Why Is Paris Important In Romeo And Juliet

In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare, the last scene with Romeo and Paris at the Capulet’s graveyard is very important and symbolic of many things in the book. It is a closure for the relationship between the Capulet’s and Romeo. In the scene, Romeo confronts Paris at the Capulet’s tomb when he is going to commit suicide beside Juliet.
When Paris and Romeo first run into each other at the gates of the tomb, Paris is very hostile towards Romeo. He says that the emotional strain of Romeo killing Tybalt was too much for Juliet to handle, so she killed herself. Paris was blaming Romeo for the death of Juliet not knowing that Romeo and Juliet were secretly in love. Paris says that Romeo must die for his sins and threatens to kill him at that moment. Romeo does not want to fight Paris and says, “By Heaven, I love thee better than myself, for I come hither armed against myself. Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say a madman’s mercy bid thee run away.”
When Romeo says this to Paris, he is truly speaking from his heart and he means every word he said.
When he says, “I come armed against myself,” he is saying that he has not come to do harm to anything else in the tomb except himself and he is not looking for a fight with anyone else. He tells Paris not to make him sin again by fighting him because he has already sinned enough by killing Tybalt. Probably the most important thing that Romeo says to Paris in his speech is, “I love thee better than myself.” This sentence is important because Romeo said this to Tybalt in the scene where Tybalt kills Mercutio. What he said to Paris is very important because it not only shows that he does not feel any hatred or anger towards Paris, but also it symbolizes his relationship to the Capulet family as well as his love for Juliet. Romeo is not saying that he loves Paris and the Capulet’s as people. He is simply saying that he loves the Capulet’s name because Juliet is a Capulet and he loves everything about
Juliet.
Paris’ relationship to Juliet is very different from Romeo’s relationship to Juliet. Paris and Juliet have a very one-sided relationship. Paris likes Juliet. Juliet likes Romeo but has to pretend she likes Paris. Paris is so full of himself that he cannot see that Juliet has no interest in him. Paris does not like Romeo because he thinks Romeo is responsible for the death of Juliet. Paris fights Romeo and Romeo reluctantly fights and kills him.
After Paris has been slain, he asks Romeo to lay him inside the tomb with Juliet. Paris says, “If thou be merciful, open the tomb laid me with Juliet.” Romeo, unlike Paris, can understand what he is going through and Paris’ love for Juliet. Romeo understands that both Paris and he love Juliet, but Juliet only loves Romeo. Knowing this, he fulfills Paris’ last wish to be laid in the tomb alongside Juliet.
By laying Paris in the tomb it symbolizes the end of the feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. When the families find the bodies of Paris, Romeo and Juliet and hear the story of what happened to them, they realize how childish and unsuccessful the feud between them has been and stop the violence.
The last scene is one off the most important scenes in the book. It acts as a wonderful closure for the feud between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s as well as an excellent closure for the book itself.