

He doesn’t know about her plan that is supposed to bring them together, a plan that will actually lead to the end of the story and their lives. This tragic scene when Romeo drinks the poison is the perhaps the play’s most tense moment-the audience knows Juliet will wake up any second, but Romeo is about to die. The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissĬome, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! Below, he recites his last words as he looks at Juliet’s body:Īrms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you In Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the play reaches a turning point when Romeo arrives at Juliet’s tomb, believing she is dead when she is actually in a false sleep. Without turning points, narratives would be incomplete and boring-all audiences read and watch stories with the expectation that the action will climb to a peak, and then work back down to a conclusion. It’s what the audience spends their time waiting for, and it leads to the conflict’s resolution. The turning point is an important part of all stories because it brings out the final action that is necessary for the narrative to end. Here, the detective has a revealing idea that will lead to the murderer’s capture and the story’s conclusion. The passage above shows a turning point of a larger crime story. She was killed on her anniversary! The detective grabbed her coat and ran out the door. Inside the ring was inscribed “September 20, 1998.” She dropped the ring and gasped. She picked up the small evidence bag that held the woman’s wedding ring. The detective looked through the photos over and over, just like she did every night since they had found the woman’s body. It is a central and key narrative device for authors of all genres, both fiction and nonfiction. From a narrative’s beginning, all of the action rises up to the turning point, where questions are answered, secrets are revealed, conflicts are resolved, and everything begins to come to a close. It leads the rising action into the falling action before a story is resolved and reaches the conclusion. In literature, the turning point or climax is the point of highest tension in a narrative it’s the most exciting and revealing part of a story.
