Examples Of Characters In The Dark In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet: Characters in the Dark

Themes are observations about life that can be applied in everyday situations and literary works. Such is the quote by Dwight Lyman Moody, “Character is what you are in the dark.” This quote can be interpreted in several ways and applied to many circumstances. For instance, it can be read as “you are most sincere when no one is watching.” This theme is expressed in William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo and Juliet must hide their romance from their families with only Friar Laurence and the nurse to confide in, ultimately resulting in the tragedy of the couple taking their own lives.

The protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, are clear examples of this

In Juliet’s attempt to avoid marrying Paris, she takes Friar Laurence’s potion and is soon found unresponsive by the nurse, and the Capulets mournfully declare her dead. Romeo catches word of this from Balthasar who says, “Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument,/ And her immortal part with angels lives./ I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault,/ And presently took post to tell it you” (1, Act 5 Scene 1). Romeo, distraught, goes to an apothecary, requesting “A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear/ As will disperse itself through all the veins/ That the life-weary taker may fall dead,/ And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath/ As violently as hasty powder fir’d/ Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” (2, Act 5 Scene 1). Romeo buys poison with the intent of killing himself beside Juliet in her tomb, oblivious to the fact that she still lives. This would culminate in Juliet waking up from her slumber and seeing her dead lover, prompting her to take her own life as well. In the play’s resolution, the watchmen discover Romeo, Juliet, and a slain Count Paris, and the Capulets, Montagues, and Prince Escalus are called to the scene. Friar Laurence explains Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage and the events following, saying, “Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;/ And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife:/ I married them; and their stolen marriage-day/ Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death/ Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from this city;/ For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin’d” (6, Act 5 Scene 3). After hearing what the friar had to say, Lord Capulet and Lord Montague are stricken with grief and remorse as their feud indirectly caused their kids’ deaths due to it being the reason Romeo and Juliet hid their