Friar Lawrence and Foreshadowing

Friar Lawrence starts off his speech by talking about the coming of daybreak. A continual theme throughout Romio and Juliet is the change of light and darkness. Night and darkness are similar things along with day and lightness. Light is a symbol for true love, Juliet. "the sun advance his burning eye, the day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry." When Shakespeare says this he is foreshadowing the coming of Juliet into Romeo's life. She is the sun and will change the darkness's dew (bawdy love) and make it into true love. Friar Lawrence then digs into the idea of a woman and her tomb. When he says, "what is her burying grave, that is her womb." He is foreshadowing how Juliet is digging her own grave. When she decides to marry Romeo, she knows the consequences of her family and of the pressure the community puts on them, so in the end she will die of it. The idea of the "womb children" foreshadows how it is the romance between Romeo and Juliet that will kill them. This shows this because romance brings marriage which results with a family. Each of these steps puts the stress on an even higher level, so kids and marriage will be the ultimate death. Finally, he says, "revolts from true birth, stumbling upon abuse." This foreshadows how Romeo and Juliet were made for each other ever since they were born and they have no choice but to take the consequences of abuse for their love. Friar Lawrence's speech in Act 2 scene 3 is full of foreshadowing.