Romeo and Juliet

1. Romeo and Juliet Act 5

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.’

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 was 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 corpse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!’ (foreshadowing)

11. 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’

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Light/ Dark • This last scene takes place in the dark of night • Romeo and Juliet’s relationship flourished at night, and each provided the other with light • In this final scene they find each other in darkness again • Romeo 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.”

18. 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

19. The Friar • Discovers Romeo and Paris’ dead bodies • Sees 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 her • His sense of responsibility for his actions and for Juliet is lacking

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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 actions • Fate is to blame for the control it has asserted over the lives of the lovers

23. 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

24. 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?