Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Summary

Romeo and Juliet Act 4 Summary

Act IV, Scene One

Paris is speaking with Friar Laurence about the wedding with Juliet. Friar Laurence, aware that Juliet cannot marry Paris, is full of misgivings.

Juliet enters and is forced to speak with Paris, who acts arrogant now that the marriage is going to happen. Juliet rebuffs him by giving vague answers to his questions. She finally asks Friar Laurence if she can meet with him alone so that Paris has to leave.

Friar Laurence comes up with a rash (what’s that mean?) plan to get Romeo and Juliet together. He gives Juliet a poison which will make her appear dead to the world. In this way, rather than marry Paris, she will instead be placed in the vault where all deceased Capulets are buried. Friar Laurence will then send a letter to Romeo, telling him what is being done so that he can return and sneak Juliet out of the tomb and also away from Verona.

Act IV, Scene Two

Juliet arrives home and tells her father that she has repented her sin of being disobedient to him. He pardons her and happily sends her off to prepare her clothes for the wedding day. Capulet then goes to tell Paris that Juliet will marry him willingly.

Act IV, Scene Three

Juliet convinces both her mother and the Nurse that she wants to sleep alone that night. She prepares to drink the poison that Friar Laurence gave her, but cautiously puts a knife next to her bed in case the potion should fail to work. Juliet then drinks the potion and falls motionless onto her bed.

Act IV, Scenes Four and Five

Capulet and Lady Capulet finish final arrangements for the wedding. The Nurse goes to fetch Juliet but instead finds her lying dead. Lady Capulet enters and also starts lamenting her daughter's demise. Capulet then arrives and, discovering his daughter has committed suicide, orders the music to change to funeral tunes.

Act 4 Required Quotes

On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. 4.1, FriarDramatic Irony [Haste]
In his wisdom [he] hastes our marriage to stop the inundation of her tears. 4.1, Paris
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye. 4.1, Paris
If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, do thou but call my resolution wise and with this knife I’ll help it presently. 4.1, Juliet
Be not so long to speak. I long to die if what thou speakst not of remedy. 4.1, Juliet[Despair]
Hold, daughter, I do spy a kind of hope…4.1, Friar
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris…4.1, Juliet
Take thou this vial, being then in bed, and this distilled liquor drink thou off. 4.1, Friar
In this borrowed likeness of shrunk death thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours, and then awake as from a pleasant sleep. 4.1, Friar
That very night shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua. 4.1, Friar
I’ll send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. 4.1, Friar
Love, give me strength, and strength shall help afford. 4.1, Juliet
My heart is wondrous light, since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed. 4.2, Capulet
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again…4.3, JulietForeshadowing, Soliloquy
What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married then tomorrow morning? No, no! This shall forbid it. (places dagger by bed) 4.3, Juliet [Fear]
Romeo, I come! This do I drink to thee. 4.3, Juliet
O me, O me! My child, my only life! 4.5, Lady CHyperbole[Parental Distance]
Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower. 4.5 CapuletSimile
In all her best array bear her to church. 4.5, Friar
All things that we ordained festival turn from their office to black funeral. 4.5, CapuletParadox

Romeo and Juliet Act 5 Summary

Act V, Scene One

On Wednesday morning, on a street in Mantua, a cheerful Romeo describes a wonderful dream he had the night before: Juliet found him lying dead, but she kissed him, and breathed new life into his body. Just then, Balthasar enters, and Romeo greets him happily, saying that Balthasar must have come from Verona with news of Juliet and his father. Romeo comments that nothing can be ill in the world if Juliet is well. Balthasar replies that nothing can be ill, then, for Juliet is well: she is in heaven, found dead that morning at her home. Thunderstruck, Romeo cries out “Then I defy you, stars” (V.i.24).

He tells Balthasar to get him pen and paper (with which he writes a letter for Balthasar to give to Montague) and to hire horses, and says that he will return to Verona that night. Balthasar says that Romeo seems so distraught that he is afraid to leave him, but Romeo insists. Romeo suddenly stops and asks if Balthasar is carrying a letter from Friar Lawrence. Balthasar says he is not, and Romeo sends his servant on his way. Once Balthasar is gone, Romeo says that he will lie with Juliet that night. He goes to find an apothecary, a seller of drugs. After telling the man in the shop that he looks poor, Romeo offers to pay him well for a vial of poison. The Apothecary says that he has just such a thing, but that selling poison in Mantua carries the death sentence. Romeo replies that the Apothecary is too poor to refuse the sale. The Apothecary finally relents and sells Romeo the poison. Once alone, Romeo speaks to the vial, declaring that he will go to Juliet’s tomb and kill himself.

Act V, Scene Two

At his cell, Friar Lawrence speaks with Friar John, whom he had earlier sent to Mantua with a letter for Romeo. He asks John how Romeo responded to his letter (which described the plan involving Juliet’s false death). Friar John replies that he was unable to deliver the letter because he was shut up in a quarantined house due to an outbreak of plague. Friar Lawrence becomes upset, realizing that if Romeo does not know about Juliet’s false death, there will be no one to retrieve her from the tomb when she awakes. (He does not know that Romeo has learned of Juliet’s death and believes it to be real.) Sending for a crowbar, Friar Lawrence declares that he will have to rescue Juliet from the tomb on his own. He sends another letter to Romeo to warn him about what has happened, and plans to keep Juliet in his cell until Romeo arrives.

Act V, Scene Three

In the churchyard that night, Paris enters with a torch-bearing servant. He orders the page to withdraw, then begins scattering flowers on Juliet’s grave. He hears a whistle—the servant’s warning that someone is approaching. He withdraws into the darkness. Romeo, carrying a crowbar, enters with Balthasar. He tells Balthasar that he has come to open the Capulet tomb in order to take back a valuable ring he had given to Juliet. Then he orders Balthasar to leave, and, in the morning, to deliver to Montague the letter Romeo had given him. Balthasar withdraws, but, mistrusting his master’s intentions, lingers to watch.

From his hiding place, Paris recognizes Romeo as the man who murdered Tybalt, and thus as the man who indirectly murdered Juliet, since it is her grief for her cousin that is supposed to have killed her. As Romeo has been exiled from the city on penalty of death, Paris thinks that Romeo must hate the Capulets so much that he has returned to the tomb to do some dishonor to the corpse of either Tybalt or Juliet. In a rage, Paris accosts Romeo. Romeo pleads with him to leave, but Paris refuses. They draw their swords and fight. Paris’ page runs off to get the civil watch. Romeo kills Paris. As he dies, Paris asks to be laid near Juliet in the tomb, and Romeo consents.

Romeo descends into the tomb carrying Paris’ body. He finds Juliet lying peacefully, and wonders how she can still look so beautiful—as if she were not dead at all. Romeo speaks to Juliet of his intention to spend eternity with her, describing himself as shaking “the yoke of inauspicious stars / From this world-wearied flesh” (V.iii.111–112). He kisses Juliet, drinks the poison, kisses Juliet again, and dies.

Just then, Friar Lawrence enters the churchyard. He encounters Balthasar, who tells him that Romeo is in the tomb. Balthasar says that he fell asleep and dreamed that Romeo fought with and killed someone. Troubled, the friar enters the tomb, where he finds Paris’ body and then Romeo’s. As the friar takes in the bloody scene, Juliet wakes.

Juliet asks the friar where her husband is. Hearing a noise that he believes is the coming of the watch, the friar quickly replies that both Romeo and Paris are dead, and that she must leave with him. Juliet refuses to leave, and the friar, fearful that the watch is imminent, exits without her. Juliet sees Romeo dead beside her, and surmises from the empty vial that he has drunk poison. Hoping she might die by the same poison, Juliet kisses his lips, but to no avail. Hearing the approaching watch, Juliet unsheathes Romeo’s dagger and, saying, “O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath,” stabs herself (V.iii.171). She dies upon Romeo’s body.

Chaos reigns in the churchyard, where Paris’ page has brought the watch. The watchmen discover bloodstains near the tomb; they hold Balthasar and Friar Lawrence, who they discovered loitering nearby. The Prince and the Capulets enter. Romeo, Juliet, and Paris are discovered in the tomb. Montague arrives, declaring that Lady Montague has died of grief for Romeo’s exile. The Prince shows Montague his son’s body. Upon the Prince’s request, Friar Lawrence succinctly tells the story of Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage and its consequences. Balthasar gives the Prince the letter Romeo had previously written to his father. The Prince says that it confirms the friar’s story. He scolds the Capulets and Montagues, calling the tragedy a consequence of their feud and reminding them that he himself has lost two close kinsmen: Mercutio and Paris. Capulet and Montague clasp hands and agree to put their vendetta behind them. Montague says that he will build a golden statue of Juliet, and Capulet insists that he will raise Romeo’s likeness in gold beside hers. The Prince takes the group away to discuss these events, pronouncing that there has never been “a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (v.iii.309).

Act 5 Required Quotes

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead. 5.1, RomeoForeshadowing
How fares my Juliet?...For nothing can be ill if she be well. 5.1, Romeo
Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument. 5.1, BalthasarParadox, Dramatic Irony
Then I defy you, stars! 5.1, Romeo[Fate]
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar? 5.1, Romeo[Haste]
Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. 5.1, RomeoForeshadowing, Dramatic Irony, Soliloquy
Let me have a dram of poison. 5.1, Romeo
Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law is death to any he that utters them. 5.1, Apothecary
The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law. 5.1, Romeo
My poverty but not my will consents. 5.1, Apothecary[Morality vs Worldly Goods]
I pay thy poverty and not thy will. 5.1, Romeo
If you had the strength of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight. 5.1, ApothecaryHyperbole
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me to Juliet’s grave; for there must I use thee. 5.1, RomeoParadox
Unhappy fortune!...The neglecting it may do much danger. 5.2, Friar[Fate]
I will write again to Mantua, and keep her at my cell till Romeo come. 5.2, FriarDramatic Irony
Live, and be prosperous. 5.3, Romeo
I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, and in despite I’ll cram thee with more food. 5.3, RomeoMetaphor, Personification
Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague!...for thou must die. 5.3, ParisDramatic Irony
I must indeed; and therefore came I hither…tempt not a desp’rate man…I love thee better than myself. For I come hither armed against myself. 5.3, Romeo Dramatic Irony
Death…hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered…Death’s pale flag is not advanced there. 5.3, Romeo Dramatic Irony, Personification
Death is amorous, and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour. 5.3, Romeo Metaphor
O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. 5.3, Romeo[Despair, Haste]
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead; and Paris too. 5.3, Friar[Death of Innocence]
Drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after? 5.3, Juliet
Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. 5.3, JulietMetaphor
My wife is dead tonight! Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath. 5.3, Montague
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! 5.3, Prince Paradox [Fate, Balance of Good and Evil, Consequences]
And I, for winking at your discords too, have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished. 5.3, Prince
For I will raise her statue in pure gold. 5.3, Montague[Peace from Love]
As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie. 5.3, Capulet
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 and her Romeo. 5.3, Prince Heroic Couplet