What It Is
The Capulet family monument, which Friar Laurence calls the old tomb and which Juliet, in Scene 3 of Act IV, describes as the receptacle where, for hundreds of years, the bones of the ancestors have rested. It is there they take the bride who seems dead, and it is there the lovers die.
Where It Appears
In Scene 1 of Act IV, the friar explains the plan: Juliet will be taken to the old family tomb, and he and Romeo will be there when she wakes.
In Scene 3 of Act IV, Juliet fears waking suffocated in the tomb, before Romeo arrives, among bones and with Tybalt still fresh in the sepulcher.
In Scene 5 of Act IV, the house prepares for the procession to the tomb.
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir(IV.5)
In Scene 1 of Act V, Balthasar tells Romeo that Juliet's body sleeps in the Capulet monument, and that he saw her laid out in the family vault.
In Scene 2 of Act V, Laurence goes alone to the tomb, where Juliet will wake.
Poor living corse, clos’d in a dead man’s tomb.(V.2)
In Scene 3 of Act V, Paris dies before the monument, Romeo lays him inside, drinks the poison beside Juliet, and she kills herself with his dagger. It is before the tomb that the families reconcile.
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!(V.3)
What It Means
The tomb is the place where the house keeps its dead, and the play makes it a place of meeting: Romeo, son of the enemy, enters the Capulet monument to die beside Juliet, and the two houses come to it to make peace. It is also the place of misunderstanding, because the friar arrives late and the letter did not come.
The only space the feud leaves the three young people is the death of the Capulet house: Paris asks to be laid beside Juliet, Romeo grants it, and it is Capulet who, in the end, promises Romeo a monument like Juliet's. Romeo's lantern full of light and the old ossuary where Juliet's ancestors lie describe the same place, and the play sets the two images side by side.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Death, Family, Love.
- Characters: Juliet, Romeo, Paris, Friar Laurence, Capulet.
- Related symbols: Friar Laurence's potion, which leads Juliet there, and light and night.