Romeo and Juliet Act V Review

Romeo and Juliet Act V, scene i: *We now reconnect with Romeo in Mantua. *Romeo is in a good mood because he had a dream where he was dead, and Juliet revived him with a kiss. *He sees Balthasar, his servant, approaching from Verona. *Balthasar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead. This is dramatic irony. *Upon hearing this, Romeo decides to kill himself to be with Juliet: [R]: “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!” In Romeo’s mind, he is ‘defying’—directly opposing—the ‘stars,’ who he assumes to be in charge of his fate. He assumes that the ‘stars’ must not want him and Juliet to be together, so he is determined to die to be with her. He doesn’t realize she’s not really dead, and that his fate is to die—‘star-cross’d lovers.’ *He goes to a poor apothecary to purchase poison. He goes to this specific apothecary because selling poison is illegal in Mantua, and this particular apothecary will be desperate enough to break the law in order to get some money. *[A]: “My poverty, but not my will, consents.” [R]: “I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.” *Romeo then rides to Verona Romeo and Juliet Act V, scene ii: *It is revealed that Friar Lawrence’s letter explaining the situation never made it to Mantua. *Friar John was quarantined due to fear of plague infection and was not able to leave Verona, much less get to Mantua. *Friar Lawrence then hurries to the Capulet tomb because Juliet is about to wake up, but he stops to find a crowbar first. Romeo and Juliet Act V, scene iii: *Paris is at the Capulet tomb, mourning Juliet. *He announces his intention to come there every night, bringing flowers and scented water to place at her grave. *Paris hears someone approaching and decides to hide to see who it is—it’s Romeo. *Romeo arrives at the tomb, and tells Balthasar to give a letter to Lord Montague. *Romeo tells Balthasar that he is going into the tomb only to see Juliet and to take a ring from her finger. He warns that he will tear Balthasar limb from limb if Balthasar interrupts Romeo. *Balthasar suspects that Romeo is lying, so he lingers by the tomb. *Paris spies Romeo breaking into the Capulet tomb and assumes he is there to disrespect the family. *In Paris’s mind, Romeo has no reason for being at the Capulet tomb other than to do something disrespectful. Paris only knows Romeo as Tybalt’s murderer, and someone who has been banished from Verona. Paris has been told that Juliet must have died over grief from Tybalt’s death, so in his mind, Romeo is responsible for all of the Capulet family’s grief—and Paris’s own. *Paris challenges Romeo: “Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee: Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.” * Romeo responds that he knows he needs to die: “I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.” *Paris insists on arresting Romeo, and Romeo is desperate to get into the tomb. Romeo doesn’t know it’s Paris, he just begs this person not to make Romeo hurt them: “Put not another sin upon my head!” *Paris refuses to move, and Romeo fights him: [R]: “Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!” *Paris’s page, who had been watching in the graveyard, runs off to get the watch, a troop of guards. *In the fight, Paris is killed: “O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.” He does not realize he’s asking this of Juliet’s husband. *Romeo agrees, though, and lays Paris’s body in the Capulet tomb. Romeo sympathizes with Paris, as they both loved Juliet, and she “died” too soon. *Romeo begins his final soliloquy. It is almost exactly like his first—entirely about Juliet’s beauty, comparing her to light. *Romeo makes several comments about how Juliet does not look like she’s dead. He assumes this is because of her beauty, but really, it’s because Juliet is about to wake up: “Why art thou yet so fair?” *Romeo’s last words mirror the sonnet that he and Juliet exchanged at their first meeting: eyes, hands, lips [R]: “Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death!” *Romeo drinks his poison, and kills himself: “Thus, with a kiss, I die.” *Friar Lawrence arrives at the tomb and finds Balthasar, who tells him Romeo has been at the tomb for some time. *Friar Lawrence discovers Paris’s body, Romeo’s body, and Juliet about to wake up. *When Juliet wakes up, she asks where Romeo is. Friar Lawrence only says that the plan has gone wrong, and Romeo is dead. *Friar Lawrence offers to hide Juliet in a convent of nuns, but then runs away from the tomb fearing discovery from the watch. He leaves Juliet alone. *Juliet begins looking for a way to kill herself to be with Romeo. *Juliet finds Romeo’s empty poisoned cup, and tries kissing him to see if there’s enough leftover poison on his lips. *“Thy lips are warm!” – Romeo has just died. *Romeo’s dream from scene i came partially true: Romeo was found dead by Juliet, and Juliet did kiss him to try to be with him. *The watch are now arriving at the cemetery. In desperation, Juliet reaches for Romeo’s dagger and kills herself: “O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die.” *The night watchmen find Paris’s body, Romeo’s body, and Juliet’s—freshly dead and bleeding, when she was already buried. *They also find Balthasar and Friar Lawrence and make them tell the whole story to the Prince. *The entire story comes out: Romeo & Juliet’s secret marriage, Juliet’s faked death, and the Friar’s role in all of it. *The Prince confronts Lords Capulet & Montague, asking them about their feud: “Where are these enemies?” *Lord Montague reveals that Lady Montague, Romeo’s mother, has died from grief due to her son’s banishment. She is the sixth death. *The Capulets & Montagues put aside their feud. Lord Montague proposes building a statue in Juliet’s memory, and Capulet responds by saying he’ll make one for Romeo, to be by her side forever. *The Prince announces that “All are punished”—everyone has lost members of their families, and everyone feels the burden of this. *Final line of the play: “For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet, and her Romeo.” Act V Mentions of Stars: “Then I defy you, stars!”—Act V, scene i: Romeo believes he is changing his fate by dying, but he is in fact confirming it. “A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter’d youth, For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.”—Act V, scene iii: Romeo says the grave is like a lantern, Juliet shining bright like a star, beautifying even this terrible tomb. “O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh.”—Act V, scene iii: Romeo believes he is casting off the harness/chains of unlucky ‘stars,’ but he isn’t. As a star-crossed lover, his fate is to die underneath unlucky stars. If he swallows the poison, he is strapping himself to that yoke, not shaking it off. “A greater power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our intents”—Act V, scene iii: Friar Laurence tells Juliet that everything has gone wrong because it was out of their hands. Fate did this, this was destiny.