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All Site ContentRomeo and JulietAct 5Scene 3
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"this sight of death is as a bell"
Allusion
Act 5,
Scene 3
Lines 202-207

An explanation of the bell simile in Act 5, Scene 3 of myShakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Capulet

O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mista'en — for lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague, —
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom.

Lady Capulet

O me, this sight of death is as a bell
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.

In the Middle Ages, and sometimes still today, church bells are rung very slowly at a funeral or in a village to announce a death. As was the custom, the number of times the bell rung indicated the deceased person's age.  Lady Capulet is imagining the city bell summoning her to a funeral.