Romeo And Juliet Heaven Analysis

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What is the significance of Heaven?
Shakespeare always had a fascination with the tie between human and earth when writing his plays “Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light”and he used this connection throughout his life to show a variety of different things (I.II.283). In Act 3, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet makes a speech that relates man to heaven and then Romeo to heaven. This speech is one of the many ways throughout the play that Shakespeare foreshadows the ending. This speech represents how throughout the play, the characters accept heaven, reject heaven, and do both at once; foreshadowing how they will act in the final scene, and therefore, how the play ends.

The first way that Shakespeare foreshadows …show more content…

When Romeo learns of Juliet’s death he straight out exclaims his anger with the gods, “Then I defy you, stars!” and starts to think up his plan to kill himself, denying the gods in a more subtle way (V.I.25). These instances of rejection of heaven are rash because they know that displeasing the gods would only lead to bad things, but they do it anyway, displaying the rash side of their decisions and setting the scene for the ending. One last example of this is at the party, “This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this” when Romeo kisses Juliet despite his obsession with Rosaline, silently crossing the wishes of the gods who gave him that obsession …show more content…

When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo accepts that Mercutio is dead and in the heavens but then he goes against the gods and kills Tybalt as well, “Either thou or I, or both, must go with him” this is one of the greatest foreshadows of the ending because Romeo accepts the heavens in part but also denies them a little (III.I. 134). Another example of this is when Juliet is learning of Romeo’s exile. She knows there is nothing she can do about it except kill herself and she alludes to doing exactly that in the last scene, “And that bare vowel “I” shall poison more” she instantly realizes she cannot live without Romeo and she is prepared to do anything she needs to in order to be with him, even though she accepts that this is what the gods had set forth for her