In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo kills himself after mistakenly believing his lover, Juliet, has died. This occurs in Act 5 , Scene 3 of the play. Romeo had previously consumed a poison called “death-cap mushroom” while at the Capulets’ mansion with Friar Lawrence in order to make him appear dead for a short period of time. Romeo comes to believe Juliet is dead after learning from Balthasar that her apparent death was due to a sleeping potion in Romeo’s presence in order to fake her own death.
Romeo then kills himself with his sword before the poison takes full effect. Romeo, upon believing Juliet dead, makes his way to her tomb and drinks poison he had stored in his ring. Romeo kisses Juliet once last time before dying, making sure to leave the “sting” or blood from where he bit his lip on her mouth so she would be recognized as being kissed when waking up, if she woke up.
Friar Lawrence later finds them both dead and mistakenly believes Romeo has taken his life after hearing him groan (he hears Romeo in death throes due to Romeo’s bloody lip). Juliet is later woken by the Prince with Romeo’s body lying on top of her. To prove Romeo’s death, Friar Lawrence shows the Prince Romeo’s ring, which he took from Romeo when he believed he was dead. The prince then sees that there are still bite marks on Romeo’s lip and thus realizes Romeo is truly dead.
After realizing what has happened, the distraught prince pronounces capital punishment for both Romeo and Juliet without knowing that Juliet is also dead. At night, the two lovers are laid in one grave at their family tomb at a Capulet mausoleum where they finally “lie together”. The play ends with Benvolio asking why people fall in love with one another, Romeo’s mother being comforted by his father after Romeo’s death, and the friar lamenting Romeo and Juliet’s double suicide.
Romeo meets Juliet on her wedding day. Romeo, a Montague, has to plan his whole life around seeing this girl he has fallen in love with. Romeo is also not the only person who believes that they are the ones being punished by god for not being able to have their love possible. Romeo’s close friend Mercutio believes that Romeo is cursed because of all the bad things that Romeo has had happen to him recently. Romeo claims that his life stinks since it just ‘stalks about’ (I. iii. 5) or does nothing but hang outside of his body without purpose because Romeo cannot be with this girl he thinks is perfect for him. As time goes on Romeo begins to believe more and more in fate and how every chance Romeo gets with Juliet is a sign from god.
Romeo is set in his personal belief that they are the only two people who belong with each other and that Romeo’s life has been leading up to this moment where Romeo finally meets the girl he thought was sent from above. Romeo even ponders over what it would be like if he and Juliet were married and got to live together forever (I. ii. 147-151). Romeo and Juliet go off of this alone for some time until Romeo tells Friar Laurence about what happened between him and Juliet so many years ago when they first met at the garden party, after Romeo had just killed Tybalt in one of the most popular duels in Romeo and Juliet. This scene where Romeo confesses that he has begun to fall in love with Juliet, Romeo’s best friend Mercutio has just been killed by Romeo’s worst enemy.
Romeo wants the friar to marry them so Romeo can live happily with his lover and best friend who is now gone (II. i. 20-32). Romeo believes that it is this spur of the moment wedding that is going to fix everything bad in Romeo’s life and make everything better. Romeo and Juliet then go off into their own little world where they believe what Romeo says is true; They are both cursed but together they can be saved from any kind of pain or sorrow (III. ii-. 59). At the end of this scene when Friar Laurence tells Romeo about all the things wrong in Romeo’s life Romeo listens but Romeo is unwilling to change anything about himself or his love for Juliet.
Romeo then goes on to kill Paris who has come to try and stop Romeo from taking Juliet away because he knows that Romeo will not take her away unless something bad was going to happen to Juliet. Romeo kills Paris because Romeo does not want anyone else with the one he loves, even though Paris is a kind person Romeo knows nothing about him besides the fact that he wants Juliet for himself. However, after Romeo kills Paris it only gets worse from there, no matter what Romeo does things just keep getting worse.
Back at the Capulet mansion where all of this started, Romeo sees Juliet again dressed as a boy and does not recognize her until she tells Romeo her name. Romeo wishes to run away with Romeo even though Romeo knows it would be the absolute worse thing Romeo could ever do. Romeo then runs off into another part of Montague where Romeo tries to convince Romeo that they should leave Verona and forget about everything since there is no need for them here now (IV. ii-. 67).
However, Romeo does not listen to herself and decides that Romeo will instead go see Juliet one last time before he runs away forever; this decision proves fatal because by the time Romeo gets back Juliet has already drank poison and she dies in her wedding clothes wearing Romeo’s cloak like Romeo had wished for when he first met her (V. iii-. 92). The rest of this scene after Juliet’s death takes place in Romeo’s mind as Romeo goes around to all the places Romeo and Juliet visited together and imagines what poor Romeo would say if he was telling Romeo everything that happened.
Romeo runs away after this because Romeo believes that now there is no need for Romeo and therefore Romeo should not (and cannot) be alive (V. iii-. 93). Romeo feels like a shadow of who they once were and now that their love has been lost, Romeo does not see the point in trying to live forever without them; Romeo then dies by drinking poison much like Juliet did only moments before (V. iii-. 94).
