Theme: Impetuous actions lead to

troubling consequences.
Thesis: Through the use of imagery,
metaphors,
and
foreshadowing,
Shakespeare reveals impulsive actions
lead to troubling consequences.

These violent delights have violent

ends and in their triumph die, like fire
and power, which as they kiss, consume.
The sweetest honey is loathsome in his
own deliciousness and in the taste
confounds the appetite. Therefore love
moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift
arrives as tardy as too slow. (110)

Friar Laurence foreshadows Romeo and

Juliets death and impulsive choices. He
warns them that being too swift in a
relationship can cause a violent end. In
this scene, it is demonstrated that Romeo
acts on impulse and continues to have
strong feelings for Juliet without
thinking of the consequences. The fact
that Romeo and Juliet are from two
different households who have been in
an on-going feud with each other reveals
that the two lovers do not consider what
will happen after they elope.

Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

and this distilling liquor drink thou off;
when presently through all thy veins
shall run a cold and drowsy humor; for
no pulse shall keep his native progress,
but surcease no warmth, no breath shall
testify thou livest. The roses in thy lips
and cheeks shall fade to paly ashes, thy

eyes windows will fall like death when

he shuts up the day of life. (183)
This imagery displays the effects of the
potion Juliet takes. Friar Laurence tells
Juliet that she will appear dead and that
her pulse will stop. However, this does
not stop her from taking the potion. She
is so deeply in love with Romeo that she
takes this mystery potion, which could
have side effects or cause her to actually
die. Her decision to take this potion
inevitably contributes to her and
Romeos death because of her
unorganized plans.

There is thy gold, worse poison to

mens souls, doing more murder in this
loathsome world than these poor
compounds that thou mayst not sell. I
sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in
flesh. Come, cordial and not poison, go
with me to Juliets grave, for there must
I use thee. (217)

Romeo foreshadows the future event in

the play in which Romeo will drink the
poison and die beside Juliets body in the
Capulet tomb. However, Romeo has no
clue that Juliets death was in fact, just a
potion that made it seem as if she was
dead. Romeo jumped to conclusions and
acted impulsively when he bought the
poison from the apothecary and decided
to take his own life. This supports
theme, impetuous acts lead to troubling
consequences.

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

from off the battlements of any tower, or
walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
where serpents are. Chain me with
roaring bears or hide me nightly in a
charnel house, oercovered quite with
dead mens rattling bones, with reeky
shanks and yellow chapless skulls. Or
bid me go into a new-made grave and
hide me with a dead man in his shroud
and I will do it without fear or doubt, to
live an unstained wife to my sweet
love. (183)

Through imagery, Juliet explains to Friar

Laurence that she will do anything to
avoid getting married to Paris. She did
not consider marrying Paris even though
Romeo cannot live in Verona. Paris is a
man of wealth and power yet she turned
him down. Her mindset of doing
anything to be with Romeo leads to her
suicide.

Come, bitter conduct, come unsavory

guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once
run on the dashing rocks thy seasick
weary bark! Heres to my love. (227)

The metaphor compares the poison to a

pilot of a ship. Also, it compares Romeo
to the ship. Romeo orders the pilot
(poison) to kill him. Romeos decision to
kill himself shows that he does not
carefully think about his actions. He
takes the poison quickly without thought
to his family. His mother, Lady
Montague died because of the grief that
she had for his death.