The audience is familiarised with more dramatic irony when Tybalt, a rival to the Montagues, shows up looking to fight with Romeo. We know that he will not as he has just bestowed his love to Juliet, cousin of Tybalt, so Romeo and Tybalt are now of kin and he will not fight. Romeo explains his reasons for not fighting, when he says, “I have to love thee.” Romeo must back down from this duel as he would be fighting his own family.
“This shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.” Retorts Tybalt. This strikes a chord of fear in Romeo, as there is no way out but to tell Tybalt what the audience and Romeo know, his marriage to Juliet. Romeo is interrupted by his friend Mercutio, calling Romeo a coward for not accepting the duel, “O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!” and instead, goes after Tybalt, the “Rat catcher” himself. This is ironic as the audience knows what will become of Mercutio and his death should have been Romeo’s and it’s Romeo’s ‘cowardice’ that cased Mercutio to live for no more than five minutes.
Although Mercutio doesn’t just die, he dies with a twist or double irony, as when Romeo stood between the two duellists, trying to stop the fight that was his fault, Mercutio was stabbed in the breast by Tybalt’s deadly blade. He thought nothing bad could come out of his attempt, but instead only that came out of it.
Being the joker that he is, Mercutio plays his wound off as, “A scratch, a scratch; marry, ’tis enough.” And that tomorrow he will be, “A grave man.” The audience knows that he will fall soon, but there is an enormous amount of anticipation on how the characters will react, especially Romeo’s reaction.
Whilst Mercutio is fooling around, staggering around, he mumbles the words, “A plague o’ both your houses!” three times. More dramatic irony is apparent to the audience now as these few words cause more loss of lives, County Paris for example, and nothing good comes after for either house. These words are vital for the plot for the fact that these words are so powerful to change the mood in Romeo to make him so filled with hatred and rage, it consumes him completely that he searches for Tybalt to obtain vengeance.
When Romeo charges off to seek revenge for the death of his dear friend, he exclaims, “Fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!” We know these words are incredibly real as from now on the rest of the play is filled with Romeo’s hatred and haste controlling him. We know that if he had stayed calm and thought through the consequences of both Tybalt for killing Mercutio and also if he is to kill Tybalt, what would happen to him? But he doesn’t stop to think, and even more terrible are yet to come
Mercutio’s death is vital to the play as if he had not died, Romeo would not have slain Tybalt therefore his banishment would not have been brought about by the prince. This is worse for Romeo, because if he steps foot in Verona again, “That hour will be his last”
As we enter Act 5 Scene III, we encounter Paris. He bears flowers and scented water for (what he thought) his beloved wife to be. Suddenly his page on guard whistles, indicating someone comes. Paris asks, “What cursed foot wanders this way tonight?” It is Romeo who approaches, coming to say his final goodbye to his wife. Unlike the audience, Paris does not know they are married, therefore he tries to stop Romeo as he thinks Romeo has come to abuse the family more, “Can vengeance be persu’d further than death?” Of course we know that Romeo is only there for the same reasons as Paris.
We encounter more dramatic irony now when Paris steps forward to stop the “Vile Montague.” Here Romeo calls Paris “Boy” as he believes he has been through enough to call himself a man. Once they have fought and Paris slain, Romeo says, “Let me peruse this face.” He has fought and killed a man without knowing who it was, to get to his treasured wife. Once he has revealed the identity of the man to himself, he is shocked as he has just murdered his dear friend’s, Mercutio, kinsman. We knew all along that it was Paris he was fighting and also that Paris would fall as nothing can stop Romeo from getting to Juliet.
I sympathise with both characters here as they only are in this graveyard for the same reasons, to pay their respect to the ‘dead’ Juliet, and they both end up dead because they both fell in love with Juliet. Paris just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets trapped in the tragic machinery in motion; fate.
Dramatic irony touches on the conversation between Romeo and his page. He says to Balthasar that he is only going into the tomb, “To take thence from her dead finger a precious ring,” but the audience knows full well that the only thing in that tomb that he will be taking is his life. He even states this in a soliloquy when he refers to death as “rotten jaws” and that “I’ll cram thee with more food!” These suicidal words are dramatically ironic as he is going into the tomb to lie dead with his wife, but she is not dead, yet, although the audience knows that soon after they will become true with an action of undying love from Juliet.
Once Romeo is inside the tomb, his language is fraught with dramatic irony. It is filled with morbid imagery, death and corruption as he talks about her being dead, which we, the audience, knows she is not. Romeo talks of death being an, “abhorred monster”, keeping Juliet so beautiful in death to be his lover.
The question being asked earlier was “what if?” Now the single word passing through the minds of the audience is “maybe.” Maybe Romeo will delay killing himself for a further few seconds. Maybe the poison won’t work on Romeo. We know how the play ends, but it’s keeping a small amount of hope that it wont be a tragedy, and she’ll wake to live happily ever after with her young love of Romeo. Soon after the play, we realise that ‘happily ever after’ only works in fairy tales.
While Romeo is in the tomb declaring his love for Juliet one last time before his departure from the world, he talks about the appearance of Juliet, how, even though death “hath suck’d the honey of thy breath” it has not affected her beauty, that “death’s pale flag” has not taken away the crimson of her cheeks and her lips. There is so much nervous tension in this scene as we wait, hoping that she’ll wake up, or even that he’ll realise that she is not dead but in fact she has taken, “distilled liquor” (Act 4 Scene I) which gives the effects of death.
We know the moment arrives for Romeo to “set up my everlasting rest” when he requests his conduct again. Instead of fury, he asks for bitter conduct to come. Last time he asked for his guide, it showed him the way fully and now there is no way to stop him.
“O true apothecary, the drugs are quick” Romeo states. We know they were going to be and that they’ll fade out his life fast, so there is no hope for him to see his wife alive for one last time. Now with one dead, we know that the play is drawing to an end, but the suspense and anticipation is not over as we now wait for the unawares Juliet to wake.
Friar Lawrence enters the scene, unprepared for the worst, although fearing for “some ill unthrifty thing” and when he enters the tomb, Juliet stirs, asking “Where is my Romeo?” and in her hour of need, Friar Lawrence abandons the tomb, leaving her confused and disorientated looking for her husband who was supposed to be by her side, ready to run away from Verona and all their troubles.
The last thing to pass Romeo’s lips were the words; “Thus with a kiss I die.” This creates a very unnerving tension for the audience, as we know that Juliet has yet to find this out, when she is in the tomb with nothing but Romeo’s “happy dagger” and watchmen approaching.
Now we see the end of such a happy tale filled with romance, delicate and beautiful language, turn into such a tragic tale of hatred and ill fate. If only Romeo had stopped to think after the words, “O I am fortunes fool” had been uttered from his mouth, that they could have so much of a dramatically ironic affect on their fresh and promising lives.
