The relationship of Romeo and Juliet expresses the true definition of “star-crossed lovers” by telling the reader in the beginning of the book that their relationship will be doomed to fail. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare strategically uses the literary device dramatic irony to show the readers of the play that Romeo and Juliet are star crossed lovers. From the beginning to the end of the book the audience knows the events that will take place creating a large impact on the character. By establishing Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed at the beginning of the play and making them truly star-crossed in the end, Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to convey the central idea that love is an overpowering and intense …show more content…
In the prologue, the audience is informed that Romeo and Juliet are destined to fail and not be able to be together when Shakespeare states, “...Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean...A pair of star crossed lovers take their life...The fearful passage of their death-marked love…” (Prologue.4-9). Star-crossed lovers cannot be together because everything is working against their love. This helps the audience understand the dramatic irony in the overall play that Shakespeare is trying to demonstrate about their true fate, and how the entire cast is seemingly oblivious to this outcome of their love. Romeo Montague falls deeply in love with a Capulet. He wishes to attend the Capulet party, which is not very smart since the Montagues and Capulets are rivals. “[Romeo:] I fear too early for my mind misgives/ Some consequence …show more content…
She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead! [Capulet] Ha! Let me see her. Out alas. She’s cold, her blood is settled and her joints are stiff. Life and these lips have been long separated. Death lies on her like an untimely frost (4.5.25-30)” This proves that in attempt for Juliet to be with Romeo she drinks a potion that will let her sleep for a few days. After people thought that she was dead, she would then awaken and reunite with her one and only true love. However Romeo never finds out that this had been all apart of the plan in the first place and kills himself to be with Juliet. Once Juliet wakes up she finds Romeo dead on her lap and says
“What’s here? A cup closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. O churl. Drink all, and left no fRiendly drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them. To make me die with a restorative. [She kisses him] Thy lips are warm!... Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger. This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die. [She stabs herself and falls]. (Act 5, scene 3, lines 161-167;
The reader realizes this when the prologue states, “Two households, both alike in dignity/ In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean./ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life” (I 1-6). This translates to say two families have been rivals for many years. Romeo and Juliet are two from separate rivaling families that fall in love. The reader can acknowledge that these two individuals meet one another due to fate. However, they know that because of their parents’ hatred of each other, they can never be together. “My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must love a loathed enemy” (I v138-140). A decision is made that the only way to be happy is to take their lives. As soon as the play begins, the audience can foresee a tragic ending because of the language used.
Juliet strategizes her disastrous plan and worries, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me?” (Lines 30-32 of Act Four, Scene Three). Juliet is desperate to see Romeo, ergo she plans to fake her death. Her thoughts of Romeo finding her lifeless foreshadows their future. Romeo is deprived of the news of Juliet’s real state of health, therefore he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. O mischief, thou art swift to enter the thoughts of desperate men!” (Lines 34-36 of Act Five, Scene One). Once again, Romeo’s perception is only focused on Juliet. His mental instability leads him to think Paris is in the way obtaining true happiness, thus he slays him. Romeo acquires poison, stands beside Juliet, and states, “Here’s to my love! (Drinks.) O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (Lines 119-120 of Act Five, Scene Three). Romeo observes Juliet’s body and determines that he should die beside her. Juliet wakes to his lifeless body, and determines she should commit suicide, as well. Romeo’s foolish decisions lead to the death of himself and
Dramatic Tension in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare's, 'Romeo and Juliet', tells us the story of two feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues; whose children fall in love with each other and eventually take their lives. The prologue is a brief description of the play. As the play was written in the 16th Century, a time when many people who attended the theatre were inattentive, they needed help with the context and meaning of the play; this is what the prologue is for. The prologue also makes the audience want to know what happened in between the beginning and ending; which they already know. Dramatic irony is introduced this way.
Juliet, desperate to avoid wedding Paris, visits him, with a dagger in hand. In order to avoid her death in that moment, Friar Laurence promises to give her a potion that will allow her to appear dead long enough so that Romeo may be able to return from Mantua. Thus, the two will be able to escape Verona together. He explains “And this distilling liquor drink thou off/When presently through all thy veins shall run/A cold and drowsy humor; for no pulse/No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest” (4.1.94-96). Friar Laurence describes his plan, saying that the potion Juliet will drink will make her appear deceased. It will give Romeo time to get to the Capulet tomb, and they will be able to live together for the rest of their lives. Although he explains his plan somewhat thoroughly, Friar Laurence goes on to say he will deliver a letter to Romeo, that of which is never delivered by Friar John. Romeo hears news of Juliet's so called passing by his companion, Balthasar. He tells Romeo “Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument/And her immortal part with angels lives/I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault/And presently took post to tell it to you” (5.1.18-21) Due to how the citizens of Verona believe that Juliet has really passed away, Balthasar truly believes that she is deceased. He explains that he has seen her laid to rest in the
In the prologue, Shakespeare uses phrases such as “death-marked love” and “star-cross’d lovers” to show that fortune and fate are responsible for the tragedy. Shakespeare also describes Romeo and Juliet’s defiance of their parents as “misadventured piteous overthrows.” This description suggests that the lovers’ efforts to be together will be hopeless against what fate has in store for
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Falls.]" (Act 5, scene 3, line
...re her fake dead body is kept, and drinks the poison he brought with him, hastily, without giving it a second thought, assuming that Juliet was dead and that he might not be able to live without her. However, Juliet wakes up at the moment when Romeo falls dead on her lap and she exclaims, “Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end” (5.3.167), signifying the untimely death of Romeo that occurred due to his unnecessary haste.
Help, Help!. My lady’s dead!—(IV,5,17) The bride was dead; she was dead! What are they going to do now? Everything was set, but the bride was dead!
Over Reacting and Fate in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet were described as'star crossed lovers' at the beginning of the play. The term'star crossed' refers to the stars one is born under; with this crossed means not to be. So by the beginning of the play, this love was already doomed. This play also contains strong, very emotional characters that bring about giving poor advice to Romeo and Juliet and soon leads to the death of the two lovers.
In Romeo and Juliet a significantly horrendous ending takes place, but with Shakespeare's use of foreshadowing he is able to keep the reader from being overly traumatized. For example, when Juliet and Romeo are discussing plans Juliet says, "O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of the tomb"(lll,v,14-56). Juliet has mixed feelings about the arrangement devised by the Friar so that the two of them can be together. Juliet thinks disaster will come of previous tactics developed to allow Romeo and her to be together. In addition, when Romeo is speaking of his love for Juliet he says, "And but thou love me, let them find me here. / My life were better ended by there hate / Then death prorogued, wanting of thy love"(ll,ii,75-77). Romeo's immense love for Juliet will eventually lead to the fall of himself. Death lingers throughout the play between Romeo and his love, Juliet. In conclusion, when Juliet is thinking about Romeo she says, "Give me Romeo; and when he shall die / Take him and cut him out in little stars, / And he will make the face of heaven so fine / That all the world will be in love with night," (lll,ii,21-25). This suggests that in the play Romeo will end up dying and Juliet will be there to see it. Juliet prophesizes over many topics in the play and in the end they become true. Foreshadowing is used in this play to help the audience trounce the dreadful outcome.
Juliet receives a vial containing a potion from Friar Lawrence, who has a plan that will make Juliet appear as if she is dead, so that when she awakens, she will unite with Romeo. Juliet considers several consequences before drinking the potion, such as losing her sanity or being buried alive. Despite her reasoning, she summons the courage to drink the potion, exclaiming “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee” (Shakespeare 4.4.58). Instead of Juliet making a logical decision to avoid drinking the potion, she follows through with her emotions. Juliet has an obsession with Romeo, in which she is willing to take a risk on the assumption that Romeo will be there when she awakens. She recklessly abandons the fears she once had because her logic is clouded by her immense feelings for Romeo. Fears such as the friar poisoning the potion are quite realistic, since he wants to avoid suffering punishment for secretly marrying two teenagers from rival families. Juliet is so deeply lost in her emotions that she is prompted to take her own life into her hands. Infatuation can take control of someone and cause one to make rash judgements, similar to the one Juliet makes by drinking this potion for Romeo. The couple’s infatuation is seen again when Romeo
I will kiss thy lips, haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make me die with a restorative.” (5.3.161-166) Romeo killed himself to be with Juliet, so Juliet killed herself to be with Romeo. Romeo and Juliet completed a horrific act in order to be with each other. Romeo and Juliet could easily go to other people, but they stay with each other. The world is keeping them from being married, but they couldn’t live without each
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.
My reverence, calling, nor divinity/ If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here/ Under some biting error" (4.1.166-9). He advised that she pretend to be dead so that Claudio might think that his words had killed her and he would become remorseful, love her ever more, and her reputation and maidenhood would be saved: he tells her to "Come, lady, die to live" (4.1.253).... ...
When the friar hears of this, he devises a plan so that the two lovers can be together. The major climax of the play comes when the friar gives Juliet a potion that will make it seem as though she has died, when in fact she is alive the whole time. While in Mantua, Romeo mistakenly hears that Juliet has actually died and he goes to lay by her side. Just as he takes a vile poison and dies, Juliet awakens to find her love lying dead at her side. She cannot fathom living in a world without Romeo, so she takes his sword and ends her own life.