In Shakespeare's Tragedies death is a sudden severing of life, his characters die preserving to the last consciousness of their surroundings and the personalities they have possessed throughout.

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IN SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES DEATH IS A SUDDEN SEVERING OF LIFE, HIS CHARACTERS DIE PRESERVING TO THE LAST CONSCIOUSNESS OF THEIR SURROUNDINGS AND THE PERSONALITIES THEY HAVE POSESSED THROUGHOUT

Throughout ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Shakespeare includes linguistic devices and vivid imagery, which he conflates to form a metaphorical structure.  The subjects of this structure are of death and attraction.  The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are not sudden, or a surprise, as they have been fortold throughout the play.  The repetition of phrases such as

  •  ‘he may not have access To breath such vows as lovers used to swear’
  • ‘Within the infant rind of this weak flower poison hath residence’
  • ‘My grave is like to be my wedding bed’

are foreshadows to the suicides at the end of the play.  The latter line is said at the end of the ball scene in which Romeo and Juliet dance.  Fair Juliet makes a joke that if Romeo were married she would die.  All of the lines connect together to emphasize fate and the deaths of the suicidal youths.  The recurrence of such images proves the unexpectedness of the deaths to be untrue; and lends the play its metaphorical structure.  The line foreshadows Juliet’s death; she ends her life after she finds out the man she admires has just died laying beside her.

It could be argued that Romeo was very emotionally unstable, and this showed throughout the play.  During the entirety of the play Romeo has fallen in love with passion.  His feelings for Rosaline were untrue and he later realized she meant nothing to him.  During the ball scene Romeo does not speak a word about Rosaline as though he had never thought about her in his life.  Mercutio and Benvolio then follow him believing he wishes to stay near Rosaline.  They are mistaken but do not know it. One interpretation would be that maybe Romeo’s feelings for Juliet were just as untrue as his feelings for Rosaline.  Romeo commits suicide and in doing so proves that he is volatile and desperate to prove that he is something.  He wants to be known and remembered for being something other than just a boy. The metaphorical structure of the play indicates that death will occur early in the life of the characters.  When Juliet obtains Romeo’s details she does say “My grave is like to be my wedding bed” because her family will not allow her to marry her enemy’s son.  Later she ends up in a grave next to the man that she marries, dead.

Rosaline was the lady that had Romeo’s attention when he is first introduced into the play.  “Out of her favour where I am in love,” was referring to Rosaline, as Romeo knew she did not love him, although he believed to love her.  His attention turns and he then begins to love Juliet, or should I say the looks of Juliet.  After Romeo walks into the Great hall at the Capulet’s mansion his first words are “What lady’s that which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight?”  Romeo is banished from Verona for killing Tybalt and later hears an untrue account of Juliet’s death.  Balthasar informs Romeo “Her body sleeps in Capels monument, And her immortal part with angels lives.”  Romeo’s unstable mind draws him to the tomb of the beautiful Juliet.  He then kills another man, Paris.   The torture that Romeo must have felt by killing two men would be very difficult to cope with, and the pressure and fear made him even more erratic than he already was.  This is a reason why Romeo may have come to kill himself.  His attitude towards the poison was peculiar; he found it to be good, “Come, cordial and not poison, go with me.”

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The deaths in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ were unnecessary, but the tension of life was overpowering.  Insanity drove Romeo to end his life, yet the insanity was caused by life itself.  His character throughout the play had loved passion.  Romeo now had nobody to love.  Rosaline had bewildered him but she had not returned his love.  He had then been astonished after his eyes had feasted on Juliet.  Her beauty had made him feel enthralled for her.  When he thought she had died, he immediately thought that he was destined for bad luck.  His emotions overcame him at this point and ...

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