Paris arrives at the Capulet tomb to lay flowers at Juliet's grave. His page warns him that someone is approaching and they hide in the bushes outside the tomb. Romeo enters, planning to break into the tomb to be with Juliet.

Paris, thinking that he has come to desecrate the bodies in the tomb, confronts Romeo. Romeo tries to warn Paris off, but Paris challenges Romeo and they fight. Paris becomes wounded and dies, asking for his body to be placed near Juliet's in the tomb. Romeo descends into the tomb carrying Paris’ body. He finds Juliet lying peacefully, and wonders how she can still look as if she were not dead at all. He kisses her and drinks the poison, dying within moments.

The Friar enters, seeing the dead bodies of Paris and Romeo on the floor. Juliet awakens, instantly asking where Romeo is. Upon seeing the bodies of Romeo and Paris, she resolves to remain in the tomb. The Friar soon hears watchmen approaching and asks Juliet to leave with him. She refuses and he leaves her alone in the tomb.

She is horrified to see Romeo dead beside her, trying to drink some of the poison from Romeo's vial. Finding it empty, she tries to kiss some poison from his lips. Hearing the night watchman approach, Juliet fatally stabs herself with Romeo's dagger.

The Prince and the Capulets enter the tomb where Romeo, Juliet, and Paris are discovered dead. Montague arrives, declaring that Lady Montague has died of grief for Romeo’s exile. The Prince acknowledges the Friar's good interests and instead lays the blame for the deaths squarely on Montague and Capulet for their longstanding quarrel. The two families are finally reconciled as the Prince ends the play by saying, "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo".

Analysis:

This last scene takes place in the dark of night. Up until now, Romeo and Juliet's relationship flourished at night and they each provided the other with light. In his final speech, Romeo uses light and dark imagery to describe Juliet as she acts as a source of light in the darkness of the tomb.

When Romeo is struck by the way Juliet's beauty appears to defy death, tension rises, the audience all know that she is, in fact, alive and well.

Romeo and Juliet's parallel consumption of mysterious potions lends their deaths a peaceful symmetry, which is broken by Juliet’s dramatic dagger stroke.

Juliet stabs herself with Romeo's dagger, an image symbolizing the reconsummation of their marriage. Thus as they die in pursuit of reunion, they symbolically reconsummate their marriage, leaving their bodies as monuments to the depth of their love as well as signs of the tragic waste that is the feud between their families.

Important Quotes:

"Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Thou art not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death’s pale flag is not advancèd there." - Romeo

" Eyes, look your last.
Arms, take your last embrace. And, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death." - Romeo

"O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative." - Juliet

Plot Summary - Act 5