O son! the night before thy wedding-day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
– William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. On discovering Juliet apparently dead in her bed, Capulet imagines "Death" as someone who stole into his daughter’s room on the night before her wedding and "deflowered" her. Juliet is metaphorically likened to a flower, while death is personified and given human attributes. While Capulet’s sexual imagery seems inappropriate, it actually foreshadows what will happen to Juliet when death finally sleeps with her. Capulet’s words are also ironic, since he is not aware that Juliet has already lost her virginity to Romeo after she secretly married him. This scene is very much concerned with the theme of appearance vs reality, Juliet’s family being unaware that she has taken a sleeping portion to fake her death to avoid marrying Paris.