Double Suicide In Romeo And Juliet

I chose to write a news article about the double suicide in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in order to touch on the main themes expressed in the play and illustrate their perpetual relevance. Shakespeare’s work is fascinating to me as it is timeless and distinctive in the way it addresses universal themes. In my assignment, I aim to portray the lessons one can take away from the play and discuss the correlation of love and hate. I chose to do this by reflecting on the double suicide, 420 years later. At first I describe the situation, emphasising the roles love and hate played in the tragic affair, and then I link the past with the present through a statement made by Prince Escalus in commemoration of the suicides. A news article lent itself perfectly to commemorating the loss of Romeo and Juliet and reflecting on the effects on

But they’re happiness did not last long, as Romeo was challenged by Tybalt, a Capulet. Romeo refused to fight him and so Mercutio took up his sword in Romeo’s name. It was then, when Tybalt struck Mercutio and fatally wounded him, that Romeo’s unfortunate fate was sealed. He slew Tybalt to avenge his cousin’s death and fled Verona. Meanwhile, Juliet’s father had made plans for her to marry Count Paris, upon her refusal, he threatened to turn her out. Juliet was faced with a horrible dilemma, to abandon her one true love or to face her father’s wrath and live out the rest of her days as a street urchin. In her plight, she turned to the friar that married Romeo and her, who devised a plan to allow them to stay together. He gave Juliet a potion that made her seem dead temporarily, she drank it and was laid in a tomb. Romeo found out about her supposed death before the friar could tell him of his scheme and rushed to her side. Finding her, deathly pale, he drank poison in order to be with her forever, only for her to awake and follow suit by stabbing