What was believed to be the cause of Juliets sudden death?
alletaylor Student High School – 12th Grade The death of Juliet is so sudden that there is no detailed analysis of her possible cause of decease at the time her “corpse” (actually her drugged body) is discovered just prior to her wedding with Paris. No cause of death is mentioned in Act V, Scene 1, where the news of her presumed decease is conveyed to Romeo. However, when Paris comes upon Romeo opening Juliet’s tomb in Act V, Scene 3, he does utter the following lines: This is that banish’d haughty Montague That murdered my love’s cousin—with which grief It is supposed the fair creature died— This indicates that the generally accepted reason for Juliet’s death was the same as the reason for the plan to marry her quickly to Paris — her presumed excess of grief over the death of Tybald, her cousin, at the hands of Romeo: Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death, And therefore have I little talk’d of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
