Significance Of Weapons In Romeo And Juliet

Haylee Freeman
Romeo and Juliet Edition 4
English II
05 May 2023
Romeo and Juliet Essay
There is a very unique symbol in Romeo and Juliet. Weapons are often used to symbolize death and anger throughout the play. A dagger is mostly symbolized as death in the play. The swords are more used as a symbol of anger. It gives the audience a dreadful and hateful mood. The dagger shows death upon Juliet in the play when she finds Romeo's dead body beside her. She cannot live without her Romeo and kills herself with the dagger. Also in the play, Tybalt and Mercutio are both killed by swords. Mercutio was killed in a duel with Tybalt. This gives the audience a hateful mood towards Tybalt, but in revenge, Tybalt was killed by Romeo. Juliet also intended

In the story, Tybalt comes to speak to Romeo because Romeo went to the Capulet party without their permission. Tybalt challenged him to a duel; however, he declined. Mercutio calls Romeo weak and decides to fight Tybalt for Romeo. In Act 3, scene 1, line 86 Shakespeare writes, “Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!” Then Tybalt and Mercutio fight. Romeo tries to stop the fight, putting his arm above Mercutio’s stomach, but Tybalt sees the opportunity to stab him and does so with his sword. Mercutio falls and curses both the Capulets and the Montagues for his death. Mercutio, one of the best characters, dies from a sword by Tybalt. This gives the audience an angry mood. The audience has felt they have lost one of the many best characters in the story and starts to not like Tybalt anymore. Shakespeare wrote this because he needs to get rid of a few characters to build tension. Shakespeare is building the climax of the story. In this part of the story, the audience sees swords as a weapon for all of the characters. Now when anyone hears or sees a sword, they will think of Mercutio’s

Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence for help to not marry Paris. He decides to help her and gives her a poison to drink. When she gets back home, she lays the dagger down in case the potion doesn’t work. Her plan if the potion did not work is to kill herself with the dagger. In the play, it states, “Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?/ No, no! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there,” she then lays down the dagger beside her bed. This symbolizes that Juliet will go through death if the poison does not work. In this part of the story, the dagger is symbolized as a sign of death. This gives the audience a dreadful mood because no one wants Juliet to die; they want Romeo and Juliet to live together happily. However, that is not the way Shakespeare writes it. He decides that Juliet will put the dagger beside her because he wants to show to the audience that Juliet is willing to go to extreme lengths including killing herself to be with Romeo. The reader now feels a very depressed and dreadful