With a kiss I die

In the following paragraphs, I would like to advance a personal interpretation of the extract drawn from act V, scene III of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: With a kiss I die.

First of all, I would like to consider the title: With a Kiss I Die. The intelligent reader may think about some conjectures, for example the evident contrast between love and death.

Before starting the analysis I think it is interesting to take into consideration the context to better understand what Romeo and Juliet are saying. Romeo is speaking with Juliet’s cadaver but he does not know that she is not dead. As a result, he drinks the poison and dies When Juliet wakes up and notes Romeo has died, she decides to kill herself with Romeo’s dagger.

It is interesting to notice the repetition of the word here that is more used than the noun death. This expedient may refer to the fact that Romeo would stay forever near Juliet and death does not separated them.

In addition, many words belong to the sematic field of body such as eyes, arms and lips are used. Relevant is also the metaphor that connotes the mouth as the doors of breath.

Moreover, Romeo’s will to join Juliet in the afterlife is expressed by the sentence here’s to my love! and it is confirmed by the use of punctuation.

When Juliet wakes up and she becomes aware of Romeo’s death, she wants to die as well. Differently from Romeo, she considers him selfish because he drank all the poison. Therefore, she looks for something to kill herself and in doing so her willingness to die becomes evident. Finally she decided to use Romeo’s dagger.

Interesting to notice is that both monologues end with the word died that is also a common element between Romeo and Juliet.

To sum up, it can be said that this extract is a demonstration of true love and that people who love somebody are able to do everything to stay with him or her.