Romeo & Juliet: Married to their Graves

In this post I want to look at chastity and marriage, death and suicide, topics that tragically intersect in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. 

At least four characters use metaphors in which the marriage bed and the death bed overlap, starting with Juliet’s comment about Romeo at the masquerade party before she even knows who he is or whether he is single. “If he be married, My grave is like to be my wedding bed,” she says. (Act I, Scene 5, lines 148-149.) The day of the pair’s secret wedding and the untimely killing of Mercutio leading to Romeo’s banishment, Juliet hopes fervently for a wedding night with her groom before he flees, and vows that if it doesn’t happen, “I’ll to my wedding bed, And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead,” (III.2.149-150). Even after their consummation, and the charming “lark and nightingale” scene, she looks at Romeo and her “ill-divining soul” imagines seeing him in a tomb (III.5.54-57). 

That very morning, Juliet’s mother unwittingly takes up the same theme in frustration when Juliet refuses the marriage to Paris that her parents have arranged. “I would the fool were married to her grave,” (III.5.145). As the argument continues, Juliet says—in what turn out to be her final words to her mother—that if her parents insist on this marriage they may as well “make the bridal bed” in the family tomb (III.5.213). The next day when Juliet’s father discovers the apparently dead body of his daughter, he laments to Paris, the intended groom, “Death hath lain with thy wife,” (IV.5.41-45). 

Away in Mantua the banished Romeo, who has heard none of this, has his own similar—but temporarily hopeful—forebodings. “I dreamed my lady found me dead” but brought him back to life as an emperor with her kisses, (V.1.6-10) Don’t miss the irony of what will actually happen soon as a result of Juliet kissing Romeo when she finds him dead! And of course within a few lines, Romeo will have heard the report of Juliet’s ostensible death, and will promise, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight,” (5.1.37). 

Suicide

Several of the lovers’ statements just cited imply or directly state that suicide will be the solution to their dilemma. This is probably the most problematic element of the play for Christian readers/ viewers and suggests that while the young people are honest and earnest about their love, and respectful of marriage and sexual fidelity as we shall see, they are immature in their understanding of God’s wisdom, love, and ability to provide the solutions for their problems.

Friar Lawrence, as the voice of the church and Christian orthodoxy, vehemently warns Romeo against “doing damned hate upon thyself” (III.3.128). Meanwhile Juliet is considering her own alternatives and clearly including suicide among them, (III.5.255). As soon as she can meet with Lawrence, she tells him she will kill herself if he has no better solution (IV.5.55-68) and even as she privately prepares to put the Friar’s scheme into effect, she sets the suicide knife at hand as the back-up plan (IV. 3.24).

Romeo, of course, makes specific provision for his death (V.1.37-91) calling the lethal liquid that he will swallow a “cordial [stimulating drink] and not poison” (line 90). When he does drink the mixture, it is in the style of a toast, “Here’s to my love,” (V.3.119). Both lovers have treated suicide as brave and virtuous under their circumstances, ignoring or unable to grasp the warning of Friar Lawrence or the reality of God’s sovereignty.

A High View of Chastity

I’ve addressed the point in a previous post that Juliet has a high moral standard when it comes to sexuality, and that Romeo, if he did not have one before meeting Juliet (think about I.1.216-232) certainly does after meeting her. See “Romeo & Juliet: Sexual Propriety and Impropriety,” dated 4-24-12, and “Sexual Morality” dated 7-22-10. Notice how Romeo in II.2.1 pivots quickly away from Mercutio’s bawdy joking about Romeo’s attraction to Rosalind (by then a non-issue anyway) and into the stark contrast of the famous, innocent garden and balcony scene. The young man is, on the one hand, covertly peeping in at this girl late at night from her back yard, but his private fantasy goes like this: “Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek,” (II.2.25-26). Later, in one of his most sensitive utterances in the play, he describes the “vestal modesty” of her kisses (III.3.39-41). Even the couple’s very brief “wooing scene” is an exchange of word play on religious terminology—shrine, pilgrims, saints, prayer, purging of sins (I.5.104-121).

A High View of Marriage

It should naturally follow that high respect for chastity means high respect for marriage as well, and in Romeo & Juliet it does. Draw your own conclusions as you survey statements made by the lovers and by Friar Lawrence in the following lines: III.2. 133-155, II.3.64-65, II.6.36-37, III.5.217-220, IV.1.56-60, 89-90. Of course, these good marital intentions on the part of all three characters are flawed by the haste and secrecy in which the marriage is entered, and that may well be the central explanation for why the story ends so tragically. At the same time that we take into account the extraordinary circumstances of the feud between the two households that drives the risky choices that are made, we can take from the play the kind of lesson that all tragedies are supposed to convey. In this case it seems to be a caution against ignoring the “unchanging counsel of God” in decision making. Psalm 33:11 promises, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation.” The corresponding warning is in Psalm 106:13, “They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel.”

As You Like It

As You Like It, a romantic comedy with a title that seems to have no plot-related meaning but simply promises to be an audience-pleaser, has kept that promise since its debut in 1599. Its story merges several comic devices that Shakespeare knew to be popular with his theatre-goers including a female character masquerading as a man, multiple couples wooing and wedding, bitter sibling rivalries resolved, and a court jester to compound the humor at every turn.

Few of Shakespeare’s plays rely as much on direct and indirect biblical references. The allusions to the Garden of Eden in particular are so numerous that they become a major theme of the story.

The plot centers on two pairs of brothers, both consisting of an evil brother casting a good brother out of his rightful place. Both outcasts resort to the Forest of Arden, an unexpectedly Edenic place where their banishments turn out to be blessings. Duke Senior, legitimate ruler of the realm, is overthrown by younger brother Frederick and banished to the forest along with his top advisors. Meanwhile Oliver, a wealthy young gentleman, plots against the life of his youngest brother Orlando, forcing him to escape into the same forest.

None of this sounds romantic, but there’s more. The evil Duke Frederick has a daughter Celia who is inseparable from her beloved cousin Rosalind, daughter of the rightful Duke. Rosalind is soon banished also, but Celia determines to escape with her cousin into exile and persuades Touchstone the jester to go along. Still no romance? Well, Rosalind and Orlando have laid longing eyes upon each other before their escapes to Arden, and that’s enough to set in motion not just one, but four love matches. 

The “disguised female” feature results from Rosalind’s decision to dress as a man for safety in the forest. When she finds out Orlando is also in Arden, she takes (unfair?) advantage by role-playing as an advisor to the lovelorn without Orlando realizing he is dealing with the woman of his dreams. 

Biblical references and themes 

“Adam” is the fourth word of the play, and the recurring theme of Creation and Garden of Eden will follow. This Adam is the faithful, aged servant of the late Sir Rowland de Boys who will shortly abandon Sir Rowland’s evil heir Oliver, give his life’s savings to young Orlando, and attend him into the forest.

When we first see Arden, Duke Senior is addressing his fellow-exiles and we find that the forest is not the wild and threatening place the men had feared. In Act II, Scene 1, lines 1-11 (II.1.1-11 in the Folger Shakespeare Library edition) he rejoices that they are safer there where they “feel not the penalty of Adam” than they were in “the envious court.” Jacques laments the need of killing deer for food (II.1.21-25) as inconsistent with Arden’s unsullied environment.

Orlando assumes the forest to be “uncouth” upon first venturing into it (II.6.6) but is soon happy to find it full of gentleness (II.7.111-114). The cold winds that might arise (II.5.6-8) are declared to be not a curse, but a blessing compared with human sinfulness (II.7.182-184). Even the diabolical creature who invaded Eden to ruin mankind also has a sinister equivalent in Arden (the serpent in IV.3.114). Besides these reflections of the Garden of Eden, Rosalind’s casual remark that the earth is “almost 6000 years old” (IV.1.100) assumes the traditionally estimated date of the Genesis creation, 4000 B.C.

Direct references to Bible accounts in As You Like It include the prodigal son (I.1.37 and 74), God’s feeding of the ravens in Luke 12:24 and the sparrows in Matthew 10:29 (II.3.44-45), the woman as the “weaker vessel” from I Peter 3:7 (II.4.6), a tree yielding “bad fruit” from Matthew 7:18 (III.2.117), and animals coming in pairs to the ark from Gen. 7:8-9 (V.4.36-37).

Less direct allusions include the Judas kiss (III.4.8-9) and Ruth’s gleaning of harvest leftovers (III.5.106-111). Even the wicked usurper Duke Frederick seems to know Jesus’ lost coin parable from Luke 15:8 in his “seek him with candle” command (III.1.6). That parable leads directly into the better-known prodigal son story which Shakespeare had used more obviously in Act I.

In very general terms an orthodox God-centered worldview is further reflected in expressions like “sermons in stone” (II.1.17), “Is he of God’s making?” (III.2.209-214), “thank heaven fasting” (III.5.62-63), and the disclaimer that Rosalind’s “magic” is “not damnable” (V.2.63-65).

Respect for biblical marriage is upheld throughout the play despite the jester’s inclination to lower that standard with a questionable wedding. He is reprimanded by Jacques and persuaded to get properly married (III.3.83-105). Even the lowly shepherd Silvius professes a love for Phoebe that is “So holy and so perfect…” (III.5.106). All four couples, socially diverse though they are, share a respectable quadruple wedding at play’s end after chaste courtships.

Shakespeare oddly brings a representation of a Roman deity onstage to solemnize the ceremony (V.4.190-191), but the biblical tone is restored immediately as the closing scene is interrupted by miraculous news. Duke Frederick, upon entering the Forest of Arden with evil intent, has met an “old religious man,” been “converted from the world,” and surrendered his usurped crown (V.4.159-168). Not coincidentally Oliver, the play’s other villain, had earlier undergone a conversion soon after entering this beneficent forest. Jacques now declares he will go find Frederick and learn from this “convertite” (V.4.190-191).

So the story’s climax features the launching of four marriages, repentance of the villains, their reconciliation with their brothers, and a final picture of religious devotion with Eden restored.  

Similarities to other Shakespeare plays

Kings/Dukes usurped by younger brothers: As You Like It, The Tempest, Hamlet. (The princes in Much Ado About Nothing almost fit the category, as Claudio has apparently put down a rebellion led by Don John just before the action of the play begins.)  

Weddings of multiple couples performed or impending: As You Like It, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice. 

Women disguised as men: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona. [Mind-bending bonus: The As You Like It version of the gender disguise adds an extra twist when Rosalind masquerading as the male Ganymede proposes to role-play a woman—herself! Remember, female stage roles in Shakespeare’s time were played by boys dressed as women. So the first audiences of As You Like It were treated to a male playing a female disguised as a male role-playing a female!]

Romeo & Juliet: Sexual Propriety and Impropriety

In an earlier post I generalized that Shakespeare typically shows his upper class characters adhering to much higher standards of sexual behavior than the “servant class” does. In Romeo and Juliet, this difference is not as much a social class distinction as it is a marker of sincere love contrasted with crude shallowness.

Romeo’s companions (with the possible exception of Benvolio) engage in the equivalent of boys’ locker room humor, as do the young men of the opposing house of Capulet. In the dramatic structure of the play this creates a shady, worldly backdrop that in turn makes the idealized love of Romeo and Juliet shine all the brighter.

The play can be directed in a style that moderates this contrast by deemphasizing the immature male joking (much of which can be lost in the “translation” to a modern audience anyway). The 2012 production on the Ashland stage, however, sometimes underlines the coarse humor through inflection and gesture. It will be helpful for viewers to understand Shakespeare’s purpose in these scenes in order to appreciate the innocence and comparative maturity of the famous young couple’s romance.

See Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s own description of the age-appropriateness of their 2012 Romeo & Juliet at www.osfashland.org/education/teachers/recommendations.aspx#Play1. On the same web page you will find descriptions of their other plays also, including As You Like It.)

All's Well that Ends Well

All's Well that Ends Well presents us with an unusual arranged marriage which leaves the couple immediately estranged, the unwilling groom determined to discard his identity if not his very life, and the disappointed bride determined to win her groom even if it requires her to deviously meet an impossible challenge. In the process, the "at-odds couple" takes us uncomfortably near the edge of adultery, a precipice that Shakespeare's high-born characters usually do not visit. (See my "Topics" post on Sexual Morality.)

Helena, whose late father had been employed as physician to a noble French family, has been raised in the household even after her father's death, a welcome guest treated almost as a family member. She has fallen in love with the young Bertram who will inherit the family title of Count, but keeps this to herself knowing that a commoner has no business aspiring to such a match.

But then, Helena uses one of her father's secret medical cures to save the life of the king and he rewards her by offering her marriage to any noble bachelor in the realm. She cannot resist choosing Bertram, who is horrified at the idea of marrying not only a commoner, but a girl who has been raised with him like a kid sister (II.3.123-127). Seeing Bertram's deep loathing for the forced arrangement, Helena asks the king to call the deal off, but he thinks his kingly honor is at stake (II.3.161-162) and refuses. This pivotal scene presents a good opportunity for students to discuss the shared fault of the three characters involved. Are they all responsible for the trouble that ensues? To what extent?

Bertram is so despondent that he would rather face death at war (in which the king has forbidden him to participate) than to consummate this sham marriage (II.3.288) and hints he will never to go home alive (II.5.100-102). He is severing ties with the king and his noble family inheritance (indeed he is disinherited in III.2.69-71) and he flees to the war practically devoid of identity, feeling like a dead man. It is important to understand this to see why he is not fully an exception to Shakespeare's unspoken rule that the high-born do not ordinarily sink to sexual immorality.

Helena herself admits that the trick she sets up to snare and save Bertram is dabbling near the borders of sin (III.7.49-54), yet she is determined to fulfill Bertram's impossible bargain, for her sake and for his, at any cost. That bargain is that he will consummate their "marriage" only if she can get the family ring from his finger, and show that she has a child conceived by him (III.2.59-62).

Her plot involves several deceptions centering on exploiting Bertram's intention to have a wartime affair with young Diana who has caught his eye, substituting herself for Diana in the darkness (III.7.17-40). The other major piece of the plot is to put out the news that she herself has died, which she "confirms" with a letter ostensibly from a holy rector (IV.3.57). The deception continues into V.3.159-166 with Diana's letter to the king. All of this naturally lends itself to class discussion of whether such deceptions are justified under the circumstances in order to bring about a positive outcome.

Bertram's faults, of course, stand out more obviously. His rejection of his unchosen bride is partly understandable, but his immediate lying to Helena (II.5.67-76) and his pursuit of Diana's virginity (IV.2.7-45) are not so excusable. Add to that his dishonest insults against Diana later (V.3.202-249) and we are seeing serious character flaws.

All of this adds up to an issue that keeps this play from being a simple romantic comedy. Shakespeare may have titled All's Well… ironically. Is all well at the end? Will this marriage proceed successfully with such a powerful foundation of mistrust, which seems too easily resolved at the end? Even the king, in the play's closing speech, implies the doubts we might all have deep down. "All yet seems well, and if it end so meet, the bitter past, more welcome is the sweet." Don't overlook the "seems" and "if" in that fine couplet. Students can profit from a good discussion of the trust-building that is essential in preparation for marriage.

Another theme worth noting in the play is the respect for God (and "heaven") expressed by several characters. Some examples appear in I.3.201-204, II.1.166-170, II.3.32, and III.4.27-31. Likewise, chastity is often praised especially by the women of the play, as in I.1.111-171, III.5.10-29 and 94, and IV.2.46-61. By contrast, the empty braggart Parolles offers some of the classic arguments against virginity in I.1.111-171, and Bertram's tempting of Diana later echoes some of the same corrupted reasoning.

Finally, I'll point out several elements of this story line that parallel other Shakespeare plays to some extent:

*The intrigue of the ring (III.7.26-32 and V.3.215-226) may remind us of Merchant of Venice.
* Diana's enigmatic riddling (V.3.305-345) is like Rosalind's in As You Like It.
* The offer of a "second marriage" after the "death" of the first bride (V.3.76-79) echoes Much Ado About Nothing.
* The happy reunion of a wife with a husband who has deeply wronged her (V.3.346-363) is much like the play with the only surprise ending in Shakespeare that is so dramatic, I refuse to be a "spoiler" by identifying it!

Sexual Morality

Shakespeare's plays include elements of appropriate or inappropriate sexuality. Christians might be uneasy with some of these story lines, and feel that the overall body of Shakespeare's work sends mixed messages as to sexual morality.

One generalization I would offer is that Shakespeare sometimes implies a distinction between upper class characters and commoners with higher standards expected of the former, while lower standards for the latter might be assumed.

The exceptions among the upper class are treated as serious matters, often with weighty consequences. Hamlet takes his royal mother bitterly to task for her adulterous (by his society's standards) marriage to her brother-in-law (III.4.19-106). Juliet (III.5.216-255 and IV.1.51-90) is desperate to avoid violating her marriage as she has been advised to do by her nurse.

Even false accusations of fornication among the upper class are extremely serious when believed, whether in Shakespeare's comedies (Much Ado about Nothing IV.1.81-210) or tragedies (Othello IV.2.37-105). Yet in Much Ado, Borachio and Margaret seem to have something going on (II.2.12-49), as do Cassio and Bianca in Othello (IV.1.123-158), but these liaisons between commoners are treated as normal. Measure for Measure (the only Shakespeare play named from a verse of scripture, Matt. 7:2) deals with fornication and hypocrisy via a unique plot line in which the premature sexual union of a "nearlywed" couple is regarded as a mitigated sin in contrast with the immeasurably worse intentions of Angelo, the city's interim ruler.

All's Well that Ends Well offers another unique story in which a young nobleman brushes the boundaries of adultery. See my post on that play describing the two buffers between Shakespeare's general rule about sexual misconduct by the high-born and what actually happens. First, Bertram has already despairingly given up his title and considers himself ruined, virtually a dead man. Second, he never actually commits adultery although he fully intends to and just as fully believes he has! In the same play, notice the frequent words in praise of virginity and chastity. See also the modest propriety of Hermia, another nearlywed, under tempting circumstances in Midsummer Night's Dream (II.2.41-70).