Romeo's Last Soliloquy In Othello

The soliloquy is an important dramatic device which allows a character in a play to ‘step-out’ of the main action and engage directly with the audience, as if in a one to one confession about their thoughts and feelings, motives and decisions. As seen in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Othello’ the convention is a forceful and flexible tool for the dramalist since it places the audience in an omniscient position creating dramatic tension and irony. The audience is provided with an insight which other characters do not have, increasing the audiences perception on character development and breakdown.

Romeo’s final soliloquy takes place in act 5 scene 3. At this point in the play, Romeo is close to delusion as he looks at Juliet in the capulet crypt,
In Elizabethan times, people strongly believed in fate and the stars as controllers of fate; however, we know that the tragedy is fated from the start, where Romeo and Juliet are described as ‘Star cross’d lovers’ in the prologue and so we understand that Romeo too believes that this tragedy is inevitable. The reference to his flesh as ‘world -wearied’ emphasised by through the alliteration illustrates that through suicide Romeo is able to escape the world that has oppressed his and Juliet’s love. The irony here is clear through as it is through their suicides that Romeo and Juliet change the world which would not allow their love into one which would allow them to love each other
The words ‘seal’ and ‘bargain’ illustrate the legal imagery used by Shakespeare to suggest that Romeo believes he has an everlasting contract with death that must be now fulfilled through his suicide. Through this idea of a contract , shakespeare again personifies death as an omnipotent and a frightening force that we have seen elsewhere in the soliloquy. However, at this point to Romeo death is something to be welcomed and is an extension of his love for Juliet; it represents the fulfilment of their love and is a part of it rather than being separate from it. Shakespeare also shows this through the metaphor describing his lips as “the doors of breath which are to be sealed with a righteous kiss”, drawing to the audiences attention the awful fact that once dead, he will breathe no more whilst at the same time the ‘righteous kiss’ being a symbol of love between Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare creates deep feelings of pathos at this point in the soliloquy as in the audience we empathise with Romeo’s delicate emotional state. Also the use of dramatic irony creates feelings of frustration as we will julie to wake up in time for Romeo to realise that she is in fact