Romeo is struck by the way Juliet's beauty appears to defy death — she still looks alive: "Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe / That unsubstantial Death is so amorous?" he asks bitterly, believing that death preserves her to be death's own lover. The dramatic tension is amplified by the audience's awareness that Romeo is seeing the physical signs of Juliet's recovery from drug-induced sleep. In an example of bleak irony, his attraction to her even in death emboldens him to press onward with his own suicide just as she is about to awaken.
Lady Capulet's curse on Juliet echoes loudly: "I would the fool were married to her grave," as does Paris' description of the tomb as a "bridal bed." Once again, the themes of love, sex, and death become inextricably intertwined ensnaring the characters in an intricate web. Reunion in this scene is not only spiritual, but also sexual. Shakespeare again draws on the Elizabethan meaning of death as sexual climax. Romeo drinks poison from the round vial — an allusion to female sexuality. Juliet stabs herself with Romeo's dagger, a phallic image symbolizing the reconsummation of their marriage. Thus as they die in pursuit of spiritual unification, they symbolically reconsummate their marriage, leaving their bodies as monuments to the depth of their love as well as signs of the tragic waste that is the feud's legacy.
Paris' challenge to Romeo at the tomb parallels Tybalt's challenge in Act III, Scene 1. In both instances, Romeo resists the invitation to fight, but fate conspires to leave him no choice. Romeo is reluctant to kill Paris, because he is concerned only with dying himself and entreats Paris to leave. Romeo says to Paris, "By heaven I love thee better than myself." He responded similarly to Tybalt's insults in Act III, Scene 1, "But [I] love thee better than thou canst devise."
After Paris is dead, Romeo realizes who Paris is and describes them both as the victims of fate: "One writ with me in sour misfortune's book." Paris is a noble suitor and defends Juliet's grave with his life. His death, like Mercutio's, is tragic in that he never knew the love shared by Romeo and Juliet.
