Ominous foreboding

Death

A4S1

‘And with this knife I’ll help it presently.’ Line 54 ~ Juliet

Explanation: I’ll kill myself immediately with this knife here.

Why it’s chosen: Juliet talks about killing herself with a knife if Friar Lawrence does not help her, and this line reminds the audience that Juliet and Romeo is really going to die at the end.

‘And with this knife I’ll help it presently.’ Line 54 ~ Juliet

Explanation: I’ll kill myself immediately with this knife here.

Why it’s chosen: Death is hinted in this line.

‘God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed;’ Line 55-56 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Romeo and I are joined and married before God.  

Why it’s chosen: The word “sealed” remind the audience of A1S5, where Romeo and Juliet first sealed their love with a kiss, and at the same time, it forebodes the tragic end that is going to happen to them.

‘Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife, shall play the umpire, arbitrating that, which the commission of thy years and art, could to no issue of true honour bring.’ Line 62-62 ~ Juliet

Explanation: This knife shall judge between me (Juliet) and my sufferings. Even you (Friar Lawrence), with all the authority of your age and skill, could not bring things to a really honourable conclusion. The knife will settle things.

Why it’s chosen: The violent imagery of the “bloody knife” brings to mind the theme of death in the play.

‘ Then is it likely thou wilt undertake, a thing like death to chide away this shame, That cop’st with death himself to ‘scape from it;’ Line 73-75 ~ Friar Lawrence

Explanation: Juliet is ready to meet death itself in order to escape the shame of marrying Paris.

Why it’s chosen: This line hints of death, and thus it involves the theme of death.

‘Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud.’ Line 85-85 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Hide me (Juliet) in a grave with a dead man.

Why it’s chosen: This line is an ominous foreboding of the death of Juliet and Romeo.

‘Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud.’ Line 85-85 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Hide me (Juliet) in a grave with a dead man.

Why it’s chosen The images painted by Juliet here is associated with the image of death.

‘ And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death, Thou shalt continue two and forty hours, And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.’ Line 104-106 ~ Friar Lawrence

Explanation: Juliet will fall into a drugged sleep for 42 hours, and then awake from it.

Why it’s chosen: The characters on stage thought that Juliet will be able to wake from her “pleasant sleep”, but in actual fact, (and the audience knows of this), she will be awakening to the body of her husband, Romeo.

A4S3

‘ I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life.’ Line 15-16 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Fear is causing Juliet to be cold, and to feel faint, and she is reminded of the outcome of her actions.

Why it’s chosen: Juliet knows that by drinking the potion, she will “die”, and once again, her action serves as a reminder to the audience that the end of Romeo’s and Juliet’s lives is to come.

‘ I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life.’ Line 15-16 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Fear is causing Juliet to be cold, and to feel faint, and she is reminded of the outcome of her actions.

Why it’s chosen: Juliet is going to “die”, and she talks about how her fear almost freezes up the “heat of life”. This imagery puts the image of death in the audience’s mind.

‘ The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place –‘ Line 37-38 ~ Juliet

Explanation: The fantasies produced by the thought of death and night is horrifying.

Why it’s chosen: This line shows the fear that Juliet, and most people, have of death.

‘ O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost, Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body, Upon a rapier’s point ¾ stay Tybalt, stay!’’ line 56-58 ~ Juliet

Explanation: Juliet imagines that Tybalt is attacking Romeo.

Why it’s chosen: Even though Tybalt is dead, he is still an important symbol of violence and hate in the play, which in turn invokes the images of death in the audience.

A4S5

‘ Death lies on her like an untimely frost, Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.’ Line 26-27 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: Juliet is like a flower in a field which has been covered with frost (death).

Why it’s chosen: Life is described as flowers, while death is compared to the bitter frost, which has taken the life of the flowers. This line also reminds us A1S2 where Lord Capulet compared Juliet to a flower as well.

‘Hath Death lain with thy wife; there she lies, Flower as she was, deflowerèd by him.’ Line 36-37 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: Lord Capulet is imagining that Death is claiming Juliet for his wife.

Why it’s chosen: The theme of death is portrayed with imagery of Death being Juliet’s lover.

‘ Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir, My daughter he hath wedded. I will die, And leave him all; life, living, all is death’s.’ Line 38-40 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: He will not have any descendants to inherit his wealth, as Death has claimed Juliet.

Why it’s chosen: Lord Capulet wanted to have descendants to inherit all the wealth he has, but hatred has lead to death, which will claim all. What is noted is that Juliet is not really dead here, (and the audience knows that) but she will die in the end, and what Lord Capulet has said here is going to come true.

‘ Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir, My daughter he hath wedded. I will die, And leave him all; life, living, all is death’s.’ Line 38-40 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: He will not have any descendants to inherit his wealth, as Death has claimed Juliet.

Why it’s chosen: Lord Capulet used more imageries here that symbolize the theme of death being Juliet’s lover.

‘Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain, Most detestable Death, by thee beguiled, By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown. O love! O life! Not life, but love in death.’ Line 55-58 ~ Paris

Explanation: Paris feels that he is cheated of his love (Juliet). She is no longer his life, but still his love, although she is dead.

Why it’s chosen: Paris will also die in the end, and it is a prelude to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths as well. Although Juliet is not really dead yet, she will die in the end, and what Paris said here is a hint of that end.

‘ Dead art thou, alack my child is dead, And with my child my joys are buried.’ Line 63-63 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: His child is dead, and with her death, his joys have also been killed.

Why it’s chosen: Lord Capulet mourns Juliet’s death, saying that his joys have also been killed. What he said here will come to pass in the end, and his joys will “be buried” with his child, Juliet. This line serves as another reminder or an ominous foreboding of the “death-marked” love that Romeo and Juliet shares.

‘ Dead art thou, alack my child is dead, And with my child my joys are buried.’ Line 63-63 ~ Lord Capulet

Explanation: His child is dead, and with her death, his joys have also been killed.

Why it’s chosen: The theme of death is highlighted in this line.

‘She’s not well-married that lives married long, But she’s best married that dies married young.’ Line 77-78 ~ Friar Lawrence

Explanation: Friar Lawrence says it is good to die young.

Why it’s chosen: This lines reminds us of what Lord Capulet said in A1S2 about women being married young. It arouses a sense of ominous foreboding in the audience, as Juliet did marry young (with Romeo) and she did die young as well.

‘ Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.’ Line83 ~ Friar Lawrence

Explanation: Reason laughs at our natural sorrow ¾ because the dead have gone to a far happier place, and we should rejoice rather than cry.

Why it’s chosen: This line seems to be one of the few in the play that show no fear or hatred of death, which seems to be the normal reaction to death.

‘ The heavens do lour upon you for some ill; Move them no more by crossing their high will.’ Line 95-96 ~ Friar Lawrence

Explanation: The heavens frowned upon Paris because of some sin that he had committed, and thus, did not allow him to marry Juliet, and Friar Lawrence warned him to not anger the heavens further by opposing.

Why it’s chosen: The God(s) above is(are) the one(s) who control(s) everything, and thus, the future is unpredictable. This line reminds us of the previous lines uttered by Romeo in A1S4, and once again, it forewarns of the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet.