ROMEO AND JULIET: What are their death dates?

Question

For English class, I have to write obituaries for all the characters that died in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Well, we never actually read the play. xD We just watched the movie. No matter how many times I scan the book or type it into Google, I can't find any dates! I know it all happened within five days..

But does anyone know when they died?
Here are the people that died:
Romeo Montague
Juliet Capulet
Lady Montague
County Paris
Mercutio
Tybalt

I'm aware that they never actually existed.

Answer 1

It is a work of fiction, they didn't really die on specific dates. They never actually existed.

Answer 2

From what I remember, Juliet's 14th birthday was a couple of weeks away. The Nurse said, "On Lammas Eve she'll be fourteen."

LADY CAPULET
She's not fourteen.

Nurse
I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,--
And yet, to my teeth be it spoken, I have but four--
She is not fourteen. How long is it now
To Lammas-tide?

LADY CAPULET
A fortnight and odd days.

Nurse
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.

Now Lammas Day--whatever that is--is August 1, so Lammas Eve would be July 31. "A fortnight and odd days" would be fourteen days--two weeks--plus a few more. Therefore, the events of Romeo and Juliet would probably start around July 10, and, according to you, end around July 15.

From Wikipedia.org:
In English-speaking countries, August 1 is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop.

I don't know if Romeo and Juliet is set in a particular year. Shakespeare's play is adapted from a poem which itself is adapted from another source. The dates all seem to be in the 1400s or 1500s. Look at the "Sources" section of Romeo and Juliet in Wikipedia, and pick a date for yourself.

Answer 3

Ok, you know they weren't real and you probably know that your teacher just wants to know in which of the four (yes, the events in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet all took place in four days) days your list of characters died.

Romeo and Juliet is considered a love story of the Renaissance (which was from the 14th to the 17th centuries), and the stories of young star-crossed lovers date back to ancient times. Myths and legends continued through the 15th century, then in the late 15th/early 16th century, one version of the tale moved the events to Verona and renamed the lovers Romeo and Giulietta (Italian for Juliet).

This version was translated/elaborated on in 1559, then in 1562, Arthur Brook recast this version and produced "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet," and it was this tale that was Shakespeare's main source for his play. Shakespeare wrote his Romeo and Juliet in 1593 or 1595.

Sooooo, just pick a date during the Renaissance that would be about 100 years before the story of the "Romeo and Juliet as we know it" was actually written (late 1400s/early 1500s). How about 1416 (or 14(insert your actual age))? That should give you as good an estimate as you'll ever get.

Since the characters celebrate a Spring festival in the play, pick a nice Spring month, such as April, and start your countdown to everyone's death on Thursday morning. The play starts on Thursday morning and ends on Sunday morning. Pick out a beginning date for Thursday (say, 10 April), 11 for Friday, 12 for Saturday, 13 for Sunday.

From the above, you know Romeo and Juliet died on Sunday (the last day of the play), the 13th of April, and that Romeo killed Count Paris in the tomb on the same date.

Now, I don't remember the death of Lady Montague in the play, but I think both Mercutio and Tybalt were killed in duels. I think Tybalt (relative of Juliet) killed Mercutio (Romeo's friend), so Romeo killed Tybalt for killing his friend, but this you'll have to check out yourself.

I got great information from:

www.milwaukeeballet.org/
romeo-juliet.html

and much of the same from www.wikipedia.com.

But go to the Milwaukee Ballet site and get a synopsis of the play, act by act. You should be able to place the deaths by sword easily enough - didn't the first one occur right at the beginning? - but I just don't know about Lady Montague. What would the death of Romeo's mother have to do with anything? Are you sure you have the right character?

At any rate, good luck, and let us know how you made out - :)

Addendum:

I found a better website for the synopsis:

http//www.shakespeare-
literature.com/
Romeo_and_Juliet/0.html

I also realized that the dueling deaths were not at the beginning - sorry.

Let me help you with the days on this synopsis: As I see it, Day 2 starts after "Having stayed up all night..."

Day 3 starts after "Romeo says a tearful goodbye to Juliet..."

and Day 4 starts after "The Friar instructs all to prepare Juliet for her funeral."

This way, it should be easier for you to find out which days Mercutio and Tybalt were killed (hint: which is the same day that Romeo was banished from the city).

And this synopsis includes the information at the very end that Romeo's mother, Lady Montague, died after she heard that her son had been banished.

And here's a tidbit that might get you an A:

When Juliet says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she's not saying "Where are you, Romeo?" she is saying "Why art thou Romeo?" because since he is Romeo, this means he is of the family that are the sworn enemies of her family. She says it despairingly because she is saying "How can I love you, the enemy of my family?"

Answer 4

I would suggest figuring out what time period it was in (Renaissance?) & then just make up some dates. That's most likely what your teacher wants you to do because they SHOULD know that there were no dates listed & that these people never actually existed. (Yes, I saw that you know that too. Good for you because I've seen people before who thought they were real. *rolls eyes*)

Answer 5

It's fictional, and I don't think there are any actual specific dates. It did happen in the Elizabethan Era (1600's I think?)

if that helps.