William Shakespeare Quotes

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. These are Juliet’s last words, spoken as she snatches Romeo’s dagger, stabs herself with it and dies upon his body. Her overwhelming grief over Romeo’s death prompts this impulsive and reckless decision. Juliet uses personification in characterizing the dagger as having the human emotion of happiness, as she plunges it inside her to send her to her Romeo. She uses a metaphor when she describes her body as the dagger’s sheath. This passage in the Romeo and Juliet death scene is full of sexual innuendo. "Happy dagger" suggests a penis, the Latin word for "sheath" is vagina, and "die" is a euphemism for orgasm. Shakespeare was not adverse to bawdy puns and the play has its fair share of them.