In exile in Mantua, Romeo wakes up feeling good. He has just had a dream in which Juliet found him dead, but then kissed him back to life.
Romeo’s friend Balthasar arrives with the news from Verona. There’s no good way to say this: Juliet’s ‘dead’. Well, that’s what he thinks. Romeo immediately decides that the only thing he can do is go to Juliet’s grave and commit suicide there. He knows a poor apothecary who sells illegal drugs, including poisons.
He goes to the apothecary,whose sunken cheeks and hollow looking eyes suggest that he is starving to death, and Romeo convinces him to sell him a dram of poison (even though selling poison is illegal), since, the guy is starving and really needs the money.
November 17, 2014 at 11:10 pm
You write confidently and accurately, Anas, taking into account some of the more nuanced aspects of the play. This is excellent – now I’m also keen to read your selection of quotation and how you decide to interpret those quotes.