The Death Motif in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Death Motif in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Often times, authors use the theme of death throughout their works. This seems to be true of William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. Throughout his play, Shakespeare uses death to move his story along. He does this with actual deaths, which cause problems for the lovers, and through premonitions and dreams of death. Both Juliet and her Romeo exhibit these premonitions/dreams. The use of death is immediately seen in the prologue of the play: “The fearful passage of their death-marked love…” (Shakespeare Pro. 9). The Prologue offers us the inevitable fate of the two lovers short and abrupt. During the first act of the play, we learn of the Capulet’s ball, and of how the lover’s met. After the ball is over, Juliet says, “…If he be, married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed,” (I, v, ll.143-44) which is a foreboding of the final scene of the play. This partially leads to Romeo and Tybalt’s duel in III, i, as Romeo�...