- The Capulet tomb seems to be a popular locale. When Romeo approaches, Paris is already there, sadly tossing flowers. He gets an alert from him page that someone is approaching and steps aside to see who it is.
- When Romeo arrives on the scene, he gets a hammer and a crowbar from Balthasar and hands Balthasar a letter for his dad, Lord Montague (aha! that's what he needed the paper and ink for).
- Romeo tells Balthasar not to interrupt him or come after him. He claims he needs to break into Juliet's tomb both to see Juliet's beautiful face one last time and to get a ring from her finger that he needs, um...for something important. If Balthasar tries to follow him, Romeo will tear him limb from limb.
- Balthasar says okay, but instead of leaving he hides behind some bushes. He's not buying Romeo's story.
- Paris sees Romeo and assumes he's there to somehow dishonor the Capulets. To be fair, Romeo looks pretty suspicious—he's carrying a bunch of tomb-breaking-in tools.
- Paris tries to do a citizen's arrest on Romeo, who is, after all, an outlaw.
- You can guess what happens next: they fight, and Romeo kills Paris. Oops.
- Romeo feels pretty guilty for killing yet another one of Juliet's male associates, especially since Paris was one of Mercutio's relatives. He vaguely remembers Balthasar saying that Paris was supposed to marry Juliet or something like that, but admits he wasn't really paying attention. He may have dreamed it.
- Still, Romeo honors Paris's request and places him in the tomb, then he heads over to Juliet's corpse. He wonders more than once why Juliet still looks so fair, why death hasn't made her cheeks pale or her lips blue. Then he gives her a kiss, drinks the poison strong enough to kill twenty men, and dies. Immediately (with one last kiss).
- Thirty seconds too late, the Friar comes in and sees Romeo lying there dead.
- Then, an agonizing minute too late, Juliet wakes up to find her husband dead at her side.
- Brain Snack: In the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, director Baz Luhrmann makes an interesting decision when staging this scene. His Juliet (played by the lovely Claire Danes) wakes up right before Romeo (played by the oh-so dreamy Leo DiCaprio) drinks the poison and dies. Why do you think Luhrmann does this? Does it change things? Why or why not?
- The Friar tries to convince her to run away—the noise of the fighting has attracted attention, and Verona's citizens are about to do what they do best in Romeo and Juliet and show up at the scene—but Juliet won't leave.
- In fact, she tries to drink the rest of the poison so she can die with him, but none is left. So, she does the next best thing: pulls out Romeo's dagger and stabs herself.
(Click the summary infographic to download.)
- (Psst. Check out "Symbols" to hear some thoughts on these methods o' death.)
- When the Prince, the Capulets, and the Montagues show up, the see Romeo and Juliet, both dead, lying beside each other.
- The Prince's guards drag in the Friar, who apparently left Juliet alone in the tomb at some point. He tells the whole story.
- Ugh, fine. Lord Capulet and Lord Montague swear to end their feud and to build statues to commemorate each other's child.
- The Prince says that some of those involved in Romeo and Juliet's death will be pardoned, and some will be punished.
- "For never was a story of more woe," the Prince says, "Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
- The end.