Fate has once again altered the course of events in the play. In this instance, fate thwarts the Friar's plan by delaying his letter. The Friar cries, "Unhappy fortune!" echoing Romeo's earlier cry that he became "fortune's fool."
The scene is driven by an overwhelming sense of desperation as the Friar returns to the Capulet tomb to liberate Juliet. The audience may recall the Friar's words from Act II, Scene 3, that the earth is nature's mother and that her "burying grave . . . is her womb." The Friar's desperate attempt to physically extricate Juliet from the womb-like tomb casts him in the role of symbolic midwife, who must deliver Juliet from the bowels of death. Now the philosophical Friar, more at home with ideas, must take action so that his entire plan does not decay into an abortive attempt to defy fate.
