Paris has come to the tomb to honor Juliet, a rite he vows to make nightly in token of love and sorrow. His intention provides one of the few insights into this model man, his gesture contrasting Romeo’s violent reaction to love and sorrow.
When Paris sees Romeo approach the tomb, he fears Romeo has come to desecrate enemy dead. To prevent this, Paris challenges Romeo with arrest. Romeo does not recognize Paris and warns him that he is a desperate man, armed only against himself. Yet when Paris tries to arrest him, Romeo battles fiercely: he will not be denied his last foretaste and lovingly glimpse of Juliet. Paris is killed, and his page calls the guards. The page’s act has major consequence, for the approach of the soldiers ultimately hastens events in the tomb.
Paris’ final request is to be buried beside Juliet, and Romeo at last recognizes him. The recognition pushes Romeo towards comprehension of Juliet’s death, but he never fully realizes her gesture of fidelity. As a structural element, Paris’ presence at the tomb causes suspenseful prolongation of action. With every passing minute, chances of Friar Lawrence’s arrival of Juliet’s awakening increase, last-minute possibilities that tragedy will be avoided.
Placing Paris in the tomb, Romeo says that both he and Paris are written “in sour misfortune’s book,” his final reference to the fate that has doomed his love. He recalls the image of light and dark, too, with mention of the radiance Juliet brings to the tomb. Death seems to have had no influence on her beauty; he comes unknowingly close to discovering the friar’s plan, for the effects of drugs are wearing off.
Romeo speaks to Tybalt’s corpse, asking for forgiveness and promising the forfeit of his own life in return. Then Romeo again studies Juliet’s beauty. Fearing “that unsubstantial Death is amorous” and makes Juliet a lover, he swears never to leave the tomb. Shedding the burden of an ill-omened destiny, Romeo drinks the poison in salute to Juliet and dies with a kiss.
Friar Lawrence enters the tomb moments before Juliet revives. He is shocked to find Paris' and Romeo's bodies. When she awakens, the friar tries to hurry her out of the tomb sp she can flee to a convent. But she discovers Romeo's body and will not leave. When the soldiers approach the friar runs outside to escape them, leaving Juliet in the tomb. She finds the poison and realizes what Romeo has done, but there is no poison left for her to share. Hearing the guards outside, she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger, pledging fidelity even in death.
After all this takes place the Prince investigates the deaths. He interrogates everyone found near the tomb. Friar Lawrence reveals the marriage and the faked death, saying that Juliet's nurse can verify the marriage. Then Paris' page describes the battle between Paris and Romeo at the tomb, the confrontation that caused Paris' death. Romeo's plans come to light when Balthasar brings forth Romeo's letter to his father. When the evidence has been examined, the Prince concludes that Juliet's death was suicide and that all three were victims of the feud between the families.
The families have prolonged the feud despite the Prince's attempts to curtail it. He concludes that the tragedy has punished everyone. Quoted "Capulet, Montague,/ See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,/ That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!/And, I for winking at your discords too,/ Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish'd."
Montague will build a golden statue of Juliet, Capulet one of Romeo, to symbolize the couple's love and fidelity. The warring families have been united in sorrow.
To sum it all up, this is how Shakespeare himself would have described act five scene three: A combination of dramatic and exciting series of heightened tension that causes a maximum and efficient impact on the audience, using many linguistic devices such as emphasizing, extreme exaggeration, rhyme, punctuality as well as repetition and alliteration. Tension, curiosity and tragic emotion build up to dramatize this whole scene. The atmosphere and the way the characters feel makes this scene do justice to the upcoming situation that involves all the deaths. Not to mention several mood swings take place and that is an important (major) factor in the scene. Basically Shakespeare has used his knowledge of the English language and structural poetry and combined them to excite audience. The drama is the biggest factor in this scene!
Great Scene to End Romeo and Juliet!
