Upon receiving the news that a loved one had died, those left to mourn, called survivors, often find themselves entangled in a complex web of emotions and reactions. The death of a loved one can be a frightening, overwhelming, and painful experience and the physical, psychological, and social effects of loss are articulated through the practice of grief. Grief has been known to be experienced in five stages called the Five Stages of Grief where each phase of the grieving process will go from initial denial to the slow healing of acceptance. However, the devastating aftermath of a loss of a loved one, coupled with the suffering experienced through the five stages of grief can cause the survivor to commit suicide themselves. To start off the …show more content…
Romeo drank a vile of poison because he heard the news that Juliet had died, but in reality she was asleep awaiting for his rescue. Juliet awakes to the horrifying sight of Romeo’s lifeless corpse where she commits suicide in the fashion of stabbing herself with Romeo’s dragger. Though both Romeo and Juliet seem to progress through the Five Stages of Grief in an instant. In the case of Romeo, he initially denies the news of Juliet’s “death” and then retorts to searching for a means he should use to kill himself. Romeo experienced the first stage of denial and skips all the stages until acceptance where he acknowledged the terms of the situation and believed that suicide is the best method in order to be with Juliet forever. “Romeo felt cold, even in that terrible heat … ‘It can’t be!’ said Romeo at last … Romeo had made up his mind. He would sleep with Juliet that night. The only question was what means should he use to kill himself? He felt nothing- his only though was to get Juliet and be with her forever” (Shakespeare 94). On the other hand, based on the inferences from the text, Juliet doesn’t seem to experience the Five Stages of Grief at all and appears as if she has given up hope and decide to die to live by …show more content…
Some survivors aren’t about to accept the readjustment of the sudden lost and coupled with the suffering experience through grief can find suicide as they only solution. The theme of the loss of a loved can cause the survivor the commit suicide is seen in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but isn’t shown as expected. Suicide in today’s society impacts the United States both financially and socially with heavy costs in medical bills and destroy relationships between the surviving member and the deceased loved one. The grieving process is a path where one can find themselves with their wounds healed or as an emotional crippled individual at the edge of their
Juliet strategizes her disastrous plan and worries, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me?” (Lines 30-32 of Act Four, Scene Three). Juliet is desperate to see Romeo, ergo she plans to fake her death. Her thoughts of Romeo finding her lifeless foreshadows their future. Romeo is deprived of the news of Juliet’s real state of health, therefore he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. O mischief, thou art swift to enter the thoughts of desperate men!” (Lines 34-36 of Act Five, Scene One). Once again, Romeo’s perception is only focused on Juliet. His mental instability leads him to think Paris is in the way obtaining true happiness, thus he slays him. Romeo acquires poison, stands beside Juliet, and states, “Here’s to my love! (Drinks.) O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (Lines 119-120 of Act Five, Scene Three). Romeo observes Juliet’s body and determines that he should die beside her. Juliet wakes to his lifeless body, and determines she should commit suicide, as well. Romeo’s foolish decisions lead to the death of himself and
...se he believes Juliet to dead, drinks poison to take his own life as a last resort. What Romeo is unaware of is that Juliet is very much alive, so it is very ironic when he says, “Death, that has sucked the honey of thy breath,/ Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:/ Thou art not conquered; beauty’s ensign yet/ Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,/ And death’s pale flag is not advanced there” (V iii 101-105). This is fate in the works in the play. When Juliet sees that her love has not rescued her and rather is dead, she kills herself with a dagger found in the proximity. “O happy dagger/ This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die” (V iii 182-183).
The lack of communication between the young couple killed them. Romeo’s reaction to seeing juliet dead (not actually dead) was to kill himself. “Oh my love! My wife, death that hath sucked” (3.5.141-142) If Romeo and Juliet planned out the rescue of Juliet's body more thoroughly, Romeo would not have killed himself.
When we encounter the death of a loved one, it’s hard to understand and realized that the person is gone. According to Elizabeth Kubler Ross, individuals enter different stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and
Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous story about love in literature. This is in part because of the tension caused by the look the different characters have towards what love means and its role in life. These views were very important for the progression of the story. Their different views collided and caused much grief and sorrow for the characters throughout play. Many important events that propelled the story forward would not have happened without the various feelings towards love the characters have and how they felt of and reacted to the other characters’ view on love.
Sakinofsky, I. (2007). The Aftermath of Suicide: Managing Survivors' Bereavement. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 52129S-136S.
...re her fake dead body is kept, and drinks the poison he brought with him, hastily, without giving it a second thought, assuming that Juliet was dead and that he might not be able to live without her. However, Juliet wakes up at the moment when Romeo falls dead on her lap and she exclaims, “Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end” (5.3.167), signifying the untimely death of Romeo that occurred due to his unnecessary haste.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, published the Pioneering book On Death and Dying. The work acquainted the world with the grieving process, called the five stages of grief. Kübler-Ross gathered her research from studying individuals with terminal cancer (Johnson, 2007). The first stage of the grieving process is denial. In this stage the person refuses to believe that their loved one is deceased, a common thought during this period is, “This can’t be happening to me” (Johnson, 2007).The second stage of the grieving process is anger. In this level the person becomes frustrated with their circumstances, a customary complaint is “Why is this happening to me?” (Johnson, 2007). The third stage of the grieving process is bargaining. At this point the individual hopes that they can prevent their grief, this typically involves bartering with a higher power, and an ordinary observance during this time is “I will do anything to have them back” (Johnson, 2007). The fourth and most identifiable stage of grief is depression. This phase is habitually the lengthiest as...
Suicide AwarenessVoices of Education (SAVE) proclaims, “When a person faces his grief, allows his feelings to come, speaks of his grief...it is then that the focus is to move from death and dying and to promote...
...t life. Suicide is the most extreme manifestation of this fear of life. A more moderate manifestation of this fear is depression. Early in the play, Romeo is described as having depression like symptoms. As the love affair progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Romeo can not handle life without Juliet. By the end of the play, he kills himself because he can no longer have Juliet. Romeo’s final act of suicide is not completely based on the death of Juliet. The depression he exhibits at the onset of the play is already exhibiting his desire to escape life.
...te pilot, now at once run on / The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark. / Here’s to my love! / O true apothecary, / Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” Romeo says that its miserable be alive while his love is dying. He takes the poison just to die, thinking Juliet’s also dead. This was the poorest choice he has ever made because if he had waited a little longer, then he would have seen that Juliet is alive. Romeo’s impulse got the best of him.
Juliet would not have been able to fabricate her death ’ if not for the potion given to her by the friar as he mentioned “Take thou this vial, being then in bed,/and this distilling liquor drink thou off/no warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest.” (Shakespeare 4.1.95,95,100) This potion, as mentioned, would render her seemingly dead for 48 hours. It was so effective that even Juliet’s family believed she had died and therefore cancelled her wedding to Paris. It also gave her the possibility to rebel, as told by the friar, “In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,/Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,.”
“Let me have a dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear As will disperse itself through all the veins That the life-weary taker may fall dead…” Once Romeo hears of Juliet's fake death, and is convinced of this, he goes to an apothecary to get poison to kill himself alongside Juliet's allegedly dead body. He ends up going to the tomb and drinking the poison. Romeo, who has been much more obsessed with Juliet, instantly decided to kill himself for the sake of love. He did not think, nor did he stop nor did he even think of a better solution. He could have waited and go through his thoughts and see that Juliet is alive.
But what later happens is Romeo finds out and sees that she is dead (not knowing she faked it). So Romeo decides to drink poison to kill himself to be with her in the afterlife. Then what happens right after is Juliet wakes up to see Romeo dead. This then leads to her really killing herself. This proves my point about teens being rash and taking the immediate
Deathly acts such as murdering, homicide, and genocide are acts that are associated with anger, pride, and even jealously, but none compare to the actions of suicide which are associated with sadness, grief, pain, that encircle and bound the victim, such so that he cannot see a way out. Furthermore, suicide is cause by many factors; some aspects are detectable, while others are not. In addition, suicide are caused by many elements including; emotional, physical, and psychological (genetics) they are also different in retrospective to age and gender. Lastly, there are many reasons and aspects to suicide, and while others are easy to tell why, others are not.