Family

• "This alliance may so happy prove to turn your households' rancour to pure love." (Act 2, Scene 3)
• Modal Verb:

  • The modal verb "may" injects a tone of tentativeness into Friar Lawrence's declaration, revealing his cautious optimism. He perceives himself as a benevolent figure, a peacemaker attempting to restore equilibrium between the Montagues and Capulets.
  • The Friar's hopefulness however, is undercut by the inexorable tragedy that awaits Romeo and Juliet, revealing the futility of his plans.
  • Friar Lawrence acts as an emblematic figure of misguided authority as he establishes instability of human plans against the current of inexorable fate.
• Juxtaposition:

  • Friar Lawrence's juxtaposition of "rancour" with "pure love" exposes the sharp emotional chasm between destructive hatred and idealised affection. The Friar's idealism dramatises the stakes of the marriage: if successful, it will transcend familial vendettas; if not, it will exacerbate the feud.
  • The Friar's attempt to impose harmony through love underestimates the inexorable momentum of fate which supersedes any attempted human invention even from divine representatives such as the Friar.
• Key Context it relates to:

  • Ovid's Metamorphoses: The Friar's line echoes Ovid's tale of Pyramus and Thisbe where, much like the Capulets and Montagues, the two mythic lovers caught on opposing sides of two feuding families in Babylon. Shakespeare draws on this comparison to demonstrate the Friar's benevolent but futule intention to unite feuding houses that will tragically collapse due to an inexorable fate.
  • Religion: Friar Lawrence, a Catholic Friar in an Italian city, is portrayed by Shakespeare as spiritually devout but subservient to flawed systems and ideas. In his hope that an "alliance" can cure social "rancour", the Friar actually transgresses against the wishes of Capulet and Montague families.
• WOW Knowledge:

  Freytag's Pyramid:

  • Divides the five acts of a tragedy into exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.