romeo and juliet nat 5 essay

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Romeo and Juliet

William shakespeare.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Romeo and Juliet: Introduction

Romeo and juliet: plot summary, romeo and juliet: detailed summary & analysis, romeo and juliet: themes, romeo and juliet: quotes, romeo and juliet: characters, romeo and juliet: symbols, romeo and juliet: literary devices, romeo and juliet: quizzes, romeo and juliet: theme wheel, brief biography of william shakespeare.

Historical Context of Romeo and Juliet

Other books related to romeo and juliet.

• Full Title: Romeo and Juliet
• When Written: Likely 1591-1595
• Where Written: London, England
• When Published: “Bad quarto” (incomplete manuscript) printed in 1597; Second, more complete quarto printed in 1599; First folio, with clarifications and corrections, printed in 1623
• Literary Period: Renaissance
• Genre: Tragic play
• Setting: Verona, Italy
• Climax: Mistakenly believing that Juliet is dead, Romeo kills himself on her funeral bier by drinking poison. Juliet wakes up, finds Romeo dead, and fatally stabs herself with his dagger.
• Antagonist: Capulet, Lady Capulet, Montague, Lady Montague, Tybalt

Extra Credit for Romeo and Juliet

Tourist Trap. Casa di Giulietta, a 12-century villa in Verona, is located just off the Via Capello (the possible origin of the anglicized surname “Capulet”) and has become a major tourist attraction over the years because of its distinctive balcony. The house, purchased by the city of Verona in 1905 from private holdings, has been transformed into a kind of museum dedicated to the history of Romeo and Juliet , where tourists can view set pieces from some of the major film adaptations of the play and even leave letters to their loved ones. Never mind that “the balcony scene,” one of the most famous scenes in English literature, may never have existed—the word “balcony” never appears in the play, and balconies were not an architectural feature of Shakespeare’s England—tourists flock from all over to glimpse Juliet’s famous veranda.

Love Language. While much of Shakespeare’s later work is written in a combination of verse and prose (used mostly to offer distinction between social classes, with nobility speaking in verse and commoners speaking in prose), Romeo and Juliet is notable for its heady blend of poetic forms. The play’s prologue is written in the form of a sonnet, while most of the dialogue adheres strictly to the rhythm of iambic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet alter their cadences when speaking to each another, using more casual, naturalistic speech. When they talk about other potential lovers, such as Rosaline and Paris, their speech is much more formal (to reflect the emotional falsity of those dalliances.) Friar Laurence speaks largely in sermons and aphorisms, while the nurse speaks in blank verse.

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A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Although it was first performed in the 1590s, the first  documented  performance of Romeo and Juliet is from 1662. The diarist Samuel Pepys was in the audience, and recorded that he ‘saw “Romeo and Juliet,” the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do.’

Despite Pepys’ dislike, the play is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved and most famous, and the story of Romeo and Juliet is well known. However, the play has become so embedded in the popular psyche that Shakespeare’s considerably more complex play has been reduced to a few key aspects: ‘star-cross’d lovers’, a teenage love story, and the suicide of the two protagonists.

In the summary and analysis that follow, we realise that Romeo and Juliet is much more than a tragic love story.

Romeo and Juliet : brief summary

After the Prologue has set the scene – we have two feuding households, Montagues and Capulets, in the city-state of Verona; and young Romeo is a Montague while Juliet, with whom Romeo is destined to fall in love, is from the Capulet family, sworn enemies of the Montagues – the play proper begins with servants of the two feuding households taunting each other in the street.

When Benvolio, a member of house Montague, arrives and clashes with Tybalt of house Capulet, a scuffle breaks out, and it is only when Capulet himself and his wife, Lady Capulet, appear that the fighting stops. Old Montague and his wife then show up, and the Prince of Verona, Escalus, arrives and chastises the people for fighting. Everyone leaves except Old Montague, his wife, and Benvolio, Montague’s nephew. Benvolio tells them that Romeo has locked himself away, but he doesn’t know why.

Romeo appears and Benvolio asks his cousin what is wrong, and Romeo starts speaking in paradoxes, a sure sign that he’s in love. He claims he loves Rosaline, but will not return any man’s love. A servant appears with a note, and Romeo and Benvolio learn that the Capulets are holding a masked ball.

Benvolio tells Romeo he should attend, even though he is a Montague, as he will find more beautiful women than Rosaline to fall in love with. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet asks her daughter Juliet whether she has given any thought to marriage, and tells Juliet that a man named Paris would make an excellent husband for her.

Romeo attends the Capulets’ masked ball, with his friend Mercutio. Mercutio tells Romeo about a fairy named Queen Mab who enters young men’s minds as they dream, and makes them dream of love and romance. At the masked ball, Romeo spies Juliet and instantly falls in love with her; she also falls for him.

They kiss, but then Tybalt, Juliet’s kinsman, spots Romeo and recognising him as a Montague, plans to confront him. Old Capulet tells him not to do so, and Tybalt reluctantly agrees. When Juliet enquires after who Romeo is, she is distraught to learn that he is a Montague and thus a member of the family that is her family’s sworn enemies.

Romeo breaks into the gardens of Juliet’s parents’ house and speaks to her at her bedroom window. The two of them pledge their love for each other, and arrange to be secretly married the following night. Romeo goes to see a churchman, Friar Laurence, who agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet.

After the wedding, the feud between the two families becomes violent again: Tybalt kills Mercutio in a fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation. The Prince banishes Romeo from Verona for his crime.

Juliet is told by her father that she will marry Paris, so Juliet goes to seek Friar Laurence’s help in getting out of it. He tells her to take a sleeping potion which will make her appear to be dead for two nights; she will be laid to rest in the family vault, and Romeo (who will be informed of the plan) can secretly come to her there.

However, although that part of the plan goes fine, the message to Romeo doesn’t arrive; instead, he hears that Juliet has actually died. He secretly visits her at the family vault, but his grieving is interrupted by the arrival of Paris, who is there to lay flowers. The two of them fight, and Romeo kills him.

Convinced that Juliet is really dead, Romeo drinks poison in order to join Juliet in death. Juliet wakes from her slumber induced by the sleeping draught to find Romeo dead at her side. She stabs herself.

The play ends with Friar Laurence telling the story to the two feuding families. The Prince tells them to put their rivalry behind them and live in peace.

Romeo and Juliet : analysis

How should we analyse Romeo and Juliet , one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frequently studied, performed, and adapted plays? Is Romeo and Juliet the great love story that it’s often interpreted as, and what does it say about the play – if it is a celebration of young love – that it ends with the deaths of both romantic leads?

It’s worth bearing in mind that Romeo and Juliet do not kill themselves specifically because they are forbidden to be together, but rather because a chain of events (of which their families’ ongoing feud with each other is but one) and a message that never arrives lead to a misunderstanding which results in their suicides.

Romeo and Juliet is often read as both a tragedy and a great celebration of romantic love, but it clearly throws out some difficult questions about the nature of love, questions which are rendered even more pressing when we consider the headlong nature of the play’s action and the fact that Romeo and Juliet meet, marry, and die all within the space of a few days.

Below, we offer some notes towards an analysis of this classic Shakespeare play and explore some of the play’s most salient themes.

It’s worth starting with a consideration of just what Shakespeare did with his source material. Interestingly, two families known as the Montagues and Capulets appear to have actually existed in medieval Italy: the first reference to ‘Montagues and Capulets’ is, curiously, in the poetry of Dante (1265-1321), not Shakespeare.

In Dante’s early fourteenth-century epic poem, the  Divine Comedy , he makes reference to two warring Italian families: ‘Come and see, you who are negligent, / Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi / One lot already grieving, the other in fear’ ( Purgatorio , canto VI). Precisely why the families are in a feud with one another is never revealed in Shakespeare’s play, so we are encouraged to take this at face value.

The play’s most famous line references the feud between the two families, which means Romeo and Juliet cannot be together. And the line, when we stop and consider it, is more than a little baffling. The line is spoken by Juliet: ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ Of course, ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’ – it means ‘why’.

But that doesn’t exactly clear up the whys and the wherefores. The question still doesn’t appear to make any sense: Romeo’s problem isn’t his first name, but his family name, Montague. Surely, since she fancies him, Juliet is quite pleased with ‘Romeo’ as he is – it’s his family that are the problem. Solutions  have been proposed to this conundrum , but none is completely satisfying.

There are a number of notable things Shakespeare did with his source material. The Italian story ‘Mariotto and Gianozza’, printed in 1476, contained many of the plot elements of Shakespeare’s  Romeo and Juliet . Shakespeare’s source for the play’s story was Arthur Brooke’s  The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet  (1562), an English verse translation of this Italian tale.

The moral of Brooke’s tale is that young love ends in disaster for their elders, and is best reined in; Shakespeare changed that. In Romeo and Juliet , the headlong passion and excitement of young love is celebrated, even though confusion leads to the deaths of the young lovers. But through their deaths, and the example their love set for their parents, the two families vow to be reconciled to each other.

Shakespeare also makes Juliet a thirteen-year-old girl in his play, which is odd for a number of reasons. We know that  Romeo and Juliet  is about young love – the ‘pair of star-cross’d lovers’, who belong to rival families in Verona – but what is odd about Shakespeare’s play is how young he makes Juliet.

In Brooke’s verse rendition of the story, Juliet is sixteen. But when Shakespeare dramatised the story, he made Juliet several years younger, with Romeo’s age unspecified. As Lady Capulet reveals, Juliet is ‘not [yet] fourteen’, and this point is made to us several times, as if Shakespeare wishes to draw attention to it and make sure we don’t forget it.

This makes sense in so far as Juliet represents young love, but what makes it unsettling – particularly for modern audiences – is the fact that this makes Juliet a girl of thirteen when she enjoys her night of wedded bliss with Romeo. As John Sutherland puts it in his (and Cedric Watts’) engaging  Oxford World’s Classics: Henry V, War Criminal?: and Other Shakespeare Puzzles , ‘In a contemporary court of law [Romeo] would receive a longer sentence for what he does to Juliet than for what he does to Tybalt.’

There appears to be no satisfactory answer to this question, but one possible explanation lies in one of the play’s recurring themes: bawdiness and sexual familiarity. Perhaps surprisingly given the youthfulness of its tragic heroine, Romeo and Juliet is shot through with bawdy jokes, double entendres, and allusions to sex, made by a number of the characters.

These references to physical love serve to make Juliet’s innocence, and subsequent passionate romance with Romeo, even more noticeable: the journey both Romeo and Juliet undertake is one from innocence (Romeo pointlessly and naively pursuing Rosaline; Juliet unversed in the ways of love) to experience.

In the last analysis, Romeo and Juliet is a classic depiction of forbidden love, but it is also far more sexually aware, more ‘adult’, than many people realise.

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4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”

Modern reading of the play’s opening dialogue among the brawlers fails to parse the ribaldry. Sex scares the bejeepers out of us. Why? Confer “R&J.”

It’s all that damn padre’s fault!

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Romeo and Juliet

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Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Mercutio has many clever and joking lines. He often wants to cheer up Romeo and make others laugh.

• How does the tone of the play change when Mercutio is killed? ( topic sentence )
• How do events in the rest of the play show that Mercutio’s death is an important turning point in the plot? Name at least three events and use details from the text to support your ideas.
• Finally, discuss in your concluding sentence or sentences how Mercutio’s death connects to the theme of feuds and rivalry .

2. Consider the setting of the famous balcony scene and the placement and movement of the characters throughout it.

• What might Shakespeare have been suggesting with the use of the balcony, symbolically? ( topic sentence )

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Romeo And Juliet Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on romeo and juliet.

Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love tragedy written by William Shakespeare. This is a story of love and fate. Furthermore, the basis of this tragic love story is the Old Italian tale translated into English in the sixteenth century. The story is about two young star-crossed lovers whose death results in reconcile between their feuding families. Moreover, Romeo and Juliet is among the most frequently performed plays by Shakespeare .

Lessons of Love from Romeo and Juliet

First of all, Romeo and Juliet teach us that love is blind. Romeo and Juliet belonged to two influential families. Furthermore, these two families were engaged in a big feud among themselves. However, against all odds, Romeo and Juliet find each other and fall in love. Most noteworthy, they are blind to the fact that they are from rival families. They strive to be together in spite of the threat of hate between their families.

Another important lesson is that love brings out the best in us. Most noteworthy, Romeo and Juliet were very different characters by the end of the story than in the beginning. Romeo was suffering from depression before he met Juliet. Furthermore, Juliet was an innocent timid girl. Juliet was forced into marriage against her will by her parents. After falling in love, the personalities of these characters changed in positive ways. Romeo becomes a deeply passionate lover and Juliet becomes a confident woman.

Life without love is certainly not worth living. Later in the story, Romeo learns that his beloved Juliet is dead. At this moment Romeo felt a heart-shattering moment. Romeo then gets extremely sad and drinks poison. However, Juliet was alive and wakes up to see Romeo dead. Juliet then immediately decides to kill herself due to this massive heartbreak. Hence, both lovers believed that life without love is not worth living.

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Legacy of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Furthermore, the play was very popular even in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Scholar Gary Taylor believes it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare’s plays. Moreover, Sir William Davenant of the Duke’s Company staged Romeo and Juliet in 1662. The earliest production of Romeo and Juliet was in North America on 23 March 1730.

There were professional performances of Romeo and Juliet in the mid-19th century. In 19th century America, probably the most elaborate productions of Romeo and Juliet took place. The first professional performance of the play in Japan seems to be George Crichton Miln’s company’s production in 1890. In the 20th century, Romeo and Juliet became the second most popular play behind Hamlet.

There have been at least 24 operas based on Romeo and Juliet. The best-known ballet version of this play is Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Most noteworthy, Romeo and Juliet have a huge impact on literature. Romeo and Juliet made romance as a worthy topic for tragedy. Before Romeo and Juliet, romantic tragedy was certainly unthinkable.

Romeo and Juliet are probably the most popular romantic fictional characters. They have been an inspiration for lovers around the world for centuries. Most noteworthy, the story depicts the struggle of the couple against a patriarchal society. People will always consider Romeo and Juliet as archetypal young lovers.

Q1 State any one lesson of love from Romeo and Juliet?

A1 One lesson of love from Romeo and Juliet is that love brings out the best in us.

Q2 What makes Romeo and Juliet unique in literature?

A2 Romeo and Juliet made romance as a worthy topic for tragedy. This is what makes it unique.

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Sample exam question - AQA Romeo and Juliet - Planning your answer

An example of the type of question you might be asked about Romeo and Juliet in the exam and how best to approach it.

Part of English Literature Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet - Planning your answer

Before you begin writing your essay, it is important that you plan it properly so the essay is crafted and structured to suit the question. You must also refer to the assessment objectives to ensure you've met the criteria.

Below is a structure that you could use for your answer.

• Introduction to the topic and question.
• Point 1: Juliet refuses to marry Paris.
• Point 2: Capulet and Paris deciding on Juliet's marriage.
• Point 3: Capulet hearing the news of Juliet's death.
• Conclusion.

Sample Answers

Consider the following example answers about Point 1 (Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris and Capulet’s response).

Sample answer 1

Capulet is horrified when Juliet tells him that she won't marry on the Thursday and she won't marry Paris. I know that he is horrified because Shakespeare has him saying 'disobedient wretch' to his daughter, Juliet. This is a horrible thing to say because he is saying that his daughter is a 'wretch', which basically means she's a nightmare and a plague on his life. Shakespeare has used this word to describe Juliet to highlight Capulet's anger that Juliet won't obey him, the male and master of the Capulet household.

Feedback comments – not bad but room for improvement!

• This candidate shows that they've got an understanding of the text, main characters and plot. They use evidence to support their points. To develop this further, they should focus on Capulet's emotion and why Shakespeare has presented his emotion in this way.
• There's some analysis of language here as the candidate has explored the use of 'wretch'. However, this should be developed. They should also look at the structure and form of the text.
• There's a mention of Capulet's role as the 'master of the Capulet household', which indicates a little understanding of the social and historical context. This should be developed and discussed with the question.
• The candidate writes accurately, using correct spelling and punctuation. Their phrasing could be more concise and clearer at points.

Sample answer 2

In the extract above, Shakespeare presents Capulet's anger and disgust at his daughter, Juliet, because she defies him. Capulet initially curses Juliet, 'hang thee' and his disgust is clearly shown when be begins hurling insults at his daughter, 'young baggage' followed by 'disobedient wretch!'. The adjective 'disobedient' reveals that it is his authority which he feels is being challenged, and the exclamation mark emphasises his anger. The imperative instruction, 'Get thee to church' is an attempt to reassert his authority, and the command to 'speak not' is similarly dismissive of Juliet.

Feedback - much improved!

• The candidate demonstrates a good understanding of the plot and characters, and uses evidence to support the main points. To develop this further, the candidate could explore their own personal response - highlighting what they think about Capulet's attitudes towards his daughter.
• The candidate discusses Shakespeare's use of language, including punctuation - focusing on what Shakespeare has done and why he has done it. However, the candidate hasn't discussed the form and how the audience would've felt at this point in the play.
• There's no social and historical context in this answer. There are many opportunities to develop this.
• A well written answer, focusing on the rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Using the skills you've learnt in this section, now write an essay responding to the Romeo and Juliet essay question. Time yourself and make sure you are meeting the assessment objectives .

More guides on this topic

• Plot summary - AQA
• Quiz - Plot summary
• Characters - AQA
• Quiz - Characters
• Themes - AQA
• Quiz - Themes
• Form, structure and language - AQA
• Quiz - Form, structure and language
• Dramatisation - AQA

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Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare

One key to William Shakespeare’s play lies in its poetry. The play begins with a sonnet as prologue, a clue that the work to follow will trace the moods of a sonnet sequence. Thomas Nashe described Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella (1591), the best and most popular of the sonnet sequences of the 1590’s, as “the tragicomedy of love . . . performed by starlight,” an apt synopsis of Romeo and Juliet . Specific episodes in the play, such as the lovers’ nighttime meeting while the household sleeps (act 2, scene 2), seem copied from Sidney’s work. Like Astrophel, Romeo develops a more mature and tragic sense of love in the course of the play. In truncated sonnets of a quatrain and couplet, Benvolio urges Romeo to find another love to replace Rosaline, and Romeo swears eternal loyalty to her (act 1, scene 2). In act 1, scene 5, after seeing Juliet, Romeo and his new love compose a sonnet together, revealing their mutual love. When they begin a second sonnet, the nurse interrupts, foreshadowing how their love and their lives will be cut short.

Romeo’s language is derived from the sonnet, especially the Petrarchan conceits that Shakespeare parodied in sonnet 130, written about the same time as this play. In act 1, scene 5, Juliet accuses Romeo of kissing “by the book”; he certainly speaks by the book, like Astrophel studying “inventions fine, her wits to entertain” (Sidney’s sonnet 1). Later in the sequence, Astrophel recognizes, “My Muse may well grudge at my heav’nly joy,/ If still I force her in sad rhymes to creep,” and so too Romeo’s speeches shift from quatrains and couplets to the more dignified and mature blank verse.

Yet, Romeo is still given to conventional expressions of love in act 2, scenes 2 and 6. Juliet, although younger, is the more mature in love; she must recall him from his flights of fancy, reminding him, for example, that “Conceit more rich in matter than in words/ Brags of his substance, not of ornament./ They are but beggars that can count their worth.” By the end of the play, Romeo has developed his own idiom, at once beautiful and powerful, indicating how much he has grown during his five days of love.

Shakespeare presents the ideal love of Romeo and Juliet against a background of violence, hate, and sexual innuendo. This most romantic of Shakespeare’s tragedies contains six deaths and much bawdry to show the odds against which the lovers must struggle. Moreover, the lovers are never alone for an entire scene; some representative of the work-a-day world invariably intrudes upon them. Only in death can they remain together undisturbed.

Time, too, conspires against the lovers. Their alienation from the world of Verona is nowhere more evident than in their treatment of time. For Juliet “ ’tis twenty years” between dawn and nine o’clock; she would have the nurse travel at ten times the speed of light. For Romeo, a minute with Juliet equals a lifetime. The lovers are hasty, but they must be so because their world gives them no time. Shakespeare condensed the action of his main source, Arthur Brooke’s The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), from nine months to five days. Only at the end of the play, too late, does time stop for the lovers: In act 5, scene 3, the sun refuses to rise.

Cite this page as follows:

"Romeo and Juliet - Analysis." Survey of Young Adult Fiction, edited by Frank Northen Magill, eNotes.com, Inc., 1997, 20 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/romeo-and-juliet/critical-essays/analysis>

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Critical Context

Romeo and Juliet

By william shakespeare, romeo and juliet summary and analysis of act 5, act five, scene one.

Romeo wanders the streets of Mantua, mulling over a dream he had the night before where Juliet was dead. Then, Balthasar arrives from Verona with the news of Juliet's apparent suicide.

Romeo immediately orders Balthasar to prepare a horse so he can rush to Verona and see Juliet's body. Meanwhile, he writes a letter for Balthasar to give to Lord Montague , explaining the situation. Finally, before he leaves Mantua, Romeo buys some poison from a poor Apothecary .

Act Five, Scene Two

Back in Verona, Friar John, who was supposed to deliver the letter to Romeo telling him about the plan, apologizes to Friar Laurence for his inability to complete the task. Apparently, during his journey, some people believed that Friar John carried the pestilence (the plague) and locked him in a house.

Friar Laurence realizes that this new wrinkle derails his plan, so he immediately orders a crowbar so that he can rescue Juliet from the Capulet tomb.

Act Five, Scene Three

Mournful Paris and his Page stand guard at Juliet’s tomb so that no one will rob the vault. Romeo and Balthasar arrive, and Paris tries to restrain Romeo, who is focused on breaking into the tomb. Paris recognizes Romeo as the man who killed Tybalt , and believes that he has come to desecrate Juliet's corpse. Their argument escalates into a sword fight, and Romeo kills Paris. Paris' Page rushes away to fetch the City Watchmen.

Romeo opens the tomb and finds Juliet's body. Understandably devastated, he sits next to his beloved and drinks the Apothecary’s poison, kisses Juliet, and then dies. Meanwhile, Friar Laurence arrives at the Capulet tomb to find Paris’s body outside the door.

As planned, the potion wears off and Juliet awakens in the tomb, finding Romeo's dead body beside her. When she sees the poison, she realizes what has happened. She kisses Romeo in hopes that the poison will kill her as well, but it doesn't work. From outside the tomb, Friar Laurence begs Juliet to exit the vault and flee, but she chooses to kill herself with Romeo’s dagger.

Soon thereafter, Prince Escalus arrives, accompanied by the City Watchmen and the patriarchs of the feuding families. Lord Montague announces that Lady Montague has died from a broken heart as a result of Romeo's banishment. Friar Laurence then explains what has happened to Romeo and Juliet , and Balthasar gives the Prince the letter from Romeo, which confirms the Friar's tale.

To make amends for Juliet's death, Lord Montague promises to erect a golden statue of her for all of Verona to admire. Not to be outdone, Capulet promises to do the same for Romeo. The Prince ends the play by celebrating the end of the feud, but lamenting the deaths of the young lovers, claiming, "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo" (5.3.308-9).

As the plot of Romeo and Juliet spirals to its mournful end, it is easy to forget that the story takes place over a few days. Regardless, Romeo and Juliet are so certain of their love that they choose to accept death rather than being separated. As noted in the Analysis for Act 3, Romeo and Juliet mature considerably over the course of the play, and learn to accept the tragic edge of life more fully than their parents can.

Death is the most prominent theme in Act 5, although Shakespeare has foreshadowed the tragic turn of events throughout the play. However, Shakespeare ultimately frames death as a heroic choice. For example, Romeo’s eventually commits suicide because of his unwavering devotion to Juliet, which is a contrast to the cowardly motivations for his suicide attempt in Act 3. When Romeo hears of Juliet's death, he makes an active choice, ordering Balthasar to prepare a horse immediately. Despite the desperate circumstances, Romeo shows that he has learned from Juliet's forward planning by purchasing the poison before going to Verona. He wants to embrace death as Juliet has, and plans to take his life in a show of solidarity with his beloved.

When Romeo buys his poison, Shakespeare describes the scene as if Romeo were purchasing the poison from Death himself - most notably in his description of the Apothecary: "Meagre were his looks. / Sharp misery had worn him to the bones" (5.1.40-1). Symbolically, Romeo is actively seeking out death. Shakespeare shows that death will not come upon Romeo unawares, but is willing to work in service of the heartbroken young man. In this way, Shakespeare aligns Romeo with the classical archetype of the tragic hero who accepts his terrible fate head on. Much in the way that the characters in Richard III dream about their fates in the final act of that play, Romeo also has a dream which foretells his fate. He says, "I dreamt my lady came and found me dead" (5.1.6). The dream both foreshadows the ending and suggests that greater forces – perhaps the “plague” that Mercutio tried to bring forth – have come together to ensure a tragic ending.

The events of Act 5 do not provide a clear answer to the question of whether Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of fate. Instead, one could continue to argue that the tragic ending is the result of individual decisions - most notably, Friar Laurence's complicated plan. The success of this plan is highly contingent on timing and circumstance. What if Friar John had not been waylaid? What if Romeo had arrived at the Capulet tomb two hours later, or if Friar Laurence had arrived one hour earlier? Fate is not typically so contingent on human actions, which suggests that the most powerful force at work in Romeo and Juliet is actually the psychology of the characters. The uncertainty in these final scenes makes the play less classically tragic and yet more unique for not being fully aligned any one form.

Friar Laurence continues to advocate for moderation in the final scenes of Romeo and Juliet . Many scholars believe that Shakespeare meant for his audience to take away the message that a lack of moderation is the reason for Romeo and Juliet's demise. Some believe that Romeo and Juliet acted too quickly and intensely on their youthful passion, and allowed it to consume them. However, this moral reading feels like an oversimplification, and ignores the complexities of their love. Instead, the idea of caution is arguably more applicable to Romeo and Juliet's families, who have allowed their feud to get out of control.

Shakespeare also uses the recurring motif of gold and silver to criticize the childishness of the feuding adults. Gold continues to represent wealth and jealousy, the vices that keep Romeo and Juliet apart. When Romeo pays the Apothecary in gold, he remarks, "There is thy gold - worse poison to men's souls" (5.1.79). Gold, as a symbol, underlies the family feuding. Even after Romeo and Juliet are dead and their families supposedly agree to peace, they still try to outdo one another by creating commemorative gold statues. Romeo recognizes the power of gold and yet repudiates it, allowing Shakespeare to create a distinction between the kinds of people who value money and those who value true love.

Though death is paramount in Act 5, love is still a major theme as well. In particular, Shakespeare employs erotic symbolism, especially in the death scene. Romeo drinks from a chalice, a cup shaped like a woman’s torso. Meanwhile Juliet says, "O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath! There rust, and let me die" (5.3.169). The dagger she speaks of is Romeo's, thus highlighting the sexual overtones of her proclamation. Additionally, Shakespeare uses the word "die" ambiguously. In Shakespeare's time, "To die" could either refer to real death or sexual intercourse. Thus, even at the very end of the play, the audience could interpret Juliet's final statement as her intention to commit suicide or her desire to engage with Romeo sexually. The sexual nature of their relationship stands in stark contrast to Juliet's arranged marriage to Paris, which is based on politics and greed, not love.

It is important to note that in Romeo and Juliet , the moral conventions of marriage, religion, and family are all stained by human folly. The purity of Romeo and Juliet's love has no place in a world filled with moral corruption. Shakespeare frames Romeo and Juliet's 'tale of woe' as a tragic lesson to their their families, which makes an impact on the audience as well. The Montagues and Capulets reconcile over a shared sense of loss, rather than moral or societal pressure. The audience comes away from the play hoping that these families have learned from the tragic events.

However, one analysis of Friar Laurence suggests the issue is a bit more complicated. As noted previously, the Friar is more of a shrewd politician than a pious clergyman. He manipulates a love-and-death situation for the sake of political peace. He does this by creating a potion that has remarkable powers - as if he is playing God. By giving Juliet the potion, Friar Laurence puts her in a Christ-like position (since they both ‘died’ and then were resurrected from a tomb). Friar Laurence's failure could be read as a criticism of hubris, as well as punishment for an earthly man trying to enact divine power - thus reinforcing the secular nature of the play.

Romeo and Juliet Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Romeo and Juliet is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Can you find verbal irony in the play? Where?

One example of verbal irony would be Romeo's reference to the poison he has purchased as a "sweet medicine". A cordial is a sweet liquor or medicine.

Come, cordial and not poison, go with me To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.

What do we learn about Mercutio in queen man speech?

The whole speech is based on pagan Celtic mythology. Mercutio’s speech is laced with sexual innuendo. The words “queen” and “mab” refer to whores in Elizabethan England. As his speech goes on we notice the subtext get increasingly sexual...

What does Romeo fear as he approaches Capulet house? What literary device would this be an example of?

Romeo feels something bad is going to happen.

I fear too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars

Looks like foreshadowing to me!

Study Guide for Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet Summary
• Romeo and Juliet Video
• Character List

Essays for Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

• Unity in Shakespeare's Tragedies
• Fate in Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet: Under the Guise of Love
• The Apothecary's Greater Significance in Romeo and Juliet
• Romeo and Juliet: Two Worlds

Lesson Plan for Romeo and Juliet

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Romeo and Juliet
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Romeo and Juliet Bibliography

E-Text of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet e-text contains the full text of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

• List of Characters

Wikipedia Entries for Romeo and Juliet

• Introduction