Friar Laurence is the priest in Romeo and Juliet who performs the lovers' secret marriage and engineers the apparent-death plan whose failed message produces the tragedy. Uncle Jerry's analysis treats him as part of the structural machinery of the play that Love Story rewrites: where the original requires a scheming priest figure to enable the secret union and then trigger the lethal misunderstanding, Love Story collapses that machinery into the father's straightforward consent. The character is invoked analytically rather than by direct lyric reference.
“That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify Romeo and Juliet as the central literary framework for Love Story. Uncle Jerry notes that Taylor likely read the play as a sophomore in high school shortly before writing this song, and imagines her sitting in English class reading the story. He discusses how the balcony scene, the father's disapproval at the party, the plan to escape to Mantua, and the Romeo/Juliet character names are all directly drawn from Shakespeare's play. He observes that Taylor rewrites the tragedy with a happy ending, something he notes was popular in the Restoration period from about 1660 onward, when people would rewrite Shakespearean tragedies with happy endings, and 'they always wind up getting married.' Uncle Jerry also notes that Shakespeare embeds sonnets into key speeches in the play, including when Romeo first meets Juliet at the party and in the balcony scene, calling the language 'stunningly beautiful.' He discusses how the father saying 'Stay away from Juliet' is 'an actual pull from the play' where Juliet's father sees Romeo at the party and says to leave him alone as long as he stays away from Juliet.
“A rose by any other name is a scandal”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this line as a direct reference to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, twisting the famous line 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet', where Juliet argues that names don't matter because the two lovers come from opposing families (Capulets and Montagues). Taylor replaces 'would smell as sweet' with 'is a scandal,' applying the same question of identity and naming to her own public life.
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss Romeo and Juliet as a parallel example of Taylor rewriting Shakespeare for a happy ending. Angela notes that Taylor's 2008 song Love Story compares the speaker and a fictional boy to Romeo and Juliet and also gives them a happy ending. Uncle Jerry uses the Restoration-era rewriting of Romeo and Juliet (where the poison turns out to be a sleeping draught and the lovers survive) as precedent for Taylor's reinterpretation of Ophelia's fate.
Angela & Uncle Jerry include Romeo and Juliet in their list of love-at-first-sight stories that parallel Enchanted's central theme. Uncle Jerry notes that the first time Romeo sees Juliet, they are instantly in love.