Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, is the last act of the play. This is when the last events happen, and where Romeo and Juliet die. Act 5 starts off on Mantua Street where Romeo is. Romeo foreshadows on line 6, when he says “I dreamt my lady came and found me dead”, indicating something that may happen in the future. Romeo never received the letter from John that was sent by Friar, because in the act before Peter got distracted by musicians. When Romeo’s messenger Balthasar came, he told Romeo that Juliet was dead. From the shock of the news Romeo is shocked and wild (line 28) “Your looks are pale and wild and do import”.  Romeo is desperate to die along with Juliet and he goes to get poison for himself. When he meets the apothecary, he bargains with a beggar and offers him money in exchange for a deadly poison.

Friar Lawrence discovers that Romeo never got the letter he sent with his brother John. Friar decides to keep Juliet in his tomb until Romeo gets back to his cell.

In scene three, it takes place in a churchyard. When Paris says, on line19, “what cursed foot wanders this way tonight” it is ironic because if you think about it, Romeo’s “feet” or life is kind of cursed. Having such back luck with love, then after when he finds his true love, they only get to see each other for a few days, until they both die in a horrible way. Paris comes into the scene to find Romeo, who had killed his cousin Tybalt. Paris is furious at Romeo and wants to take vengeance on him. He calls Romeo a villain, but Romeo denies he is a villain and says “I love thee better than myself”, on line 64, which shows he is there to die, and he is truly a kind guy right from the heart. He doesn’t want to fight anyone; instead he just wants to be alone to dwell on his grief. Paris doesn’t see Romeo is suffering and urges him to fight, and in the end they end up fighting.

Balthasar , who stuck around saw them fight and called a watcher. Romeo kills Paris, and he lays him into a tomb. Romeo takes his poison and he falls dead right beside Juliet. When Balthasar and Friar come to the scene, they find Paris and Romeo lying dead in a pool of blood. Just then, Juliet woke up to not only find her fiancé dead beside her, but to find her beloved Romeo dead as well. She couldn’t handle the death of Romeo and she too then kills herself by stabbing herself with a dagger.

By now, everyone has gathered at the courtyard, the Capulets, the Montagues, and The Prince and the Chief. Friar then explains what had happened in the past few hours and the Prince tell the Capulets and the Montagues it was their fault. From lines 291- 295 the Prince says “Where be these enemies? Capulet Montague, see what a scourage is laid upon your hate, the heaven finds means to kill your joys with love. And I, for winking at your discords, too, have lost a brace kinsmen. All are punished”. What Paris is saying is that, because of their hatred to one another, it caused their children to die. This whole scene is ironic because in the past Acts, Friar agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet because he thought their marriage would end the hated relationship between the Montagues and Capulets, but instead, it is their death that ends it. And this concludes the story of Romeo and Juliet. 

In act 4 of Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, Paris, Juliet, and Friar meet together at Friar Lawrence’s cell. Juliet and Paris have not seen each other for a couple of days. When Paris regarded Juliet as his wife, Juliet responds saying she will be his wife when she becomes one. She then confesses her love for Romeo to Paris, but Paris just brushes it off by saying that she must be in love with him on line 26. At this point in the play, Juliet is very worn out from crying because of the death of her cousin Tybalt and the reason for his death, Romeo.

Juliet asks for Friar’s help because she is in a state where she is willing to die if nothing could prevent the wedding from happening between her and Paris. Friar gave Juliet a potion that makes her appear dead for a couple of hours, but then she will come back to life. Juliet takes it gladly on lines 87- 88, she says she will take it without fear, to live an unstained life as a wife with Romeo. This shows the devotion she has for Romeo and how strong and real her love is. Friar sends a letter to Romeo to let him know about this plan.

            When Juliet returned home, she lied to her father, Capulet, saying she was repenting for her sins (line 17, act 2), and told Paris her love for him ( line 26). She puts on an act to make sure nobody figures out her plan to play dead. I thought that was very smart.

            Juliet has doubts about the potion that Friar gave to her, and she talks about the ghost of her cousin Tybalt as she drank and potion and fell on her bed. When the Nurse went to go find Juliet, and she found her dead, the Capulets all gathered in Juliet’s room. Capulet uses a metaphor on line 29, he says “Upon the sweetest flower of all the field” he is referring to Juliet as the sweetest flower in the area.  Also on line 62, when Capulet says “…my soul, and not my child!” this shows that even though he was forcing Juliet to marry someone she didn’t love, it was all for her own sake, and that he actually truly loves his daughter. 

   In act 3, scene, Tybalt, Benvolio, and Mercutio were arguing about the event from the Capulet’s party. Mercutio and Tybalt wanted to fight but Benvolio stopped them. What Tybalt actually wanted was to fight Romeo. When Romeo comes into the scene, Tybalt and him fight but, Mercutio was struck by Tybalt under Romeo’s arm, and he uses a metaphor when he says, “the devil came between us” which he is referring to the sword as a devil, on lines 104. In the end, Mercutio dies and Romeo is raging at this point. When Tybalt came back after fleeing, Romeo stabbed Tybalt and killed him; this is significant because he just killed Juliet’s cousin.

   Juliet hears about this event from the Nurse and the nurse says how all men are the same and there is no honesty in men, but Juliet still stood up for him symbolising how strong her love is for Romeo. Romeo says that banishment has more terror in it than death on lines 12-14. He is devastated because to him, Verona is his only world. Friar calls Romeo a woman but acts like a beastly man on lines 110-114. He is referring to how Romeo cries like a women, but kills and acts like a men.

   However, while all this mess is going on, the Capulet schedules the wedding between Juliet and Paris for Thursday and it is a Monday right now. Romeo and Juliet finally meet at her room, and they argue about whether it is day or night. Juliet foreshadows on lines 54-57, when she says that she has a foreseeing evil soul and says she could imagine Romeo lying dead at the bottom of a tomb; that is where Romeo dies beside Juliet later in the play. Juliet hears she has to marry Paris on Thursday and is strongly against it. When Capulet hears Juliet is not impressed and is against the marriage, he is in a rage, and for the first time in this play shows a furious side of him and calls his daughter disrespectful names; on line 158.

     In scene 4, Mercutio and Tybalt are on a street and they talk about Tybalt. They discuss about how Tybalt had sent a letter to the Montague’s house threatening them about death for their presence at the Capulet’s party. In lines 13-15, Shakespeare uses a metaphor, saying that Romeo is already, stabbed in the centre of his heart by a bluntly shot cupid’s arrow. When Romeo arrives to meet with Mercutio and Benvolio, they have a bit of a quarrel; they blame it on the heat how it made everyone moody. Romeo calls Mercutio a “goose” which means fool. Mercutio calls Romeo and spills his views on Romeo’s love life, and descirbes Romeo as an idiot when it comes to love. When the Nurse came along, she talked to Romeo and warned him about Paris, and how Juliet will go pale every time she sees him.

     Juliet talks about the Goddess Phoebus and Paris. When the Nurse returns, she is up set and out of breath. The nurse is very worried about Juliet and confronts her by telling her she chose the wrong guy. She was very dramatic about the engagement, which symbolizes her love towards Juliet, and how much she cared for her as her own daughter. They end up in a quarrel and Juliet leaves to go to Friar Lawrence to get married with her beloved Romeo.

     The two lovers met with Friar Lawrence. In lines 9-10, Friar foreshadows about the future when he says “these violent delights have violent ends” which relates to the ending of the book, and how Romeo and Juliet die. Romeo also uses foreshadowing when he says “then love-devouring death” which symbolizes how the love devours them and they will lose their life. The two get married in the Holy Church.

     In Act 2, scenes one to three of “Romeo and Juliet”, by Shakespeare, Romeo declares his love for Juliet. Benvolio states that the love that Romeo had for Rosaline was just physical and wasn’t actually real love. Mercutio makes comments and jokes about real love and sexual love; this shows how Mercutio is very down to earth, very out going and dramatic when he made the sexual jokes about Romeo and his love life.

     Romeo and Juliet secretly meet outside of a window, in the territory of the Capulets. Romeo is standing behind a wall that separates him and her. Later he jumps over, telling Juliet that his love for her won’t let anything come in between them. Romeo also talks about the “night’s cloak” hides him from the other soldiers, which means the darkness of the night hides him. They talk about engagement and they promise to meet the next day with Friar Lawrence who will marry them. Shakespeare relates back to when Mercutio made jokes about sexual love that Romeo has for women, but right now the love he feels for Juliet is real. The engagement proves their love is real.

     Friar Lawrence comes into play, and he carries aournd herbs/apothecary, who deals with poisonous plants and medicine.  In scene 3, in Friar’s cell, Shakespeare uses foreshadowing from lines 16-23. Friar talks about how the herbs, plants, and stones, are used for bad purposes and are being misapplied, and he says they are used that way for an action made worthy. This foreshadows later into the play, when Juliet uses the poison to fake her death. When Friar meets Romeo, he could tell her didn’t get any sleep and he thought Romeo spent the night with Rosaline, but instead he replies he was “feasting with his enemy”, which are play on words because people are usually fighting with their enemy not feasting. This annoys Friar whom demands Romeo to speak clearly, and then Romeo announces he loves Juliet and wants Friar to marry them. Friar takes this marriage to another level, and thinks that this marriage could end the war between the Capulets and the Montagues.

Here is a brief summarization of the novel “Romeo and Juliet” for act 1.

In act one of Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, a lot of events happen in a very short amount of time. The story begins with the Capulets and the Montagues fighting showing us that they are family enemies.  We are then introduced some of the main characters, the Capulet and Lady Capulet and their nephew Tybalt.  From the Montagues side, there is Romeo, Montague, and Lady Montague. There is another character by the name of Benvolio, and he is a cousin of Romeo. We find out that Romeo is in love with someone, and the person he loves, does not love him back.

                Capulet sets up a party so that his beloved daughter, Juliet, can meet with Paris, the man Capulet has chosen for his daughter to marry. Romeo and Benvolio got invited to go to the capulet’s party and Benvolio takes it as a chance for Romeo to meet someone new.  Meanwhile, Juliet doesn’t want to get married and is against everything but she is forced to go. Her nurse, had a daughter and husband who both died eleven years ago, and she looks at Juliet as if she is her own daughter.

                Then we are introduced a new character Mercutio who is the brother of Benvolio. Him, Benvolio and Romeo go to the party, and Romeo sees, and falls in love with Juliet. Juliet does too but they both find out that they are both from each of their family enemy. 

My thoughts

The play begins with a prologue, and gives a brief summary about the whole play, and even gives out the ending. At the end of the play, Romeo and Juliet both die. I don’t think that by revealing the ending ruins the story at all. The ending doesn’t matter at all, the details, the events and happenings that lead up to the ending and the climax is what I think is important. The story takes place in Verona, Italy.

                A spot where Shakespeare uses symbolism is in scene one, line 25, when the two men, Sampson and Gregory, who are from the house of Capulet discuss about the maidens of the men from the Montagues. Sampson, shows us his vulgar side and says how he will be cutting of their heads, meaning taking their virginity.  I think this symbolizes not only the relationship between the Capulets and the Montagues, but also the social standards that woman are in.

            When Capulet used a metaphor to call Paris a “flower” or “man of wax”, I think Shakespeare was implying that Paris is beautiful, like a sculpture.  Capulet seems like he loves Paris and doesn’t care what Juliet wants, he just wants her to marry him. I think this could represent the type of relationship Juliet has with her parents. I think she would be closer with the Nurse who is always supporting her and loving her as if she was her own daughter.

            Shakespeare uses for-shadowing on lines 107-111. Romeo talks about how there will be an event in the future where someone will die at a great loss. This for-shadows the ending of the story, when both Juliet and Romeo die. Lastly when Romeo and Juliet both find out that they are from the enemy family of eachother’s, it shows irony, how they have to love their “enemy”.