Romeo and Juliet, 2.3-2.4

It is getting late and my ability to write is fading fast, so I will make this short. The strategy of focusing on smaller pieces of scenes seemed to work well today, especially for 2.3, about which you sustained a long and interesting discussion. For some reason, you resisted discussing 2.4. Perhaps it was the number of ribald puns, or that Shakespeare’s prose is more difficult to penetrate than his verse. Whatever the case, you did not get to discuss Mercutio’s attitude toward Tybalt or the threat that Tybalt poses.

In contrast, your discussion of 2.3 was very good. The main point of your discussion was that Friar Lawrence recognizes the dual nature of all things; that is, all things have the capacity for good and bad. The earth nourishes life and is a grave: “The earth that’s natures mother is her tomb” (2.3.29). Even a flower, like the bud that Juliet compares to the love between her and Romeo in 2.2, can kill or heal: “Within the infant rind of this weak flower/poison hath residence and medicinal power” (2.3.23-24).

You likened this double-natured bud to the love of Romeo and Juliet, which is joyful but also filled with insidious, poisonous power. Even in this scene, Friar Lawrence, after chiding Romeo’s fickleness, recognizes the dangerous and the beneficial possibilities of the union between the two young lovers. He tells Romeo to proceed, “Wisely and slowly. They stumble that run fast” (2.3.101), yet he agrees to perform the wedding because he sees the possibility that it end the feud. So, while he suggests that Romeo acts like a little kid who can’t keep up with a fast-moving love and who may stumble as he pursues, Friar Lawrence also tells Romeo the marriage might, “turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.23.99).