Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for help, raising a knife and saying that she will kill herself rather than marry Paris. The friar proposes a plan: Juliet must agree to marry Paris; then, on the night before the wedding, she must drink a sleeping potion that will make her appear to be dead ,she will be laid to rest in the Capulet tomb, and the friar will send word to Romeo in Mantua to help him retrieve her when she wakes up. She will then return to Mantua with Romeo, and be free to live with him away from their parents’ hatred. Friar Lawrence gives her the sleeping potion.

From his hiding place, Paris recognizes Romeo as the man who murdered Tybalt, and thus as the man who indirectly murdered Juliet, since it is her grief for her cousin that is supposed to have killed her. As Romeo has been exiled from the city on penalty of death. In a rage, Paris accosts Romeo. Romeo pleads with him to leave, but Paris refuses. They draw their swords and fight. Romeo kills Paris. As he dies, Paris asks to be laid near Juliet in the tomb, and Romeo agrees.

Romeo opens the tomb and finds Juliet's body. Understandably devastated, he sits next to his beloved and drinks the Apothecary's poison, kisses Juliet, and then dies. Meanwhile, Friar Laurence arrives at the Capulet tomb to find Paris's body outside the door.