Romeo and Juliet

Act 5

Act V, Scene I - Summary

Romeo muses on a pleasant dream he has had in which Juliet brings him back to life with a kiss: ‘breathed such life with kisses’

Romeo mistakenly believes this dream portends good news

Romeo’s servant, Balthasar, reports incorrectly that Juliet is dead and that ‘her body sleeps in Capel’s monument’

Romeo is utterly distraught, determines to take ‘fate’ into his own hands and take his life

He offers a poor apothecary a large amount of money to sell him poison illegally

The poison will enable Romeo to be reunited with Juliet in death

Techniques:

Contrast: The audience expect to find Romeo wallowing in despair due to his banishment, BUT he is in very good humour

Irony: He has dreamed that he died and Juliet’s kisses breathed life back into him, but as Mercutio says “Dreamers often lie.”

Foreshadowing: she will find him dead, and will kiss him, BUT won’t revive him!

Romeo’s soliloquy is full of dramatic irony - the dream anticipates the final scene when Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead and tries to kiss the poison from his lips

Fate

Tragedy is imminent when Balthasar arrives and delivers Romeo news that Juliet’s “body sleeps.”

Because the Friar’s message did not reach Romeo, this incorrect information causes Romeo’s decision to take his life

Romeo rages against the malevolent influence of fate and in bold defiance cries: ‘Then I defy you, stars!’

Romeo believes, absolutely, that he and Juliet have been blighted by ‘fate’, and now determines to take his own ‘fate’ into his own hands

Romeo and Development

This moment of defiance marks a change in Romeo’s character From now on he is angry, cynical, and emboldened to defy his

fate Balthasar sees Romeo is in shock and notices a physical

change his ‘looks are pale and wild and do import/some misadventure’

His anger and frustration drive him to try to take command over his own life - he decides that if he cannot be with Juliet in life, he will join her in death

His resolve to die echoes Juliet’s expression that her last resort is her sanctuary - they have the power to die

Once resolved he becomes calmer, more determined.. ‘Tush, thou art deceived/Leave me and do the thing I bid thee do.’

Death and Macabre

This scene is filled wit darkness and images of death: Apothecary risks his life to sell dugs to Romeo:‘such mortal

drugs I have. But Mantua’s law/Is death to any he that utters them.’

He is starving and poor - image of him is deathly and skeletal: he wears tattered clothes; his face is hung with “overwhelming brows,” and “sharp misery has worn him to his bones”

His shop is described as dusty and tomb-like containing deathly images – it is filled with the bodies of dead animals, “skins,” “bladders,” and “old cakes of roses.”

Romeo’s offers a meditation on what he feels really poisons ‘this loathsome world’ - money, and worldly things, do much more damage than actual poison

He is deeply depressed, cynical and despairing – seeing no hope or good in the world at all

Impetuous Behaviour

Haste drives one misfortune to collide with another pushing the action forward toward the tragic conclusion:

Romeo’s hasty reaction to Mercutio’s death causes his banishment

Capulet’s rash decision to move the wedding day precipitates Romeo missing the message from the Friar

Romeo’s haste to consume the poison causes him to die just prior to Juliet’s awakening

Haste throughout the play acts as a vehicle for fate to draw characters through a series of unfortunate coincidences that form the intricately intertwined plot of the tragedy itself

Tragedy – Romeo’s Decision

He will thwart the forces that are trying to keep them apart by choosing to die ‘I will lie with thee tonight’ but

It is this very attempt to ‘defy’ fate that causes the tragedy

In killing himself beside the sleeping Juliet, he directly triggers the double suicide of the lovers

At the end of this scene

Romeo firmly believes that Juliet is dead and has decided that he will join her

He has procured the means of ending his life

He has no way of finding out the truth about the Friar’s plan as he is now on his way back to Verona

Act V, Scene ii - Summary

In his cell, the Friar speaks with Friar John, and realises that Romeo has not received news of Juliet’s plan

Friar John as supposed to deliver the letter to Romeo but was quarantined because of an outbreak of the plague and unable to leave Verona

Friar Lawrence becomes upset, realising that Juliet will wake alone in the tomb

He then hurries to the Capulet tomb because it is nearly time for Juliet to wake

He calls for a crowbar, intending to retrieve her, keep her safe in his cell, and send news again to Mantua

He calls Juliet a ‘poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!’ (foreshadowing)

Fate

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 series of near misses in these two scenes suggest ‘fate’ at work or are they just bad luck or human error?

These two scenes are designed to convey a sense of unavoidable destiny descending on Romeo – who himself feels that he has been thwarted by fate – ‘Then I defy you, stars’

Act V, Scene iii - Summary

Paris is the scattering flowers on Juliet’s He sees Romeo and is convinced that he has come to defile the

Capulet tomb He blames Romeo for Juliet’s death (believes she has died of grief

for Tybalt) Romeo breaks into the tomb claiming to retrieve his ring Balthasar, worried about what Romeo will do, also hides Paris confronts Romeo and they fight - Paris dies He begs Romeo to place him in the tomb next to Juliet and Romeo

grants his wish Romeo is dazzled by Juliet’s beauty even in death Without hesitation, he kisses her, drinks the poison, and dies at her

side The Friar arrives and discovers the dead bodies

Act V, Scene iii - Summary

Juliet then wakens and finds Romeo and Paris dead The Friar flees, and Juliet is alone She tries to drink poison from Romeo’s vial but finding it

empty, fatally stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger The Prince arrives, with the Capulets and Lord Montague Lady Montague has died of grief at Romeo’s banishment. The Friar recounts the events of the past week and offers his

life in atonement The Prince instead lays the blame for the deaths on Montague

and Capulet for their longstanding quarrel The Prince also blames himself for his leniency and fines

Montague and Capulet severely The two families are finally reconciled

Romeo and Aggression

As Romeo charges into the tomb he sheds much of the compassion which had previously dominated his character

His plans are “savage-wild,” and he vows to tear anyone who attempts to detract him “joint by joint” and to “strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs”

Romeo has separated himself from his family, from the feud, from Verona, and now from his humanity

Fate

Paris’ challenge to Romeo parallels Tybalt’s challenge in Act III, Scene i

In both instances, Romeo resists the invitation to fight, but fate conspires to leave him no choice

Romeo says to Paris, “By heaven I love thee better than myself” and responded similarly to Tybalt “But love thee better than thou canst devise.”

The Friar points out to Juliet that: ‘A greater power than we can contradict/Hath thwarted our intents’ – suggesting heavenly control over these events

Romeo’s Kindness

Paris challenges Romeo to fight, and Romeo resists, saying ‘I love thee better than myself’

He only fights when Paris pushes him towards this

Paris asks to be laid to rest with Juliet and Romeo agrees, remembering that Paris ‘should have married Juliet’ that day

This reveals his compassionate and generous nature

Light/ Dark

This last scene takes place in the dark of nightRomeo and Juliet’s relationship flourished at

night, and each provided the other with light In this final scene they find each other in

darkness againRomeo once again uses light imagery to describe

Juliet as she acts as a source of light in the darkness of the tomb: “her beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light.”

Dramatic Tension and Irony

Romeo is struck by the way Juliet’s beauty appears to defy death—she still looks alive: “Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe / That unsubstantial Death is so amorous?”

Dramatic tension is created by the audience’s awareness that she is still alive

In bleak irony, his attraction to her even in death emboldens him to take his own life just as she is about to awaken

The Friar

Discovers Romeo and Paris’ dead bodiesSees that Juliet is stirring, and urges her to

leave with him or live in a monastery!Juliet will not leave, and the Friar, fearing

he will be caught there, flees without herHis sense of responsibility for his actions

and for Juliet is lacking

Juliet

Juliet tries to take poison from Romeo’s lips by kissing him but is not able to get enough poison, and so uses Romeo’s dagger

Offering to use her body as the dagger’s ‘sheath’, she stabs herself and dies beside him

Rather than demonstrating weakness or a distracted mindset, Juliet’s death indicates her dignity and strength of character

Juliet ignores the Friar’s warnings and deliberately follows through with her vow to be with Romeo in death

Love

Due to the strength of their love Romeo and Juliet have consistently defied societies rules

Their suicides are the final act of defiance – they will choose not to live rather than live in the world forced upon them by their parents

Their ‘violent ends’ transform that world, with the Prince, and their parents, recognising that such a supreme sacrifice must be honoured

They are fated – by ‘the stars’, by the violent world in which they live, by the violence and intensity of their love

They are the archetypes of true love – they will kill themselves to preserve their love

Blame

The Prince blames the Capulets and the Montagues, saying ‘See what a scourge is laid upon your hate’

He also blames himself for ‘winking at’ (ignoring) the feud for too long

The Friar also accepts blame for his actionsFate is to blame for the control it has

asserted over the lives of the lovers

Positive Resolution

The final scene reunites the lovers We also see the reconciliation of the feuding families -

Capulet and Montague shake hands, deep in sorrow over their losses

Montague offers to raise a statue of Juliet, in gold Capulet realises that Romeo and Juliet have been ‘poor

sacrifices of our enmity’ and offers his “daughter’s jointure” Romeo and Juliet’s lives will be immortalized in gold as

witness to their sacrifice and as a reminder to avoid conflict for future generations

By their deaths, Romeo and Juliet bring about the very world that would have allowed them to love each other and be happy - this is the central tragedy of the play

Negative Resolution

However, the point of reconciliation seems insubstantial since neither work out their differences and offer material recompense instead

Are these just empty gestures?The tragic waste of the young lovers’ lives is

highlighted as the older members of the feuding families stand amidst their dead bodies

This seems unnatural and unfair It is pitiful that the love and joy which Romeo and

Juliet felt could never last in this world but was destroyed