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Romeo and Juliet
Act V scene 3: Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead. Engraving by James Heath (1757–1834) after painting by James Northcote (1746–1831)
Written by	William Shakespeare
Date premiered	1597
Original language	English
Series	First Quarto
Subject	Love
Genre	Shakespearean tragedy
Setting	Italy (Verona and Mantua), 16th century

In this short article I will be analysing Juliet Capulets lasts words in the famous play by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. In the final scene of the play the two tragic lovers pass away as they believe the other has died, this is true in Romeos case and Juliet was so deeply in love with Romeo that she joins him in death. she ends her life with a quick few meaningful words ‘yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.’ (V.3 160-176). I will be linguistically analysing the quote above and explain why Shakespeare used these words in his play for Juliet and how it portrays her character in her final moments.

Juliet by Philip H. Calderon (1888)

Juliet Capulet

Juliet is a young teenage girl who happens to fall in love with a family enemy Romeo Montague. Both families won’t accept their marriages and even though at first her close ones liked him, once they realized who he was she was pressured into considering Paris as a marriage partner. Her character mainly shows her conflict in choosing Romeo and when she does create a plan to be with him it tragically fails, so in her last moments she says a few words and passes next to her lover.

Main characters in the scene

• Romeo
• Count Paris
• Friar Laurence

Analysis of Juliet’s famous last words

The archaic reply ‘yea’ was’ considered the proper affirmative reply when a question was framed as positive’(OED, 2021) and nowadays we would reply with ‘yes’ to a question in this case Juliet answers the ‘noise?’ there being a question mark used makes it a rhetorical question as Juliet already takes the question to be positive and strangely it becomes personified in her reply, as she plans to be ‘brief’ in her actions because of the noise she hears.

‘O’ was used ‘in poetry as another way of using the first-person pronoun ‘I’. ’Juliet uses the noun phrase ’happy dagger!’ and this can be understood in several ways, one being the personification of the ‘dagger!’ itself feeling the emotion of happiness. However, Jones (1998 p,314) points out is that ‘it was fit for the occasion or appropriate as she used it to kill herself in that moment’ . The use of an exclamation mark does make the quote more dramatic which does suit the tragic end.

‘thy’ shows an example of an archaic ‘second person singular possessive adjective, which is a relative to ‘your’ the archaic version would not be used in standard English ‘ (OED, 2021). which is used now. The personification of the dagger is more understandable here as Juliet appears to talk to the dagger and makes a semantic connection with the ‘sheath’ that she tells the dagger to cover itself and I would assume it to be in her body. which makes it seem like Juliet was trying to normalize or perhaps encourage her stabbing herself by making her body a ‘sheath’.

‘there rust’ links both semantically and adds another sense of personification however, this sentences seems more imperative than declarative as it is like she is giving a command to the dagger by instructing it to ‘rust’ which over time most metals do. However, it could also be said in a calming tone like she knows it will rust over time and accepts it.

When she says ‘let me die’ her tone seems desperate in a way but she also is determined to face death and this could be because she wants to be with Romeo, which could be because she has realized that she cant live without her lover and so joins him in death. Schlimme (2013, p211-23) notes that ‘suicide is valued as attractive or worthy to perform, because it is perceived as the last resort' which is the case for Juliet as she only wants to be with Romeo even if it’s in death.

Notes

References

• Jones, D.K. 1998, ‘O HAPPY DAGGER’: THE AUTONOMY OF SHAKESPEARE'S JULIET’, Notes and Queries, Volume 45, Issue 3, p. 314 [5]
• Schlimme, J.E. 2013, ‘Sense of self-determination and the suicidal experience. A phenomenological approach’, Medicine, health care, and philosophy, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 211-23.
• Oxford English Dictionary (2021) 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from: oed.com [Accessed 28/02/21]