Friar Lawrence's lines in act 2, scene 3, are significant because they foreshadow vital events that will happen in the play. On the surface, it seems like Friar Lawrence is talking about a garden and the plants that grow there. However, what he says about plants and nature is significant—because he makes the point that many plants can be both healing and poisonous depending on how they are used.
When he says,
“The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave that is her womb,”
In act 2, scene 3, he is talking about the cycle of rebirth—things that are buried bring new life and things that are brought to life also die. The words that he says have a deeper meaning that foreshadows the tragedy at the end of the play.
Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet to bring their families together—the marriage is like a type of new life, in Friar Lawrence’s faith marriage is seen as becoming a new person together as a couple, one flesh. But it isn’t their new life that brings new life to their families; rather it is their death. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is not just that they love each other enough to die than be without, but rather that their families had to experience significant loss, the death of their children, to make peace. That is the metaphor and foreshadowing of the line, they are buried, and out of their death comes peace and new life for Verona.
When the Friar speaks of earth being both nature's mother and it's grave he is expressing that all of life stems from Earth and returns beck to it in death. Every living thing, starts off here, in this world. Flowers, plants, and animals all alike in beginning the journey of life here. There is the taking in of the elements of the earth to maintain life while here then a return back to the same earth that has provided the nourishment needed for life.
The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb. What is her burying, grave that is her womb.
Every thing that is born on earth, returns to the earth through the process of death. When a flower dies, it shrivels up, falls to the ground and decomposes right in the spot where it once stood tall and beautiful. The same ground that provide nutrients and minerals to maintain it becomes the soil that absorbs it back into the earth. The sky that provided light and water to help it grow, now provide heat to aid in the decomposition, and water to wash away what is left. In return, in that very same spot, a new flower is able to bloom due to the richness of the soil that was aided by the minerals and nutrients being given back from the death of what was before.
The above words come from Friar Lawrence's opening soliloquy in act 2, scene 3. He's in the garden, picking plants and flowers with which he's going to make a variety of medicines and potions. The Friar observes that in nature what is good is often mixed in with the bad. So the extract from one particular plant may be beneficial in certain doses but deadly poisonous in others. It all depends on how they are used. Friar Lawrence then goes on to say the following:
The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb. What is her burying, grave that is her womb.
What the Friar means by this is that nature is the source of life as well as a place of death. The natural world is where all forms of life come to die. For instance, plants are born in the soil, yet it is the soil to which they will eventually return when they wither and die. The world around us provides ample nourishment for the various forms of life, but if nature is misused or abused, then death and suffering can result.
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