Romeo and Juliet Summary by Michael McGoodwin: Part Three

Act IV
Act IV Scene 1
Friar Laurence's cell, Tuesday. Friar Laurence expresses surprise to Paris that the wedding is planned so hastily for the next Thursday, but Paris explains that her father believes it is unhealthy for her to mourn so long for Tybalt and that this will be the right course for her. Laurence wishes it could be slowed. Juliet arrives and is ambiguous in speaking to Paris, though he speaks as if he already possesses her. She wants to meet alone with Laurence and he leaves. Juliet is in despair and does not know what to do. She displays a knife and is considering killing herself. Laurence offers a desperate solution to her desperate circumstance, and she is fearless to proceed. He gives her a vial of potion which will make her appear dead, telling her to take it Wednesday night before the Thursday wedding. He will send a friar to Romeo in Mantua to tell him of the plan.

Act IV Scene 2
Capulet's house. Capulet instructs his servant to hire cooks for the wedding party. Juliet enters and says Laurence has helped her to repent her sin of disobedience to her father, and kneels to ask his forgiveness. Capulet responds by calling for Paris and to proceed [with even greater haste] with the wedding the next day, on Wednesday. His wife wants to stay with the original plan but he insists on Wednesday, even though she says they will be short on provisions. He reassures her all will be well and plans to stay up all night [he seems euphoric with his girl "so reclaimed", oblivious to Juliet's true thoughts].

Act IV Scene 3
Capulet house, view includes Juliet's bed. Lady Capulet offers Juliet help but she declines and her mother leaves. Juliet says "Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again./I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins/That almost freezes up the heat of life." She considers calling back her Nurse but decides against it [her isolation now virtually complete]. She wonders if the vial may contain poison? Will she awake before Romeo comes and die of suffocation near the festering body of Tybalt or go mad and play with her ancestors bones? She thinks she sees Tybalt's ghost seeking Romeo. At the height of these fearful concerns, she drinks the vial.

Act IV Scene 4
Same, the following (Wednesday) morning 3 AM. Wife enters with Nurse and tells Capulet to come to bed and not be a cotquean (house husband), but he wants to stay up. He has stayed up so before, and she reminds him that it was when he was a women chaser ("mouse-hunt"). Servingmen enter with logs and make word play jokes about logs. They hear Paris coming and send Nurse to awaken Juliet.

Act IV Scene 5
Same, still with Juliet's bed visible. Nurse tries to awaken Juliet and finds her still dressed, and appearing to be dead. Lady Capulet laments her only child. Capulet enters blustering and unbelieving but finally concludes "Death lies on her like an untimely frost/Upon the sweetest flower of all the field".

Friar Laurence enters with Paris. Capulet says to Paris "O son, the night before thy wedding-day/Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,/Flower as she was, deflowered by him./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." All lament. Paris says "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!" Capulet rages against Death. Friar gives reassurances about the afterlife, and asks them to bear her to church, cautioning "The heavens do lour upon you for some ill;/Move them no more by crossing their high will." Peter the servant wants the musicians to play the ballad "Heart's ease" and carries on an absurdly comical dialog with them.

Act V
Act V Scene 1
Mantua, street. Romeo has dreamed that joyful news is at hand--he dreamed his lady came to him and found him dead and revived him with kisses. Balthasar, Romeo's man, enters with news from Verona. He informs him that Juliet has died and "sleeps" in the Capulet monument. Romeo defies the stars, calls for paper and pen and horses. He wonders if there are letters from the Friar, but there are none. He concludes "Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight". He meets with the nearby poor apothecary and buys a dram of poison that will hastily dispatch himself: "A dram of poison, /such soon-speeding gear/As will disperse itself through all the veins/That the life-weary taker may fall dead,/And that the trunk may be discharged of breath/As violently as hasty powder fired/Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb." The apothecary is concerned that he violates the law but Romeo talks the reluctant man into selling the "cordial", arguing "There is thy gold--worse poison to men's souls,/Doing more murders in this loathsome world/Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell."

Act V Scene 2
Verona, Friar Laurence's cell. Laurence had sent Friar John to inform Romeo of the plan, but John was confined in Verona by health officials fearing he had been in house "where the infectious pestilence [plague] did reign" and was therefore unable to deliver it. Laurence knows the disaster this spells and makes plans to hasten to the monument where Juliet will awaken in three hours. He will write to Romeo again and keep Juliet in his cell.

Act V Scene 3
Verona, churchyard containing the Capulet tomb or vault, night. Paris brings flowers and is accompanied by his page. He does not want to be seen and has his page lay nearby. He strews flowers and perfumed water on the tomb ("thy bridal bed"). He hears Romeo coming and retires.

Romeo arrives with Balthasar with a pickaxe and crowbar. He gives a letter to B. to be given to his father in the morning. He claims to be there to take a ring from her, and savagely threatens to tear B. apart if he interferes with his actions: "I will tear thee joint by joint/And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs./The time and my intents are savage-wild,/More fierce and more inexorable far/Than empty tigers or the roaring sea." Balthasar departs but decides to hide nearby, fearing Romeo's intentions.

Romeo addresses the "detestable maw" of the tomb and tries to open it. Paris appears, says Juliet died mourning the cousin Romeo killed, and tries to apprehend him to die. Romeo asks him not to tempt a desperate man and tries to prevent the fight, saying "I come hither armed against myself", referring to himself as a madman (and Paris as "youth" and "boy" [is he much younger?]). But Paris insists on apprehending him, they fight, and Paris is slain. Paris' page goes for help. Paris asks to be lain in Juliet's tomb, and Romeo agrees to. He recalls his man told him that Paris was to marry Juliet, wonders if he has gone mad or is dreaming.

He opens the tomb and compares it to a lighted turret room: "A grave? O, no! A lantern, slaughtered youth,/For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes/This vault a feasting presence full of light." He lays Paris in the tomb. He feels euphoric at the sight of Juliet: "How oft when men are at the point of death/Have they been merry, which their keepers call/A lightening before death. O, how may I/Call this a lightening? O my love, my wife!" and marvels that "Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,/Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty." He wonders "Shall I believe/That unsubstantial Death is amorous,/And that the lean abhorred monster keeps/Thee here in dark to be his paramour?" He declares he will stay there and "shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/From this world-wearied flesh", kisses her, and takes the fast-acting poison.

Friar Laurence enters with tools with which to open the tomb. Balthasar approaches him and tells him it is Romeo in the distant tomb, present for 1/2 hour. Balthasar slept and wondered if he heard Romeo fighting. Laurence finds blood at the tomb and sees Romeo and Paris within. Juliet awakens and asks for Romeo. They hear a noise [not inside the tomb] and Laurence tries to get Juliet to leave, saying "A greater power than we can contradict/Hath thwarted our intents./Come, come away./Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,/And Paris too." He says he will station her in a convent and wants to get away before the watch discovers them, finally going by himself.

Juliet kisses his lips to get the poison remaining but there is not enough. Paris' page enters in the distance with the First Watch. Juliet takes Romeo's dagger and kills herself.

The First Watch discovers the bodies of Paris and Juliet, warm and newly dead, and tells Page to fetch the parents and the Prince. Balthasar enters captured by the Second Watch, and the Third Watch has captured the Friar with his tools.

Prince Escalus arrives as do the Capulets and Montagues. Capulet sees the knife has come from the dead Romeo's sheath. Montague says his wife has died that night and laments his son's death has preceded his own. Prince wants to learn who is responsible for all this, saying "Forbear,/And let mischance be slave to patience." Friar tells the story: that Romeo was married to Juliet, her grief from his banishment, her taking the potion, his failed letter to Romeo, his failure to reach the tomb ahead of Romeo, her refusal to leave the tomb with him, her apparent suicide. The Nurse can corroborate his story. Prince seems convinced, and Balthasar gives Romeo's letter to his father. The Page tells why Paris had come, to strew flowers. The letter is convincing.

Prince concludes: "Capulet, Montague,/See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,/That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love./And I for winking at your discords, too/Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished."

Capulet takes Montague's hand: "O brother Montague, give me thy hand./This is my daughter's jointure, for no more/Can I demand." Montague replies "But I can give thee more,/For I will raise her statue in pure gold..."

Prince concludes: "A glooming peace this morning with it brings;/The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head./Go hence to have more talk of these sad things./Some shall be pardoned, and some punished;/For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet

Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
Setting-
The play takes place in the town of Verona.
Background information-
The Montagues and Capulets are two rivalry families.They are involved in a family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born.Yet the feud still continues due to the fact that neither family is ready to forgive and forget the past. Even the townspeople are involved because the families do not keep the feud in the privacy of their own home but have been seen fighting in the public streets and displaying violence. They disrupt the peace of Verona and even Prince Escalus personally had to break up a fight, where the family members were heavily fined . They were also given a warning that another public fight could result in death. While this is occurring Romeo ,the main character, is getting over his last love, Rosaline, and was very upset. Juliet of the Capulet household has just been introduced to a wealthy young man , Paris, who her parents wish her to marry. Yet she does not love him.
Characters
• Romeo is a Montague. He falls in love with Juliet and proceeds to marry her. He is a tragic character. He is characterized as hasty and emotional. He is young.
• Juliet- She is a Capulet. She falls in love with Romeo. She believes marriage should be for love. She is also characterized as hasty. She is young
• Lord Capulet- He is Juliet's father. He is strict, harsh, not understanding. He wants her to marry Paris.
• Lady Montague-She is Romeo's mother. She is very busy and strict.
• Lord Montague-He is Romeo' father. He is stubborn and not willing to forgive.
• County Paris- He is kinsman of Prince. He cares about Juliet and wishes to marry her.
• Prince Escalus- He is Prince of Verona. He wants to call a truce and end the family feud.
• Friar Lawrence- He is the Priest in Verona. He weds Romeo and Juliet hoping it will unite both families. Instead it causes fighting. He later gives Juliet sleeping potion. He helps Romeo out.
• Friar John-He was supposed to deliver a letter to Romeo about Juliet, but Romeo did not get it.
• The Nurse- She cared for Juliet during childhood. She wants Juliet to be happy. She is very talkative.
• Mercutio-He is a good friend of Romeo
• Balthasar-He is a servant amd a friend of Romeo.
• Benvolio- He is a friend of Romeo
• Tybalt- He is a nephew of Lady Capulet. He has a bad temper.
• Samson- He is a Capulet servant
• Gregory-He is a Capulet servant
Plot summary-
Romeo (Montague), who is in love with Rosaline, goes to a party in an effort to forget her or to ease his broken heart. At this party he met Juliet, and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agree to secretly marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agrees to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) , a good friend of Romeo's, ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt kills Mercutio, which causes Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona.
At the same time, the Capulet's are planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet does not want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that will make everyone think that she is dead. Friar Lawrence promises to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo is currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo does not receive this message on time and upon hearing of her "death" goes to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she awaken's to find her lover's corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.
Themes-
• Hastiness- Romeo is hasty to fall in and out of love. The two are too hasty to get married; they never thought about what could go wrong.
• Infatuation- Romeo and Juliet, in all probability, were not really in love. They were infatuated with each other. They were in love with the idea that they were in love. They could not have fallen so deeply in love with only one conversation.
• Selfishness- Everyone in this play (except Benvolio) acts selfishly. Juliet never told her parents about Romeo and did the selfish act of faking her death, which greatly upset them. The Capulets were selfish for making Juliet marry a man that she did not love. Both of the families were selfish for continuing the fighting. Friar Lawrence ran away when they saw the two families go into the tomb. He wanted to prevent himself from getting in trouble. Tybalt was selfish for killing Mercutio. Romeo was not thinking of Juliet as he killed her cousin.
Key Issues
• Feuding- The feuding of the families was the whole reason for the tragedy. They should have reconciled their differences years ago. They didn't even know what they were fighting about.
• Stereotypes-Some members of the Capulets and Montagues have never even met and yet they hate each other. Why? Because of a person's last name.
• Dreams- The whole story had occurred in a dream which foretold their fate . This was a warning for Romeo yet he chose to ignore it.
• Decisions- Many difficult decisions had to be made. Friar's decision to marry them was difficult. He could have told their parents. He risked taking the responsibility for marrying them knowing it might cause upheaval. Juliet had the difficult decision of how to get out of marrying Paris. She was also confronted with the dilemma of whether to appease her parents and follow their wishes which would mean marrying Paris or follow her heart and marry Romeo.The families made the decision to end their feud to prevent any more unnecessary deaths.
• Sacrifices- Romeo and Juliet were willing to sacrifice their relationship with their families in order to be together.
• Fate- It was considered fate that they would meet and fall in love and then die for each other. Fate brought them together as well as ended their lives. It was in the stars.
Moral lessons
There is more to love than lust. Romeo and Juliet did not take the time to get to know each other and form a deep intimate relationship. They rushed into their relationship. They were also very young to be experiencing love . Even people much older than them do not know what love means. It may have really been true love that was mutually felt by both of them though.
Labels mean nothing- Their last name was a label. Their names were what almost kept them apart. . But love saw through that. They saw each other in secrecy and soon fell madly in love. Love sees no barriers.
Listen to advice-If the families had listened to the Prince of Verona and made peace, then Mercutio and Tybalt would not have died. If Romeo and Juliet would have listened to the advice given to them by the Friar then they would not have died so young. The Friar cautioned them about acting hasty and irrational. But instead the star-crossed lovers meet the fate of death.
Don't seek revenge-The families sought revenge for things that did not even involve them and happened years ago. They needed to forgive and forget. Yet when both parties are stubborn it takes the death of two young lovers for them to realize that their actions were wrong. . Tybalt called Romeo a villain and dared him to fight. With his refusal Mercutio began to fight Tybalt to defend the family name. Romeo tries to stop them, but it is too late when Tybalt kills Mercutio. In anger and guilt Romeo than retaliates and catches Tybalt. In Romeo's rashness Tybalt dies .
Don't act hastily- This involves the manner in which Romeo and Juliet acted . They should have thought things through first before they jumped into matrimony. Matrimony is a lifetime thing and not just a teenage phase.