Romeo and Juliet Part 1 PDF

## Romeo and Juliet ### Summary Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by the English playwright William Shakespeare. It is among Shakespeare's best-known plays and, like its author, has been highly influential in shaping the course of English-language literature. First performed before 1597 (the date of i...

## Romeo and Juliet ### Summary Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by the English playwright William Shakespeare. It is among Shakespeare's best-known plays and, like its author, has been highly influential in shaping the course of English-language literature. First performed before 1597 (the date of its earliest known printing), it has been popular ever since. Like most of Shakespeare's plays, it employs a combination of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) and prose, with occasional deviations in form; for example, Shakespeare often punctuates scenes or long speeches with a rhyming couplet for dramatic effect. The classic play explores themes of The Beauty and Danger of Love, The Power of Dreams and Illusions, and Empty Rivalry and Feud. This summary refers to the 2011 Folger Shakespeare Library edition. **Content Warning:** The source material and guide refer to suicide and violence, including discussions of sexual assault. ### Plot Summary A feud between two noble families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is tearing apart the city of Verona. Young men allied with these households fight each other in the streets. At last, the violence gets so bad that the city's Prince declares that any member of these clans caught fighting will be exiled from the city. Meanwhile, Romeo, the romantic young son of the Montagues, is suffering: He's lovelorn over a girl named Rosaline, who doesn't return his affections. His friends Benvolio and Mercutio persuade him to attend the Capulets' masked ball in the hopes that he'll spot another girl to fall in love with there. This plan works all too well: The disguised Romeo falls instantly in love with Juliet, the Capulets' daughter, whose parents hope to marry her to the eligible young Count Paris. However, Romeo and Juliet's love overwhelms all such considerations, and when Romeo comes in secret to Juliet's garden in the night, they vow to marry. Romeo's friends take a dim view of this plan. Benvolio points out that Romeo was desperately in love with another girl before seeing Juliet, Mercutio makes sex jokes, and Friar Lawrence, Romeo's priestly friend and mentor, warns him that the relationship is likely to end in disaster. However, Friar Lawrence also sees the young lovers as an opportunity to heal the rift between Montagues and Capulets, so he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet in secret. Before any good can come of this clandestine marriage, Mercutio gets into a street fight with Juliet's cousin, Tybalt. Mercutio is killed, and a grief-stricken Romeo murders Tybalt in revenge. Though it means leaving behind his new bride, Romeo must flee Verona to avoid punishment at the hands of the Prince. Juliet is horrified when she learns that her new husband has killed her cousin, but she soon forgives him, and the couple spend a clandestine night together before Romeo departs for Mantua. Juliet then learns that her parents plan to marry her to Count Paris imminently. She goes to Friar Lawrence for help, and he concocts an elaborate plan to reunite the newlyweds: He'll give Juliet a drug that makes her seem as if she's dead, when in fact she'll just be in a brief, deathlike coma. While her family entombs her, Friar Lawrence will send a message to Romeo to come and find her. Juliet goes through with this plan, but Friar Lawrence's part in the proceedings doesn't go so well. News of Juliet's "death" reaches Romeo in Mantua before Friar Lawrence's explanatory message makes it there. Romeo rushes to Verona, where he finds and kills the mourning Paris outside the Capulet tomb. He descends into the dark and, finding what seems to be Juliet's corpse, poisons himself. Friar Lawrence arrives at the tomb to care for Juliet as she awakes only to find her discovering Romeo's still-warm body lying next to her. The priest tries to convince Juliet to come away, but she refuses, and he flees at the sound of approaching footsteps. Left alone, Juliet stabs herself with Romeo's dagger. In the wake of these horrors, the Montagues and Capulets are forced to make a tragic peace. ### Background #### Literary Context: Shakespeare's Sources and Influence Shakespeare likely wrote _Romeo and Juliet_ sometime around 1595; of the plays traditionally classed as tragedies, it was only Shakespeare's second (the first being _Titus Andronicus_, which dates to roughly 1591-1592). In many ways, the play marks a pivotal point in Shakespeare's career. Although he never entirely abandoned the comedic genre, he turned increasingly to tragedy (_Hamlet_, _King Lear_, _Macbeth_, etc.) and romance (_The Tempest_, _The Winter's Tale_, etc.) after 1600. The narrative structure of _Romeo and Juliet_ itself anticipates this shift, as the play's early scenes suggest a comedic denouement-i.e., one ending in marriage rather than death. That Shakespeare wrote _Romeo and Juliet_ relatively early in his career makes its influence all the more notable. However, though it is undoubtedly the most famous example of "star-crossed lovers" (at least in Western literature), it was not the first. In fact, it was not even the first of its name. As he did in many other plays, Shakespeare drew on preexisting literature for _Romeo and Juliet_'s basic plot-specifically, a work by the poet Arthur Brooke called _The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet_ (1562), which itself ultimately derived from an Italian story. These earlier works likely drew inspiration from a different couple entirely: Pyramus and Thisbe, whose story appears in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ and likewise involves feuding families and one lover's mistaken belief in the other's death. The names "Capulet" and "Montague," meanwhile, appear to derive from Dante's _Divine Comedy_, where they similarly correspond to rival factions. _Romeo and Juliet_ has in turn shaped later literature in ways so profound that they are difficult to quantify. The play's ubiquity in the popular imagination means that virtually any work centered on young or ill-fated lovers will evoke comparisons (intentional or not). It has also given rise to direct adaptations such as the musical play _West Side Story_ (1957), the script for which was written by American playwright Arthur Laurents. Literary critics such as Harold Bloom propose a much broader influence, however. Addressing the play's treatment of _The Beauty and Danger of Love_, Bloom argues that _Romeo and Juliet_ provided the pattern for self-destructive romance in Western literature: "Romeo and Juliet is unmatched [...] as a vision of an uncompromising mutual love that perishes of its own idealism and intensity" (Bloom, Harold. _Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human_. Riverhead Books, 1998). The idea that love tends inevitably toward the death of the self animates a range of later classics, such as the love poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_ (1847), and D. H. Lawrence's _Women in Love_ (1920). ### Act Summaries & Analyses #### Acts I-II **Prologue Summary** **Content Warning:** The source material and guide refer to suicide and violence, including discussions of sexual assault. A narrator, known as the Chorus, appears and lays out the whole story. Two families from the Italian city of Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets, are fighting out an "ancient grudge." The children of these families will fall in love and die, ending the grudge between their families. It's now the job of this play to fill in the whole story. **Act I, Scene 1 Summary** The play proper begins with two boastful young men, Gregory and Sampson, exchanging a series of increasingly filthy puns. They're from the house of Capulet, and they're swaggering around the streets looking for trouble from the Montagues. They find it; a fight breaks out in the street. One Montague, a young man called Benvolio, tries to break up the fight, but Tybalt, the ferocious nephew of Lord Capulet, won't allow this and attacks him. The heads of the families, Lord and Lady Montague and Lord and Lady Capulet, come upon the scene. The old lords want to get in on the fighting, but their wives hold them back. The brawl at last breaks up when Verona's ruler, the Prince, arrives. He tells the Montagues and the Capulets that he's tired of their rivalry and that he'll execute the next Montague or Capulet caught fighting in his streets. He orders Lord Montague and Lord Capulet to come speak with him, and the crowd sheepishly disperses. Lady Montague asks Benvolio if he's seen her son, Romeo, who doesn't seem to have been present at the fight. Benvolio tells her that Romeo has been moping in the woods around the city. The Montagues aren't surprised, as Romeo has been doing this a lot lately. None of them understands why. Romeo appears, and Benvolio questions him. The miserable Romeo says he's unhappy because he's "Out of her favor where [he is] in love" (1.1.173): He's pining after the lovely Rosaline, who wants nothing to do with him and who has in fact made a vow of chastity. Romeo reflects on the paradoxes of love: "A madness most discreet, / A choking gall, and a preserving sweet" (1.1.200-01). Benvolio suggests that the best cure is to go and look at other pretty girls until Romeo is distracted. Romeo says that this will never work, for the lesser beauty of others will only remind him of Rosaline's supreme beauty. Benvolio assures him that it will work and that he'll prove it. **Act I, Scene 2 Summary** Lord Capulet and the young Count Paris are discussing the Prince's edict. The chastened Capulet thinks he and Montague should be able to keep some kind of peace. Paris has other things on his mind: He wants to marry Capulet's young daughter, Juliet. Capulet is reluctant: Juliet is only 13 and is his last living child. Her young age doesn't dissuade Paris, who comments, "Younger than she are happy mothers made" (1.2.12). Capulet evasively suggests that Paris should come to the feast he's throwing tonight and look at the other girls in case he likes one of them better. He sends a servant out with invitations, but the servant can't read and asks Romeo and Benvolio for help. It turns out that Rosaline is invited to the ball, and Benvolio sees in this fortuitous party a perfect opportunity to distract Romeo: "Compare her face with some that I shall show, / And I will make thee think thy swan a crow" (1.3.93-94). Romeo, still absorbed in his misery, agrees to go so he can pine after Rosaline in person. **Act I, Scene 3 Summary** Lady Capulet has come to her daughter Juliet's room to deliver important news. Juliet's old nurse is there too, and the two older women go through some comical wrangling to establish Juliet's age (13). The Nurse has many fond memories of Juliet as a baby. She delights in retelling an anecdote about her (now-deceased) husband making a joke at toddler Juliet's expense, the gist of which is that falling face-first is what little girls do, while young women fall backward for sexual dalliances: 'Yea,' quoth he, 'Dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou has more wit, Wilt thou not, Jule?' And, by my holdam, The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay' (1.3.45-48). Lady Capulet is not as amused by this as the Nurse is. She has come to ask Juliet if Juliet feels ready to be married. Juliet is taken aback: "It is an honor that I dream not of" (1.3.71). Lady Capulet notes that she was married at around Juliet's age and sings Paris's praises (with the Nurse's help), comparing him to a beautiful book that needs only a beautiful cover to complete it. Juliet agrees to look at Paris at the feast tonight and obediently agrees to try to like Paris: "I'll look to like, if looking liking move. / But no more deep will I endart mine eye / Than your consent gives strength to make it fly" (1.3.103-05). The Nurse is overjoyed at the prospect of her darling's marriage. **Act I, Scene 4 Summary** Romeo and his Montague friends are making their way to the Capulets' party. They've picked up their friend Mercutio on the way-not a Montague or a Capulet, and so officially invited where the others are not. Regardless, they're all going in disguise. Mercutio, a charismatic and mischievous young man, is giving Romeo a hard time for his persistent moping, making dirty jokes at his expense: "If love be rough with you," he counsels, "be rough with love. / Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (1.4.27-28). Romeo replies that he had an ominous dream that evening. Mercutio launches into an elaborate and sinister monologue on his own dreams of Queen Mab, ruler of the fairies, as she travels by night distributing visions and making mischief. Romeo interrupts this reverie; Mercutio snaps out of it, saying that fantasy and dream come and go as quickly as the wind. Romeo reflects on his dream-a foreboding vision of "some vile forfeit of untimely death" that will be set on course tonight (1.4.118). **Act I, Scene 5 Summary** Lord Capulet, in an expansive mood, is greeting his guests. He welcomes the masked Montagues, not recognizing them, and reminisces about his youthful days of masking and dancing. Tybalt recognizes Romeo and tries to point him out to Lord Capulet. Lord Capulet holds Tybalt back. Romeo is behaving himself well and has a good reputation; Lord Capulet won't have him come to harm in his house. Tybalt persists, and Lord Capulet scolds him for overstepping. Tybalt stands down but vows that this isn't over. Meanwhile, Romeo sees Juliet and falls instantly in love with her: "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! [...] Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night" (1.5.51-60). He approaches her to ask for a kiss. Romeo presents himself as a pilgrim to Juliet's holy shrine, and Juliet points out that pilgrims use their lips for praying, not kissing. At last, Juliet agrees to kiss him, and the two only have eyes for each other until the Nurse interrupts to tell Juliet her mother wants a word with her. While Juliet obeys, Romeo asks the Nurse who Juliet is and learns the terrible news that she's Lord Capulet's only child. Juliet goes through the same process: She asks her Nurse the names of several different gentlemen, ending with Romeo. She has also fallen in love and despairs, "My only love sprung from my only hate!" (1.5.152). **Act II, Scene 1 Summary** The Chorus recapitulates the action so far and describes the young lovers' precarious situation: Despite their desperate passion, there's nowhere safe for them to meet. However, the Chorus observes, "passion lends them power" (II.1.13), so they will find a solution. Benvolio and Mercutio are out in the street looking for Romeo. Mercutio tries to conjure him up with a "spell" that's mostly dirty jokes about Rosaline: The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.- I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes, By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us (II.1.19-25). Benvolio observes that this is only going to make Romeo mad, and Mercutio replies with more dirty jokes. At last, they give up and retire to bed. **Act II, Scene 2 Summary** Romeo, hiding in the Capulets' garden, has heard all of his friend's sexual innuendo and scoffs, "He jests at scars that never felt a wound" (II.2.1). Soon, Juliet appears on her balcony. Hidden below, Romeo looks up at her with longing and awe: "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the East, and Juliet is the sun" (II.2.2-3). As he watches, Juliet begins to speak-and, to Romeo's joy, she's speaking about him. Musing to herself, she wishes that Romeo might "Deny [his] father and refuse [his] name, / Or, if [he] wilt not, be but sworn [her] love, / And [she'll] no longer be a Capulet" (II.2.36-39). Names, she goes on, are just words: Roses would still smell sweet if we called them by a different word. If Romeo could just give up his family name, she would be his. At this, Romeo leaps out of the shrubbery and swears his love to her. Juliet is startled but also delighted. She questions how he got over the wall into the garden, to which Romeo replies by rhapsodizing about love's power. Juliet goes on: She knows she should hold back and deny what he's overheard her say, but she can't. She's aware that her eagerness may seem overly forward but vows she'll be a truer lover than women who play games. She asks Romeo to swear love to her as she has to him, but when he tries to swear by the moon, she stops him: The moon is too changeable to swear on. Instead, she tells him to swear on himself-and then stops him altogether. This is all too sudden: "Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be / Ere one can say 'it lightens" (II.2.126-27). The Nurse calls Juliet to come inside. As Juliet stalls her Nurse and speaks to Romeo, her worries about the speed of their attachment melt away. By the end of the conversation, she has made Romeo vow to send word to her tomorrow if he wants to marry her. The two have a hard time parting; they can't stand to be out of each other's sight. At last, Romeo leaves the garden, promising to send Juliet word of his intentions the next day. **Act II, Scene 3 Summary** Friar Lawrence, a monk, is collecting herbs in his garden at daybreak. He muses on the qualities of nature: There's nothing in the world that doesn't have some good purpose. Poisonous plants can have good applications, but healthful plants, misused, can become poisonous: "Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, / And vice sometime by action dignified" (II.3.21-22). An elated Romeo breaks in on these musings. He and Friar Lawrence have an affectionate, familial relationship. Noting that Romeo seems to have been up all night, Friar Lawrence worries that he's been with Rosaline. His pleasure in learning that Romeo has forgotten her quickly dampens when he hears that Romeo is in love with a new girl and wants Friar Lawrence to marry them right away. Friar Lawrence scolds his young charge: "And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence then: / Women may fall when there's no strength in men" (II.3.84-85). Despite his frustration with Romeo, Friar Lawrence agrees to perform the marriage as an opportunity to heal the rift between the Montagues and Capulets. **Act II, Scene 4 Summary** Mercutio and Benvolio are again wondering where on earth Romeo has gone. They've heard that Tybalt sent Romeo a challenge, and Mercutio compares Tybalt's skill in fighting to that of the folkloric Tybalt (an archetypal cat in a series of popular stories about Reynard, the prince of foxes). Romeo appears, and Mercutio mocks him for his love and gives him a hard time for ditching them last night. The two exchange sexual puns, and Mercutio remarks, "Why, is this not better than groaning / for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo, now art thou / what thou art, by art as well as by nature" (II.4.90-93). The Nurse appears with her servant, Peter, in tow. The young men all mock her pomposity and her malaprops until she reveals that she's here to speak to Romeo. Romeo chases the other boys off and apologizes to the Nurse for their rudeness. The Nurse, somewhat mollified, tells Romeo that she's come from Juliet-and warns him that he'd better not be playing with her heart. Romeo's assurance quickly wins her over. Romeo tells the Nurse to ask Juliet to come meet him at Friar Lawrence's monastic cell that afternoon to be married. He also asks her to be ready to receive a rope ladder he's made; this will give him access to Juliet's room that night. The joyful Nurse begins reminiscing about Juliet's childhood again but at last departs to give Juliet the good news. **Act II, Scene 5 Summary** Juliet, meanwhile, is waiting impatiently at home for the Nurse to return. Love should be able to communicate as quickly as it acts, she thinks: "Love's heralds should be thoughts, / Which ten times faster glides than the sun's beams" (II.5.4-5). If only the Nurse were young, like Juliet, and remembered what this felt like, she'd be faster. The Nurse turns up and spends a comically longwinded time getting herself settled and comfortable before delivering any news to the increasingly frustrated Juliet. At last, she tells Juliet that Romeo will meet her at Friar Lawrence's cell this afternoon. **Act II, Scene 6 Summary** In Friar Lawrence's cell, Romeo is anxious to be married. Friar Lawrence tries to counsel him to be moderate: The sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness And in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow (II.6.11-15). Juliet arrives, and Friar Lawrence can see that neither of the young lovers has any intention of taking his advice on temperance. Regardless, he leads them away to their marriage ceremony. #### Acts I-II Analysis The densely woven and often comedic language of Acts I and II establishes the volatility of the play's setting. The Verona of _Romeo and Juliet_ is a hotbed of sex, passion, and violence. A series of puns in the very first scene demonstrates that no word can be trusted to hold only one meaning, and usually those meanings culminate in a sexual play on words. When Sampson boasts that he will decapitate the women of the Montague household, Gregory presses him on his meaning, and Sampson clarifies that he is equally willing to kill them or deprive them of their virginity (presumably by rape): "Ay the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads" (1.1.26). This intertwining of sex and violence lays the groundwork for the play's exploration of _The Beauty and Danger of Love_. The young lover Romeo is perfectly adapted to this world. A boy of intense but changeable passions, he transfers his undying love from Rosaline to Juliet as quickly as Mercutio can make any innocent turn of phrase into a sex joke. Both language and experience are slippery in this world. This slipperiness sits uneasily next to the inarguable force of the passion that conquers the young lovers. While Romeo's friends smile at the swiftness with which Romeo falls for Juliet, the play doesn't mock the real strength of their feelings for each other. Tellingly, their extended, back-and-forth metaphor about courtship as a pilgrimage takes the form of a sonnet-a form archetypically associated with love, including in Shakespeare's own body of work. The language of the famous balcony scene further underscores that the two are caught up in an intense and fantastical love that makes them see each other as cosmic figures, gods, and the sun and stars. This emotion is deep and real, which is precisely why it is dangerous. Consequently, many of the play's characters regard the power of emotion and imagination with a jaded, even fearful eye. Among these, Mercutio stands out. Seemingly lighthearted, he is quick to bemoan the immateriality of emotion and the changeability of the human heart. His Queen Mab speech is at first whimsical but gets darker and darker as he engages with the sometimes-sinister power of fantasy, observing, for example, "This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, / That presses them and learns them first to bear, / Making them women of good carriage" (1.4.98-100). Mercutio's play on the words "bear" and "carriage" suggests cynicism on multiple levels. His point is not merely that romantic fantasy compromises women's chastity-a key virtue at the time-by making them open to sexual advances; he also hints at how such dreams may belie a reality of drudgery (childbearing) and hypocrisy (as "carriage" references both deportment and sex). His account of Mab making soldiers dream of "cutting foreign throats" is notable as well in the context of a play concerned with _Empty Rivalry and Feud_ (1.4.88). _The Power of Dreams and Illusions_ is potent but not necessarily positive. In this shifting and paradoxical landscape, Juliet is the most grounded character. In the balcony scene, she muses on the malleability of names as compared to the permanence of a thing's real identity: "That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet" (II.2.45-46). To Juliet, some things are simply true. Nevertheless, she is a naïve figure in some respects, which Shakespeare underscores by highlighting her young age. Falling in love is the catalyst for a rapid introduction to the world's hardships, which force her to mature quickly. #### Act III **Act III, Scene 1 Summary** Mercutio and Benvolio are wandering the streets of Verona. Benvolio is trying to persuade Mercutio to get out of the sun; it's a hot day, and the Capulets are roaming around. However, Mercutio teases the peaceful Benvolio, calling him a hothead. They're interrupted when the Capulets arrive. Mercutio, still in a temper, starts verbally sparring with Tybalt, trying to provoke him. Tybalt doesn't want to fight Mercutio; instead, he's after Romeo, and when Romeo arrives, Tybalt challenges him to a fight. Newlywed Romeo has no interest in fighting his wife's cousin and tries to make peace. However, this only enrages Tybalt-and Mercutio too, who sees Romeo's refusal to fight as capitulation. Mercutio calls out to Tybalt: "Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?" (III.1.76). The two fight. Benvolio and Romeo try to separate them, and in the confusion, Tybalt mortally wounds Mercutio. Mercutio speaks of his injuries and dies cursing the houses of Capulet and Montague alike: No, ‘[the wound is] not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ‘tis enough. ‘Twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you will find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses! (III.1.100-04). Enraged and grief-stricken, Romeo pursues Tybalt; they fight, and Romeo kills Tybalt. Now under a sentence of death from the Prince, Romeo cries, "O, I am Fortune's fool!" (III.1.142). Benvolio urges him to run away. When the Prince and the Capulets turn up, Benvolio explains to them what has happened. The Prince declares that Romeo is exiled; if Romeo ever shows his face in Verona again, he'll be killed. **Act III, Scene 2 Summary** Juliet, unaware of all that has happened, is waiting impatiently at home for Romeo to come and celebrate their wedding night. She begs the sun to hurry up and set: Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties, or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night [...] Come, gentle night; come, loving black-browed night (III.2.8-11). The Nurse arrives, wailing, and delivers the terrible news: Romeo has killed Tybalt. Juliet is distraught. At first, she curses Romeo's name, but as soon as the Nurse speaks ill of him, she reverses course: "Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?" (III.2.106). She loses herself in grief, less over Tybalt's death than over Romeo's banishment. She bewails the power of that one word, "banished." She vows to take to her bed and die. The Nurse says she'll go find Romeo and bring him to comfort her. **Act III, Scene 3 Summary** Romeo is with Friar Lawrence, bewailing his fate. He turns the word "banished" over and over, seeing it as the worst possible thing that could happen to him: "O Friar, the damned use that word in hell" (III.3.50). Friar Lawrence counsels him to be patient: If he's not dead, there's hope. The Nurse appears to fetch Romeo. She tells them that Juliet is in much the same state as Romeo, wailing and weeping. Romeo draws his dagger to stab himself, but Friar Lawrence exasperatedly holds him back and points out all the good luck that has come their way: Juliet is alive, and Romeo is alive and not under the sentence of death, meaning they will see each other again. He tells Romeo to go to Juliet and then to flee to Mantua in the morning. Romeo, relieved, agrees. **Act III, Scene 4 Summary** Lord and Lady Capulet speak to Paris of their family's misfortune and agree to hurry forward Juliet's wedding to him. It's Monday now; they'll celebrate the marriage on Thursday morning. Paris speaks of his eagerness, and Capulet sends him away. Lady Capulet readies to tell Juliet to prepare for her wedding. **Act III, Scene 5 Summary** The next morning, Romeo and Juliet wake up in bed together. They're reluctant to let each other go and trade words about whether the birds they're hearing are nightingales (birds of the night, which mean they can be together) or larks (birds of the morning, which mean they have to part). At first, Romeo insists they're larks, and Juliet nightingales. Then Juliet remembers that Romeo is under the threat of death and changes her mind: "Some say the lark makes sweet division. / This doth not so, for she divideth us" (III.5.29-30). The Nurse comes in and hurries Romeo away. Romeo climbs out the window, and the lovers exchange a slow, tortured farewell. Juliet has a foreboding vision: "Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb" (III.5. 55-56). At last, Romeo departs for Mantua. Lady Capulet appears and tells Juliet that she's going to be married to Paris on Thursday. Juliet, outraged, declares that she won't do it: "Now by Saint Peter's Church, and Peter too, / He shall not make me there a joyful bride!" (III.5. 121-22). Lord Capulet appears and flies into a rage at Juliet's disobedience. He says he'll disown her if she doesn't agree to marry Paris. The weeping Juliet turns to her mother for comfort, but Lady Capulet offers none. At last, Juliet falls into the arms of the Nurse. The Nurse advises her to be reasonable: Romeo's banished, so she should marry Paris. After all, he's very handsome. Horrified by this betrayal, Juliet withdraws and runs to Friar Lawrence. #### Act III Analysis Shakespearean plays follow a five-act structure, with the third act conventionally serving as the climax. _Romeo and Juliet_ is no exception. Act III changes the whole tenor of the play. Though the Prologue explicitly informs the audience of the lovers' fate, and though ominous dreams and word choice persistently foreshadow their deaths, the actual plot resembles a comedy-i.e., a story that ends in marriage. The deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt transform this plot into a tragedy. Act III is the fulcrum of the play, and it makes clear the real stakes of human passions: Even feelings that are shifting and changeable have real consequences in the world. Mercutio in particular plays an important part in setting off the chain of events that leads to the story's terrible ending. Mercutio's death comes as a twist. Until now, he's been a figure of comic relief-an elegant clown who's there to puncture the absurdities of his lovelorn friend. The loss of Mercutio symbolically marks the end of levity and makes death real. If even a word-bender so attuned to the ridiculousness of humanity is mortal, then no one is safe. Compounding the tragedy is the nature of his death. Mercutio is neither a Capulet nor a Montague, and his death is accidental; hot-tempered as he is, Tybalt does not intend to kill him. In a further irony, Mercutio receives his fatal wound because Romeo is trying to make peace between him and Tybalt. This push for reconciliation is exactly the effect Friar Lawrence hoped Romeo and Juliet's marriage would have, but it backfires disastrously. The senselessness of Mercutio's death exposes the _Empty Rivalry and Feud_ that exists between the two houses. Tybalt aside, the feud does not involve much actual rancor, as evidenced by the fact that Lord Capulet accepts Romeo and his friends' presence at the ball. However, everyone involved in the feud is determined to keep it going, with deadly results. The events of Act III unravel steadily from this point, often in ways that underscore the unreliability that Mercutio was always so quick to point out. One by one, the adults around Romeo and Juliet prove that they are just as temperamental, passionate, and changeable as their children-often more so. Juliet remains loyal to Romeo even after he kills her cousin; however, even the uncomplicatedly loving Nurse proves herself a betrayer when she suggests Juliet not only abandon her new husband but commit bigamy. Meanwhile, the play continues to explore _The Beauty and Danger of Love_. Even as she imagines finally consummating her love with Romeo, Juliet thinks of death: Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun (III.2.23-27). Here, the linkage between love and death is most clear. To "die" was sometimes a metaphor for orgasm: There's a sense that Juliet's experience of sexuality has in it the same loss of self that death brings. That loss of self comes equally to Romeo in this image: His imagined death makes him into the stars-beautiful, but no longer himself.