Saturday, January 17, 2015

How is the theme of death presented in Romeo's death soliloquy in act 5 scene 3? (pls include analysis if possible :) )

This soliloquy occurs after Romeo's fight with Paris results in Paris's death. Paris makes a final request that Romeo "open the tomb, lay me with Juliet." Romeo promises to do so, and as he begins to think on who Paris is and how their fortunes are aligned—he calls Paris "one writ with me in sour misfortune's book"—this leads him to muse on the subject of death, and particularly death that comes too early. Romeo knows that he, like Paris, will soon be a "slaughter'd youth," and as he lays Paris in the "triumphant grave" made a "lantern" by Juliet's beautiful presence, he says, "Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd." This harks back to act I, scene IV, when Romeo says he fears "some consequence yet hanging in the stars" which would lead to "untimely death." Now the hour of that untimely death is upon him.
Looking upon the two young people in their shared tomb, then, causes Romeo to reflect upon the power and nature of death, and the fact that "unsubstantial death" has seemingly not yet had any effect upon Juliet's beauty. While death has "suck'd the honey" of Juliet's breath from her, she is not "conquer'd," as "death's pale flag" has not been able to make her any less beautiful. Romeo questions the reasons behind this, characterizing death as both "unsubstantial"—that is, less powerful than it might be thought—and also "amorous," a "lean abhorred monster" who wishes to replace Romeo as Juliet's "paramour" and therefore preserves her beauty for himself. The image of death as such a "monster" is a vivid one, and Romeo declares that he will stay with Juliet so that this imagined monster shall not have her.
In bringing on his own death, then, Romeo will not only be chasing the "abhorred monster" from Juliet's side so that he can take his rightful place as her "paramour" once more—he will also be shaking off "the yoke of inauspicious stars." Although he is young, Romeo describes himself as "world-wearied," and although the specter of death he describes, the "unsavoury guide" and "desperate pilot," is unappealing, Romeo still envisions death as an escape from the "inauspicious" circumstances into which fate has led him. Romeo craves "everlasting rest" in "this palace of dim night."
The result of the love affair between himself and Juliet has been devastating for both families, and Romeo evidently, at this juncture, judges dying to be less wearying than living in the situation in which he now finds himself. He does not shrink from the realities of death—the imagery of "worms that are thy chamber-maids" is grotesque—and he ultimately considers the idea of "everlasting rest" at Juliet's side, protecting her from the "monster" of death which would love her, as something to be welcomed.

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