Shakespeare uses some techniques to draw the audience in to the last scene. One of the techniques he uses is dramatic irony, we know that Juliet is not really dead, and because Romeo thinks she’s dead, this causes anxiety, the audience would want to know whether she will wake up in time or not. The audience know that Romeo will die before Juliet wakes up. Romeo at this point thinks that when he dies he and Juliet will be together, but we know that she will soon wake up. I think that Shakespeare uses dramatic irony, so that the audience can engage with the play and know some things that the characters don’t know.
Act 5 scene 3 is set in a graveyard; this adds tension to the scene, because it shows that they are surrounded by dead people and death and we wonder who else is going to die in this scene, also because it’s a dark creepy place where no-one really goes to. The page carries on this tension in his aside; he tells us his thoughts and says that this place is a scary, creepy place. Then he blows his whistles, which also develops a tense atmosphere because, he was to blow the whistle when he hears someone approaching which suggests trouble is coming.
Shakespeare gives Romeo a speech in this scene that is interesting and significant to the plot. The speech where Romeo is talking to Balthazar is important; in this speech he says “I will tear thee joint by joint and strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs”. This shows just how angry Romeo is, and how desperate he is to be with Juliet alone. This gives a tense atmosphere, and shows us that he can do anything at this point. Romeo’s soliloquy is important in resolving the plot, because this is where he decides whether to kill himself or not. In his soliloquy he questions everything. He asks things like “Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?” and “Why art thou yet so fair?” These questions show that he is confused, he is trying to work out what’s going on and how he is going to live without Juliet, this is why he asks so many questions. Shakespeare uses grotesque imagery, so that it can build tension, Romeo says “Womb of death” this shows he is upset and he keeps mentioning words about death and other horrible things, which shows that he has decided, and he is thinking of nothing else. Towards the end of Romeo’s soliloquy there are lots of exclamation marks. “A dateless bargain to engrossing death!” shows that he is no longer confused, he has made up his mind, there’s no life without Juliet, thinking only of killing himself so that he can be with Juliet. This builds up the drama in the scene by showing that he is completely in love and is going to sacrifice himself for Juliet.
Friar Lawrence plays an important role in this scene, because whether or not this plan goes wrong it is up to him, he must try to avoid anything else going wrong with his plan. Shakespeare makes him leave Juliet alone in the tomb after she wakes because we need both of them to die for the fighting to stop if only Romeo dies then the Capulets will win the fight and the Montagues lose. So for Juliet to die we need to get rid of the Friar, but it still leaves us with the questions, because as a priest it’s very odd that he left her to commit a mortal sin, he had already caused one to commit it so his letting the other. He had the best intention when he married them but it leads to even more trouble. He had the best intentions when giving Juliet the potion and caused trouble too. This is his role in the play; he had the best intentions but causes trouble and causes the death of both Romeo and Juliet. I find Juliet’s actions very believable, because she’s shown so much love for him, if she was willing to marry him in secret or make her family think she’s dead so that she could be with him. Juliet decided to stab herself with dagger to show how much she loves Romeo and wants no life without him; this is really good on stage and adds excitement to the plot.
In contrast to the Friar the Prince’s role is to bring order to the scene. After Romeo and Juliet have been discovered dead, and the Prince knows that the Friar had something to do with it, he orders him to explain everything. “Then say at once what thou dost know in this”. This shows that the Prince is ordering the Friar to say everything he knows about the death of Romeo and Juliet, and he is in control at this point. The Friar explains what happened, I think the speech is necessary because it helps the audience and the characters understand what’s going on, because he tells us what happened from the beginning and how it led to their deaths. At the end the Prince says “ where be these enemies”? Capulet and Montegue, see what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” This helps solve the plot and the feuds between the families, because the Prince makes them realise what their fighting has caused, their children are dead because of them. The Prince in the past has failed to bring order to the city “and I for winking at your discords too”. But at the end we finally see him taking control “some would be pardoned and some will be punished”.
The final resolution is to end the feuds between the two houses and until this is complete the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are in vain. The families both decide to end the feuds, they shake hands “give me thy hand” and the Montague’s build a statue of Juliet to remind them of her “for I will raise a statue in pure gold” this shows that Romeo and Juliet’s death were meaningful, because even after the other characters died the feud did not stop, while Romeo and Juliet’s death were strong enough to stop the fight. I do not think this was a satisfactory conclusion; this is because they only did this to make themselves feel better. This will not bring their children back, they should have stopped fighting when the other characters died, and they knew that if they didn’t stop, more people would have died. The Prince’s final words are rhyming couplets; this is an effective way to end the play, because his last two lines are a summary of the story, reminding us how sad the story is and the rhyme makes it stick in our head.
Dramatic irony was one of the techniques Shakespeare uses to add entertainment to this tragic romance, this was because if the audience knew something the characters didn’t, it would make them engage with the play, and they would want to wait and see whether the characters would eventually find out. He also uses rhetorical questions; this is to show that someone may be confused. For example when Romeo saw Juliet he was confused. A lot if imagery was used, this added tension or changed the atmosphere, for example when Romeo used two different words and put them in one sentence. “Womb of death”, this was useful because it might have helped us know how he was feeling. I think that the ending of the play was successful because if the lovers didn’t die then there is no way that both families would see what they were doing to each other, and the fighting would never stop.