The Theme of Death in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Often times, authors use the theme of death throughout their works. This seems to be true of William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. Throughout his play, Shakespeare uses death to move his story along. He does this with actual deaths, which cause problems for the lovers, and through premonitions and dreams of death. Both Juliet and her Romeo exhibit these premonitions/dreams.
The use of death is immediately seen in the prologue of the play: "The fearful passage of their death-marked love…" (Shakespeare Pro. 9). The Prologue offers us the inevitable fate of the two lovers short and abrupt. During the first act of the play, we learn of the Capulet's ball, and of how the lover's met. After the ball is over, Juliet says, "…If he be, married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed," (I, v, ll.143-44) which is a foreboding of the final scene of the play. This partially leads to Romeo and Tybalt's duel in III, i, as Romeo's presence at the ball antagonizes Tybalt. In II, iv, Benvolio and Mercutio reveal that Tybalt has sent Romeo a challenge to a duel.
Just before the arrival of Juliet, the Friar warns Romeo against consummating their new marriage too quickly. Romeo agrees, but challenges death to ruin the moment, "...then love-devouring death do what he dare…" (I, vi, ll.7.). Now if only the marriage was made public, these forebodings may not have come to pass especially the duel with Tybalt.
In III, i, Tybalt accosts Benvolio and Mercutio in search of Romeo. Now, Romeo does not want to duel with Tybalt as he is now secretly his kinsman, but this does not stop Mercutio for getting in the mix with Tybalt. Romeo gets between the two men, and a...
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...meo drinks the poison and dies.
The Friar arrives upon the scene a bit to late, but is there to greet Juliet when she awakens. The sight is too horrible for him, and he leaves Juliet alone in the tomb. Distraught that there is no more poison left, Juliet stabs herself. At the end of the play, we also learn of the sudden death of Lady Montague, after Romeo's banishment.
Throughout his play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare exemplified the death motif in many ways. He used actual deaths, personification of Death, and employed the use of foresight to allude to death and disaster. In doing so in this eloquent manner, his play runs smoothly, and links to other parts very well, into an ironic and twisted tragedy.
Bibliography:
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Washington
Square Press, 1959
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
Literature according to our textbook is one form of media that is an expression of attitude toward death. Literature gives us the meaning of death as it relates to society and individuals. (Lynne Ann DeSpelder, pg. 17) Novels about war depict how individuals and societies search for meaning in shattering experiences of trauma and loss. In order to concur with our textbook and the media that was chosen, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare came to mind. Romeo and Juliet is the ultimate love story but also shows love in a violent way. Romeo and Juliet go against the society of their families. The lovers decided that it was better to be dead together than to be alive and apart. This type of love has been glorified to be romantic and shows strength.
The suicides of Romeo and Juliet reflect their hasty and impulsive decisions as well as the dishonesty of Friar Lawrence and the Nurse. Romeo’s haste in drinking the venomous poison, Friar’s cowardice in handling the consequences as well as the Nurse’s choice of standing against the relationship of Romeo and Juliet contribute equally to their fatal end. Therefore, dishonesty and haste can result in undesirable circumstances to any individual.
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.
Also, he got over his first love Rosaline very quickly when meeting Juliet, which also set up his death because they were never meant to be. Juliet foreshadows his death by saying "an ill-diving soul,"(act 3 scene 5 shakespeare) she means that she feels something bad is going to happen to Romeo. This foreshadows how she will see Romeo for the last time. This is evidence to show how Shakespeare uses tragic flaws to show that Romeo is a true tragic hero who is responsible for his own demise.
The Dramatic Effectiveness of Act III Scene I of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet In this climatic central scene of the play Tybalt kills Mercutio (a close friend to Romeo.) Romeo kills Tybalt (his cousin in-law.) and is banished forever from Verona (where his wife- Juliet lives.). The audience are aware that Romeo and Juliet had fallen in love at the Capulet ball and have been married by the Friar Lawrence in the previous scene.
In efforts to overcome such hindrances to their love, Juliet feigns her death as planned. However, as a result of miscommunication, Romeo takes the news seriously, and thus, being propelled by zealous devotion, both use death as the key to unity. A variety of themes are implicated throughout the play. Fate, in particular, is well demonstrated. By using the motif of stars and characters such as Friar Lawrence, Juliet, and Romeo, Shakespeare truly and masterfully conveys that fate is the inevitable, unalterable and omnipotent force that controls all actions unto their consequences.
When Juliet hears after marrying Romeo that she must be married to Paris, a count, in two days, she rushes to Friar Laurence’s cell to speak of her sorrow. When Friar Laurence hears of how Juliet wishes to die if he cannot fix the problem, Friar Laurence says that he can help her if she has “the strength of will to slay [her]self” (4.1.73). This shows that Friar Laurence is again not worried about Juliet herself and her safety, but about what he can do to reconcile her family and Romeo’s. He offers this proposition when he already knows Juliet is willing to die and vulnerable. Lastly, his resulting plan is what sets the play’s tragedy in motion. Though Friar Laurence had many opportunities to back away from his involvement, keeping Juliet and Romeo safe, he does not. This shows that his interference – and the way he goes about it – are responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s
In the course of the play, Romeo and Juliet immediately fall in love. Also, they know they are meant for each other and therefore decide to get married. After this marriage, there was a brief moment in time where everything was perfect. They are married, in love and there is nothing stopping them from being together. This however quickly changes after a fight that leads to death. Once Romeo is banished from Verona for the penalty of murder, love grows tremendously between the couple and drives the need to be together. The marriage between Romeo and Juliet is hidden from their parents, so Montague decides to arrange a marriage between her and Paris. With all the conflict arising between Juliet’s family, Friar Lawrence creates a plan that unfortunately does not succeed. His plan for Juliet is to tell her father she will marry Paris then go to bed with no one, not even the nurse. After, she will drink a potion to make her seem dead for forty two hours and then have a messenger tell Romeo about it. He will have her put in a vault to wait for Friar to bring her out so she and Romeo can elope. The plan was perfect until tragedy occurs, Benvolio had seen Juliet dead and immediately tells Romeo about it. The result is Romeo and Juliet murdering themselves and the play had a tragic ending. Overall, young, innocent lovers die, through no fault of their own but a simple mistake. “How oft when men are at the
Now in Act 5, this is the time that Romeo shows the theme death. He
This hatred causes many brawls including one in Act 3 scene 1. This brawl is a pawn of fate that pulls Romeo further apart from Juliet. In this scene Tybalt is upset because he believes that Romeo had crashed the Capulet ball, though in reality he had no harmful intentions. He is blood thirsty and wants to battle Romeo. Romeo is Mad, passionate and hasty. He is already symbolically dead and Mercutio and Benvolio believe that he is in no state of mind to fight, and if he were to do so he would not stand a chance against Tybalt, the prince of cats. Mercutio Is worried about this so in his attempt to protect Romeo he fights Tybalt which unleashes a big fight. Tybalt kills Mercutio. This upsets Romeo so much that he kills Tybalt because he was overwhelmed with passion and makes a hasty decision. Now bringing things back to the Capulet ball. Fate begins with Tybalt hearing Romeo express his love for Juliets beauty aloud and becomes filled with anger because he believes that Romeo is there to crash party since he is a Montague. If Tybalt never heard that, he would have never instigated a fight and Romeo would not have been exiled. This is fate rearranging time and circumstance to pull Romeo farther away from
Being that death is a universally explored topic, William Shakespeare, a master of English literature, opted to thoroughly investigate this complex notion in his play Hamlet. Shakespeare cleverly and sometimes subtly brings the reader/viewer through a physical and spiritual journey of death via the several controversial characters of Hamlet. The chief element of this expedition is undoubtedly the funerals. Every funeral depicts, and marks, the conclusion of different perceptions of death. Shakespeare uses the funerals of the several controversial characters to gradually transform the simple, spiritual, naïve, and somewhat light view of death into a much more factual, physical, serious, and down to earth outlook.
Besides poison representing death, Shakespeare also uses images of death which symbolize sorrow. One example of such imagery involves the time when Romeo leaves the Capulet party and leaves Juliet behind. He uses images of a lifeless body and death to show the sorrow he feels when he is not with his beloved Juliet.
In scene five, act three, Romeo was finding his way into the tomb where Juliet’s supposed dead body was resting. When Romeo found Juliet’s dead body, he brought out his poison and exclaimed that “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 120), and followed to drink the poison, killing himself. In this passage, Shakespeare explains how Romeo dies, using diction to make the scene romantic. “Thus with a kiss I die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 120), can be seen as as a romantic way to die, but it was Romeo’s choice to drink the poison, which ended his life. Furthermore, this decision also resulted in Juliet’s death, shortly after. This passage explains Romeo’s foolishness because instead of killing himself on the spot, he could have waited. Although he would not expect for Juliet to wake up, simply waiting for others to arrive at the tomb to mourn with would have wasted enough time for Juliet to wake up. After some time passed, Juliet woke up from the effects of the potion she drank. When Juliet woke up from her fake coma, she found Romeo dead next to him. She took his dagger and exclaimed “O, happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 174-175), and of course, she died shortly after stabbing herself. Shakespeare included
William Shakespeare treats death in Romeo and Juliet different for each set of characters. Some character deaths was because a familial issue, other were for legal issues. Romeo and Juliet's death was a familial issue, Mercutio’s death was a personal issue and Tybalt's death was a legal issue.