Family

• "Thus with a kiss I die" (Act 5, Scene 3)
• Syntactic Simplisticity:

  • Shakespeare employs syntactic simplicity in Romeo's like, "thus with a kiss i die", which is composed entirely of monosyllabic words, forming a very plain sentence. This linguistic minimalism reflects Romeo's inner equilibrium, as he reaches a state of emotional clarity and certainty in his actions.
  • This finalises Romeo's evolution into a tragic hero, whos harmatia, his impetuous and romantic disposition leads him to choose love over duty to his family name.
  • Romeo regresses from a man striving for hope to one entirely consumed by despair as rather than fulfilling his role as a proud Montague, Romeo rejects it, committing the ultimate transgression aagainst the societal expectations that have defined his existence into order to follow Juliet into the afterlife.
• Juxtaposition:

  • The juxtaposition of "kiss" and "die" creates a powerful contradiction between tenderness and dinality which captures the essence of the tragedy as love, traditionally associated with life and unity, leads to death. By choosing to die through love, Romeo prioritises his relationship with Juliet over his familial duty, establishing his death as one final act of familial and societal transgression.
  • His final act portrays Romeo as both a benevolent and broken figure, whose callow idealism ultimately drives him to enact the very tragedy the prologue foretold.
• Key context it relates to:

  • Ovid's Metamorphoses: Romeo's final act and statement, "this with a kiss i die", mirrors the tragic deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, positioning him as the enamoured inamorato who cannot exist without his beloved. In echoing Ovid's lovers, Romeo's death is a transgressive act that critiques the destructiveness of family divisions.
  • Astrology: Romeo's death can be seen as inexorable where his final line, becomes an act of surrender for the cosmos. Thus, his kiss is an alignment of the heavens, reinforcing the idea that no amount of love or action can escape familial obligation or the hands of fate.
• WOW Knowledge:

  Freud's theory of thanatos:

  • The unconscious drive towards death, illuminates the character's self-destructive tendencies.