| ROMEO & JULIET
ACT FIVE (SUMMARY) Scene 1 A street in Mantua: Romeo tells Balthasar (a servant of his father’s) about a wonderful, happy dream he’s had and how it must mean good things are coming. But Balthasar tells him Juliet is dead. Romeo sends him to get horses for them to ride to Verona and decides to kill himself that day in Juliet’s tomb, but how? He remembers that the apothecary (like a pharmacist) sells poison. He gets to the apothecary, who is very poor so he sells Romeo poison even though he knows the penalty for doing that is death. Romeo leaves for Verona to be with Juliet when he dies. Scene 2 Friar Lawrence’s room: Friar John, who was supposed to deliver the letter to Romeo explaining that Juliet was not really dead, explains to Friar Lawrence that something happened and he wasn’t able to deliver it. Friar Lawrence decided to go to the Capulet tomb to be there when Juliet wakes up, so she won’t be frightened when she wakes up alone. Scene 3 The churchyard outside the Capulet’s tomb: Paris visits Juliet’s tomb to place flowers there and mourn for her. His page (a personal servant who travels with him) whistles to him to let him know someone is coming. Romeo, determined to open the tomb and be with Juliet tells Balthasar to leave him, or he’ll kill him. Balthasar refuses to stay and watch Romeo kill himself. As Romeo begins to force open the tomb, Paris comes forward and tries to arrest Romeo, who kills him. When he realizes who he has killed, he feels bad and agrees to grant Paris’ dying wish, to have his body laid beside Juliet’s. Once he has done that, he spends time looking at Juliet and thinking about how beautiful she was. He asks Tybalt (who he killed earlier) for forgiveness and imagines that Death wants Juliet as a lover. In order to prevent that, he drinks the poison and dies. Meanwhile, Balthasar has found Friar Lawrence and told him where Romeo is, and what he plans to do. When Friar arrives, he finds the bodies of Romeo and Paris, just as Juliet begins to wake up from her drugged sleep. Friar is afraid he will be discovered, so he sneaks out of the tomb, begging Juliet to go with him. She refuses and stabs herself, because she’d rather be dead for real now that Romeo is dead. The guards enter the tomb to find out what’s going on in there. They arrest Balthasar and Friar. The Prince and Lord and Lady Capulet arrive. The captain of the guards tells them what he knows (that Paris and Romeo are dead, and so is Juliet, but her body is still warm somehow, as though she had just died moments ago.) The Capulets and Lord Montague enter to tomb to see their dead children. Lord Montague tells everyone that his wife has died in the night – heartbroken over Romeo’s banishment. The Prince promises to investigate and to punish whoever is responsible. Friar Lawrence tells the whole story to the Prince. Balthasar and Paris’ page tell the parts that they know. The Prince reads Romeo’s letter, which outlines the plan and proves that Friar Lawrence was telling the truth. The Prince tells Lord Capulet and Lord Montague that this is all the fault of their fighting and that he thinks everyone has suffered enough, so there will be no further punishment. The Capulets and Montagues make up and promise to build a golden statue of Romeo and Juliet to honor their memories and their love. The Prince ends the play, saying, “never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” |