Romeo And Juliet Suicide Analysis

The deaths of Romeo and Juliet occur in a sequence of compounding stages: first, Juliet drinks a potion that makes her appear dead. Thinking her dead, Romeo then drinks a poison that actually kills him. Seeing him dead, Juliet stabs herself through the heart with a dagger. Their parallel consumption of mysterious potions lends their deaths a peaceful symmetry, which is broken by Juliet’s dramatic dagger stroke. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has held up the possibility of suicide as an inherent aspect of intense love. Passion cannot be stifled, and when combined with the vigor of youth, it expresses itself through the most convenient outlet. Romeo and Juliet long to live for love or die for it. Shakespeare considers this suicidal
impulse not as something separate from love, but rather as an element as much a part of it as the romantic euphoria of Act 2. As such, the double suicide represents both the fulfillment of their love for each other and the self-destructive impulse that has surged and flexed beneath their love for the duration of the play. The Friar’s embodiment of good and evil are united in a single act: suicide. Juliet tries to kill herself with a kiss: an act of love as intended violence. When that fails she stabs herself with a “happy dagger,” “happy” because it reunites her with her love (5.3.168). Violence becomes an assertion of autonomy over the self and a final deed of profound love.