From the opening lines, this scene echoes and anticipates both earlier and later events in the play. The friar's first words are about smiling and sorrow - a contrast typical in this play which is about love and joy in the face of hate and tragedy. Several times in the scene, the same idea is repeated - that if they can have a moment of happiness, it will be worth facing "love-devouring death."
Also significant is the way the friar warns the lovers that their feelings are too "violent", too fiery and not likely to ask. There is always a sense in the play that what Romeo and Juliet have found is too perfect to last, and that disaster will overtake them. Yet the lovers ignore him and speak of their joy being "heaped up" like "wealth" - in other words, their love is real and enduring. (Later, it will be seen that everyone is right - disaster does overtake them, yet their love is stronger than death and will eventually reunite their warring families.
Finally, the marriage is performed in secret, as their whole relationship is conducted in secret, and the ceremony takes place in the friar's dark, gloomy cell, foreshadowing the tomb where the story will end.
Also significant is the way the friar warns the lovers that their feelings are too "violent", too fiery and not likely to ask. There is always a sense in the play that what Romeo and Juliet have found is too perfect to last, and that disaster will overtake them. Yet the lovers ignore him and speak of their joy being "heaped up" like "wealth" - in other words, their love is real and enduring. (Later, it will be seen that everyone is right - disaster does overtake them, yet their love is stronger than death and will eventually reunite their warring families.
Finally, the marriage is performed in secret, as their whole relationship is conducted in secret, and the ceremony takes place in the friar's dark, gloomy cell, foreshadowing the tomb where the story will end.
