Friar Lawrence Quilty

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Friar Lawrence Guilty or not in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a play by William Shakespeare is set in Verona, Italy. Romeo falls in love with Juliet, but their families have long had feuds, which makes the couple’s relationship untenable. The couple decided to have a secret marriage without their parent’s knowledge and blessings. However, things get from bad to worse when there is confusion leading to Romeo taking potion and Juliet dying from her own stab wounds. The couple’s death results to a peaceful reconciliation among the people, it is the role of Friar Lawrence who gives Juliet a potion to make her sleep that draws scrutiny towards the end. This paper argues that Friar Lawrence was guilty of the Murder of Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Lawrence gave Juliet the potion to prolong her sleep for 3 days, prior to solemnizing a secret marriage between Romeo and Juliet. Even though, Romeo and Juliet were young, there was no intention for any of them to die. If Lawrence intended the couple to die, then he would simply have given them poison. Friar Lawrence was at first surprised that Romeo had suddenly fallen in love with Juliet having previously pursued Rosaline without success (Shakespeare Act 2 Scene 3). Nonetheless, Lawrence resolves to help Romeo his friend as a sign of their mutual understanding. In any case, loving also carries the burden of having responsibility, which was expected from the couple (Hutchings 195). It is actually the family’s opposition to a possible union between the two lovers, which makes them despair. Lawrence is merely a facilitator of the marriage process.
Focusing on Lawrence’s intent shows that there was no guilty mind or criminal responsibility to commit murder. Given that there was no guilty knowledge or awareness that his conduct was criminal, it means that the physical element of criminal responsibility was not present. Additionally, the mental state of the accused demonstrates that there was no criminal liability by the mere fac...