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42 votes
42 votes
Discuss the measures taken by Juliet and Friar

Laurence to fool Juliet's family. Do you agree
with their plan and think there were no other
options, or do you think the plan was selfish or
unwise? Cite specific text evidence to
support your ideas.

User Ben Dunlap
by
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1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

Answer:

Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for help, brandishing a knife and saying that she will kill herself rather than marry Paris. The friar proposes a plan: Juliet must consent to marry Paris; then, on the night before the wedding, she must drink a sleeping potion that will make her appear to be dead; she will be laid to rest in the Capulet tomb, and the friar will send word to Romeo in Mantua to help him retrieve her when she wakes up. She will then return to Mantua with Romeo, and be free to live with him away from their parents' hatred. Juliet consents to the plan wholeheartedly. Friar Lawrence gives her the sleeping potion. Here we see Friar directly deceiving Juliet's parents after she "dies" when he chides them for their tears and tells them that she is in a better place now than she was when she was alive. There is some truth to this, in a twisted ironic way, but it is deception nonetheless, for he listens to their grief but does not tell them that she is alive.

He must also have deceived them in agreeing to marry Juliet to Paris, for when they discover Juliet, he has already arrived at the house for the wedding.

I do not agree with the plan and I think the plan was selfish. This plan was build on selfish interests from the point of view of Juliet . she does this because she is not interested in Marrying Paris . She is only interested in marrying Romeo. This plan is unfair to the parents of Juliet. They could opted for a fair option instead of agreeing to this scary plan .Juliet at least could have employed dialogue with Paris to express her disappointment that she could not marry him instead of coming up with the deception plan. It was wrong for Juliet to pretend to be happy and letting her parents think that she will marry Paris because she knows that there is no other way for her to be with Romeo.

User Bradrn
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