Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one imbued with the concept of universal fate. This is marked by the Friar's intellectual understanding of Hubris, as well as Juliet's comprehension of her situation in regard to fate. Shakespeare's love story of Romeo and Juliet is a container for a thesis of the destiny-the subtext of this work. This is made clear to us in the prologue where Shakespeare foreshadows his complex criticism of destiny: "A pair of star-crossed lovers" (I,i,6), and "death-marked" (I,i,9). This opening sequence concludes the fate of Romeo and Juliet's chaotic relationship even before the action has begun. In this story of destiny, Juliet is the protagonist, and Friar Lawrence the catalyst.
             The intellectual Friar Lawrence appears in his first scene to the audience in his garden picking herbs foreshadowing the death-perceiving potion made for Juliet. What is not shown at first glance is his quick agreement to marry Juliet to Romeo, and the plan already forming in his head to unite the two enemy families, that will fail him and the lovers. Throughout the play, the Friar serves as a "helping" character who assists the lovers throughout the conflict and serves to be a strong, stable, reliable character. At the very end of the famous balcony scene, Romeo says, "Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell, His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell" (II,ii,188-189). Thus the Friar joins Romeo and Juliet by marriage vows. When Juliet is neglected by everyone she had relied on emotionally, she decides: "I'll to the friar, to know his remedy; If all else fail, myself have power to die" (III,v,241-242). Again the Friar gives the support and wisdom Romeo and Juliet's relationship relies on. This last remark of Juliet's is such a contrast to Romeo's way of thinking and shows Juliet's advanced maturity for her age of almost fourteen. While Romeo turns to suicide as his first and only option, Juliet looks on it as a desperate last reso...