Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet - Act 5
After building up to the finale through four Acts of emotional turbulence and drama, we are going to finally witness fate take its course in Act Five with Romeo and Juliet’s misguided attempts at finding love amidst a riotous community. Hi everyone, I’m BuffEnglish, and I’m here to buff up your English skills by giving you all the details you need to know about some of the world’s best literature. Today we’re discussing ACT FIVE from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
This act starts with us returning back to Romeo - we haven’t actually heard from him since back when he kissed Juliet goodbye at the end of Act Three. Romeo, if you recall, has been banished from Verona and is hanging out in the city of Mantua, which is about a day’s ride away from Verona. And now all the events of Act IV - namely Juliet’s faked death - are about to catch up with him. Before any of that, however, we are reintroduced back to Romeo with him experiencing another premonition. In Act One he was telling us about how he had a dream that the fate of his life was about to change, and he begins Act Five by similarly reporting, “I dreamt my lady came and found me dead.” A bit morbid, but he’s in a chipper mood.
Next, though, Romeo’s friend and servant from Verona Balthasar comes to visit, and doesn’t mince any words. Balthasar, we learn here, was also privy to the fact that Romeo and Juliet had gotten married, so there was at least one person in addition to the Nurse and Friar who knew about their secret relationship. He immediately reports to Romeo that Juliet is dead, he saw her body himself being taken to the Capulet’s family tomb, and there are no letters from the Friar. Got that? Romeo has NOT heard from Friar Laurence, so even though Juliet’s death is faked with the hope that Romeo will come and rescue her, Romeo does not know that. We already know that Romeo is a kid who is quite prone to impulsive, emotional reactions to circumstances, so it’s no surprise when Romeo tells Balthasar they are going to sneak back to Verona. And sure enough, as soon as he’s alone again, the next words out of Romeo’s mouth are, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight” and he goes to the apothecary’s shop to purchase poison. And once he has said poison, he speaks to it and ends the scene by saying, “go with me / To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.” We saw Romeo nearly suicidal in Act Three when he felt all hope was lost, but was saved by the calm mentorship of the Friar. Here, though, there is no Friar or other more rational, sobering presence in Romeo’s life. Left to his own emotional devices, he immediately returns to his overreactive suicidal flourish.
We should be wondering at this point, “Wasn’t Friar Laurence supposed to send Romeo a message explaining everything? Why did Balthasar report Juliet’s death, instead of Friar Laurence reporting her fake death?” Now Romeo thinks that Juliet is actually dead and is emotionally flying off the rails, but this could have - should have - been prevented with a simple letter!
This is quickly resolved for us in scene two when we meet Friar John. Apparently Friar Laurence did in fact write a letter explaining his newest plot to Romeo. He entrusted Friar John to deliver the letter, but in what seems to be the strangest twist of fate in the whole story, when Friar John was looking for a friend of his to travel with, basically the medical police - the “searchers of the town” - thought these guys were in a house where there was a contagious disease, and they quarantined them in the house. Friar John could not leave and could not deliver the letter. THEN once he’s released, he goes back to Friar Laurence instead of to Mantua. I love to watch the look on Laurence’s face when Friar John hands him back his own letter. So not only did Friar Laurence entrust this entire plan to the timely delivery of a letter by a friend, but the most unlikely scenario of Friar John getting temporarily quarantined intervened, and now Laurence realizes that severity of the situation he’s helped facilitate: Juliet is about to wake up, and Romeo - dear Romeo - who we all know to act recklessly, is probably hearing that Juliet is actually dead. So the Friar just decides to write another letter to Romeo, and to meet Juliet in the tomb so she doesn’t wake up alone.
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