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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 3Scene 3
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"doomsday"
Allusion
Act 3,
Scene 3
Lines 4-11

An explanation of the allusion to doomsday in Act 3, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo

Father, what news? What is the prince's doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand
That I yet know not?

Friar Laurence

                                    Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company.
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

Romeo

What less than doomsday is the prince's doom?

Friar Laurence

A gentler judgment vanished from his lips:                  
Not body's death, but body's banishment.

According to the New Testament, doomsday is the end of the earth, following the Last Judgment. Here, Romeo is saying that the fact that the Prince has sentenced him to exile is equivalent to the end of the world — for him, at least.