Why Is Paris Important In Romeo And Juliet

In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare, the last scene with Romeo and Paris at the Capulet’s graveyard is very important and symbolic of many things in the book. It is a closure for the relationship between the Capulet’s and Romeo. In the scene, Romeo confronts Paris at the Capulet’s tomb when he is going to commit suicide beside Juliet.
When Paris and Romeo first run into each other at the gates of the tomb, Paris is very hostile towards Romeo. He says that the emotional strain of Romeo killing Tybalt was too much for Juliet to handle, so she killed herself. Paris was blaming Romeo for the death of Juliet not knowing that Romeo and Juliet were secretly in love. Paris says that Romeo must die for his sins and threatens to kill him at that moment. Romeo does not want to fight Paris and says, “By Heaven, I love thee better than myself, for I come hither armed against myself. Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say a madman’s mercy bid thee run away.”
When he says, “I come armed against myself,” he is saying that he has not come to do harm to anything else in the tomb except himself and he is not looking for a fight with anyone else. He tells Paris not to make him sin again by fighting him because he has already sinned enough by killing Tybalt. Probably the most important thing that Romeo says to Paris in his speech is, “I love thee better than myself.” This sentence is important because Romeo said this to Tybalt in the scene where Tybalt kills Mercutio. What he said to Paris is very important because it not only shows that he does not feel any hatred or anger towards Paris, but also it symbolizes his relationship to the Capulet family as well as his love for Juliet. Romeo is not saying that he loves Paris and the Capulet’s as people. He is simply saying that he loves the Capulet’s name because Juliet is a Capulet and he loves everything about