trancelike state. Her first thought is for Romeo, as she addresses her "comfort-
able" Friar. But he proves to be something less than comfortable after all, pointing
to the bodies of both Romeo and Paris and urging her to flee with him. She re-
fuses. Once again, and for the last time, she shows her independent spirit and her
integrity, expressed in devotion to her husband, whom she is determined to join in
death. The cup emptied of poison and Romeo's lips providing no "restorative," she
resorts to his dagger.

Compared with Romeo's suicide, Juliet's is much briefer, necessarily so in dra-
matic terms. But dramatic necessity aside, with her faith in the Friar shattered, her
unquestioning choice of death makes a fitting end for her, as Granville-Barker
says. "In the unreflecting haste of it all lies her peculiar tragedy," he concludes.
"One day a child, and the next a woman!" ³⁶ But as we have seen, her transforma-
tion has not been quite that sudden; her maturity has developed over the course of
events, much as Romeo's has, though not quite in the same way. Whether he or she
emerges as the principal protagonist is immaterial, as Shakespeare knew when he
named his tragedy. Both are tragic figures, and both heroic.

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