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Examples Of Irony In Romeo And Juliet

Decent Essays

Throughout the play, numerous examples of irony can be displayed. For example, in Act 5, Scene 3, when Romeo drinks the poison, thinking Juliet is dead. This event is a representation of dramatic irony, since the reader knows something that the character does not. In this instance, the reader knows that Juliet is not dead, rather she is pretending, to try to escape Verona and be with Romeo. However, the character, Romeo is unaware of this plan, thus making it ironic. He gets the news from Balthasar, that Juliet is “dead”, and on his way back to Verona buys a poison from an apothecary, with the intent of using it to kill himself. Romeo does this because he can not live without Juliet, and killing himself would ensure that they will be eternally …show more content…

While marrying the two, Friar Lawrence expresses how the marriage will hopefully bring the two families together, Capulets and Montagues, and thus ending the ongoing feud between them. Soon after their wedding, Romeo is banished for the murder of Tybalt, further enhancing the arguing between the families. At that time it seemed impossible for their marriage to now fix their feud, however later on it did. Although it did accomplish what the priest intended, it was not in the way anyone hoped or expected, furthermore creating the irony. By uniting the two families through the marriage of their children, Friar Lawrence thought that it would bring and end to the feud, one that was creating lots of negative events. Unfortunately it took the death of Romeo and Juliet for the houses to understand how trivial the rivalry was, and to finally end it. Both the Capulets and the Montagues realized how their fighting caused the death of their children, and agree to make amends and build a statue in their honor. This is ironic since it was the hope that the marriage would create the resolving outcomes, however it did not happen in the way expected. Romeo and Juliet were intending for their marriage to end the rivalry amongst their families, and the irony is that it did, however at the expense of their lives, something nobody in the play was

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