Act 5

» Romeo begins the scene with a short soliloquy. ˃He is happy and in love. ˃Pay close attention to footnotes here » Balthasar enters and tells Romeo of Juliet’s death. » Romeo shows that he is already planning to join Juliet in the grave ˃“Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” (247). ˃Romeo buys poison from an apothecary

» In this short scene, Friar John tells Friar Lawrence that he could not deliver a letter to Romeo » We discover that the letter is to tell Romeo that Juliet is still alive, and Friar Lawrence knows what Romeo will do if he thinks she is dead. ˃“The letter was not nice, but full of charge/ Of dear import, and the neglecting it/ May do much danger” (249). ˃“Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake…” (249).

» Romeo delivers a moving speech divulging his heartache and his plans for death ˃“Why I descend into this bed of death/ Is partly to behold my lady’s face/ But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger/ A precious ring…” (250). » Paris believes that Juliet died because of her heartache over Tybalt’s death; he challenges him to a duel ˃“Obey and go with me, for thou must die” (251). » Paris dies.

» Pay close attention to Romeo’s long soliloquy and his use of language here. » Romeo drinks the poison and dies. » Juliet wakes and we discover that the poison was not meant to kill her, but fake her death so that she could be with Romeo ˃“I do remember well where I should be/ And there I am…” (253). » Juliet dies » The families and others come to the scene of death » “For never was a story of more woe/ Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (256).