deceit toward the two families. Juliet’s threat of suicide caused the Friar to think this plan not outrageous or too much a risk for Juliet. It involved a powerful potion allowing its partaker to slip into a deathlike state for forty-two hours. He encouraged further lies by telling Juliet to return home to her parents: “Go home, be merry, give consent / to marry Paris” (RJ 4.1.89). Later, the apothecary revealed the punishment of death for any man with such “mortal drugs” (RJ 5.1.66). Why does the Friar, a man of the church, know of such recipes for poison enabling a death-like state? Yet his knowledge of poisons and lies toward the Montagues and Capulets cannot match his last, selfish, unlawful deed. After he arrived at the Capulet tomb, he found both Paris and Romeo dead and Juliet starting to wake. Bad news never settles well with anyone just after awakening. However, he quickly confessed the results of his plan gone awry. “A greater power than we can contradict / hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away. / Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead; / and Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee / among a sisterhood of holy nuns. / Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. / Come go, good Juliet, I dare no longer stay” (RJ 5.3.153-159). Juliet, or any reasonable human, would stay to question the death of a spouse – especially an unexpected death. Friar Lawrence fled the scene, and only returned later because a watchman apprehended him. His reactions (trembling, sighing, weeping) showed he regretted his actions, although this regret could not change Romeo’s death and Juliet’s approaching death.

Although many characters made rash or poor decisions throughout the play, one character stands out as a major influence on the two youths. Friar Lawrence’s actions illustrate his selfish, deceitful behavior not only toward Romeo and Juliet, but toward their parents and the city of Verona as well. Despite his confession in Act 5, scene 3, he still remained unable to change the very real deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence met his very selfish goal of uniting the families in his behalf, even though it cost the lives of their young, innocent children.

1283 words