The beginning of the fifth act is set in the city of Mantua, where Romeo is staying until he can figure out a way to be with Juliet. Romeo is hopeful, and he is happily walking down a street thinking of a dream he had dreamt that night. In a soliloquy, Romeo describes his dream. He dreamt that he was dead, but that Juliet found him and kissed him. The kisses revive him and he then becomes an emperor. In this story that is ruled by the force of fate, Romeo’s dream is prophetic. Romeo will die, and Juliet will then kiss him. But he will not awaken on earth as an emperor: rather, he will awaken in heaven to be with the heavenly emperor.
Romeo’s soliloquy concludes with the following two lines:
Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!
(10-11)
Romeo is declaring that having or possessing love is so sweet and wonderful that even the dreams (shadows) caused by love are wonderful and marvelous. However, Fortune is fickle. Fate can be wonderful one moment and terrible the next.
Balathasar, Romeo’s servant arrives, and informs his master that Juliet is dead. Balthasar does not know anything about the Friar’s sleeping potion. Romeo’s emotions quickly become wild and frantic; and he declares, “Then, I defy you, stars” (24). Romeo is cursing fate. Moreover, Romeo wishes to defy or go against fate or God. Romeo intends to change his fate by committing suicide. Of course, as some critics suggest, the line is an example of irony. Romeo’s death, as the earlier lines suggest and even Romeo’s own dream suggests, is exactly what fate has in store for the young man.
After Balthasar exits, Romeo can think only of being with Juliet. In a second soliloquy the saddened lover observes …
O mischief, thou art swift
To enter into the thoughts of desperate men!
(35-36)
Romeo personifies mischief or evil and is declaring that men who are sad, desperate, and reckless can easily and quickly devise or imagine ways to become destructive or harmful. Romeo desperately wishes to kill himself, and he remembers seeing a poor apothecary (a pharmacist or druggist) who would himself be desperate for money. Although the laws of Mantua forbid selling harmful poisons to anyone, Romeo knows that he if he offers the apothecary enough money, then he will be able to obtain the deadly poison. So, Romeo goes to the apothecary and offers him a large sum of money. The apothecary cannot refuse such a large sum of money even though he knows that he is breaking the law by selling the poison.
After Romeo buys the poison with which he plans to kill himself, Romeo makes the following comment about money:
There is thy gold – worse poison to men’s souls, Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I sell thee poison; thou hast sole me none. (80-83)
Simply put, money is a far more dangerous poison than any chemical compound or substance. Although some men have been killed by chemical poisons, thousands or even millions of men have been killed because of greed. Wars are often fought because men are greedy and seek power and wealth. Yet there are no laws against the exchanging of gold or money. Romeo’s general comment about money and greed specifically does apply to his and Juliet’s own situation. The Capulets wanted to force Juliet into a marriage because they could gain prestige or power. They wanted Juliet to marry Paris because they were greedy.
Friar Laurence had sent another member of his order, a man named Friar John, to Mantua with a letter for Romeo explaining his scheme to fake Juliet’s death. However, Friar John returns to Friar Laurence and explains that he was unable to deliver the letter because health officers thought that he and a fellow traveler were infected by the plague and put them under quarantine (that is, they were kept locked up until the officials were certain that they were not infected). Friar John then hands Friar Laurence the undelivered letter.
Romeo’s advisor and friend then declares, “Unhappy fortune!” (17). Fortune or fate has turned against them. Their destiny is, indeed, an unfortunate one.
Friar Laurence realizes that Juliet will be awakening in three short hours, and she will find herself locked in the tomb without Romeo being there to rescue her. So, Friar Laurence decides to go to the tomb himself and unlock the crypt. The Friar also intends to send another letter to Romeo because he realizes that Romeo will become desperate when he hears about Juliet’s death.
The final scene of the play is set at the tomb (or crypt or mausoleum) of the Capulet family. Paris arrives at night with a servant. Paris intends to spend the night mourning for Juliet, whose drugged body has been locked inside the tomb. Paris tells his servant to stand aside and to signal him in case anyone else should come to the cemetery that night. A few moments later the servant whistles to Paris to notify him that someone else is approaching. Paris thus finds a place to hide because he does not wish to be seen.
Romeo then arrives with Balthasar
(Romeo’s own servant). They are carrying an iron bar and a mattock (an agricultural tool resembling an ax). Romeo intends to break open the locked tomb, stand beside Juliet, and commit suicide there. Romeo, however, tells Balthasar that he intends only to take a ring from Juliet that he had given her. Romeo does not want Balthasar to know that he intends to kill himself.
Romeo hands Balthasar a sealed letter that he orders his servant to give to his father the next morning. The rash young lover then orders Balthasar to leave the cemetery, and he even threatens his servant not to return. Romeo, of course, does not want anyone around while he says his farewell to Juliet and then commits suicide.
Romeo then remembers that Balthasar has always been a good and loyal servant, and Romeo gives him money before he parts. Balthasar is well aware, however, that Romeo is acting wildly and strangely. So, the servant hides himself a short distance away in case Romeo should need his help. Romeo then moves to the tomb and begins to work with the tools to force it open. Paris sees Romeo and recognizes him. Paris believes that Romeo, being a Montague, intends “to do some villainous shame to the dead bodies” of the Capulets (52-53). So, Paris tells Romeo to give himself up and go with him to the authorities in Verona.
Romeo, however, has no intention of giving up; and he tells Paris to leave him.
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither armed against myself. (64-65)
Romeo means that he only intends to commit harm against himself (hither means here). Paris does not understand Romeo’s comment, and he certainly does not have any intention of allowing Romeo to enter the tomb of the Capulets.
Paris then draws his sword and engages in a fight against Romeo. Romeo slays Paris. With his dying breath, Paris requests that Romeo should place his body inside the tomb beside Juliet’s own body. Romeo agrees, and Paris then dies.
Romeo is now alone on the stage, and he delivers a soliloquy (a speech representing his thoughts) as he pulls Paris’ body inside the tomb. Only after Paris dies does Romeo recognize him. Romeo is too full of emotions – anger, sadness, despair, and more. He vaguely remembers Balthasar having said something about how Paris was going to marry Juliet. Yet, in his troubled mind, Romeo is not sure if that comment was true or just something he had dreamt. Romeo even thinks that perhaps he might be mad (at line 80). In a sense, Romeo is mad. His emotions are so strong and so disturbing that he is unable to think rationally or clearly.
Romeo regrets that Paris had to die that night, and he says to the corpse of the young man
…
O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book.
(81-82)
Fate or destiny is personified in these lines (personification) as a bringer of woe and sadness and despair. Hence, Fate or Fortune is more appropriately named Misfortune. Here Misfortune is depicted as holding a book in which all of the names of her victims are listed (Fate is typically presented as a female, Dame Fortune). The image and concept here clearly depict Shakespeare’s own notion regarding Fate. No one on earth knows or understands why Fate selects certain individuals for lives of hardship and pain, and no one on earth has the power to thwart or prevent Fate from wreaking havoc upon the lives of those selected individuals. Fate is a mystery, and it is a force that man is powerless to control.
Romeo then opens the tomb and begins to bring the body of Paris inside. The place of darkness, however, does not appear to be dark at all when Romeo sees the beautiful form of Juliet lying on a stone slab (or table). The brightness of her beauty illuminates the dark tomb in Romeo’s mind (at lines 84-86).
Romeo carefully places the body of Paris
down and declares …
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred. (87)
The word death in this line refers directly to Paris, and the words “dead man” refer to Romeo himself. Romeo still intends to kill himself, and so he already considers himself dead. Thus, the dead is burying the dead: Romeo is burying Paris.
After Romeo places Paris down, he looks upon Juliet and recalls an idea coming from early English folklore referred to as the lightening before death:
How oft when men are at the point of death,
Have they been merry, which their keepers call
A lightning before death! (88-90)
“It’s a lightening before death” is even a proverb. The saying means (1) that a person who is just about to die experiences a brief moment when his (or her) pain and suffering disappears and his mind and memory become sharp and clear. His spirits thus become lighter and happier (his spirits lighten). (2) A superstition is also associated with the phrase that suggests that mirth is the forerunner of adversity. Or, to put it another way, excessive happiness precedes a tragic event.
Although Romeo sees the light of Juliet’s beauty, his spirits are not lighter or happier. The proverb does not appear to be true in Romeo’s situation.
Romeo is amazed that Juliet retains all of her beauty even though she has died. Of course, Romeo does not know that Juliet is yet still alive.
Romeo then wonders why Juliet is still so beautiful:
Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour? (102-05)
The word fair, as usual, means beautiful; and Romeo personifies Death as a monster who has fallen in love with Juliet and thus keeps her in the tomb to be his lover. Thus, Romeo remains determined to take his life and lie beside Juliet so that, in death, he can be her protector and guardian as well as her husband.
Romeo then kisses Juliet and pours the poison in a cup. Before he drinks it, Romeo, using a metaphor, refers to the poison as an unsavory guide and a desperate pilot of a barque (bark) or sailing ship. Romeo’s own body is the ship, and he wishes to crash that ship on the “dashing rocks”: Romeo wishes to take his own life.
Romeo then drinks the poison, which begins to have an immediate effect. Romeo then kisses Juliet one last time and dies.