The Pact

Many of the plot points and tropes of Picoult’s novel are reminiscent of William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1597). In both narratives, a pair of teens is in love with one another. In Shakespeare’s play, the teens are offspring of two families—the Montagues and Capulets—who are bitter enemies. Because of their parents’ feud, Romeo and Juliet are forbidden to be with one another and must carry out their relationship in secret.

The Hartes and Golds begin as a reverse of the Montagues and Capulets—the two families are tight-knit friends, sharing a bond that appears indestructible. Emily’s death, however, creates a divide between them, severing the two families forever in a manner reminiscent of the feud between the Montagues and Capulets. In this way, Picoult plays with the trope of Romeo and Juliet’s desire to be united in death; here the two families are forever divided by the death of Emily and Chris’s role in it.

Similarly, Chris and Emily’s pact parallels the plan devised by Romeo and Juliet. Juliet fakes her death by drinking a potion that will make her appear deceased. Once she has been placed in a tomb, Romeo will be sent to secretly rescue her, and the two will be able to live as a married couple in secret. However, the message of the plan is not correctly delivered to Romeo and, hearing word of her death, Romeo is unaware that Juliet is not deceased but in a temporary coma-like state. Unable to live without Juliet, Romeo chooses to die by suicide by drinking poison at Juliet’s tomb. Once she awakens, Juliet discovers Romeo, dead by poisoning. Just as Romeo had declared, she insists she is unable to live without him and kills herself with Romeo’s sword. Their plan, gone awry, ends in two unnecessary deaths.

In Picoult’s twist on the classic tragedy, Chris is knowledgeable of Emily’s desire to die by suicide and believes that, by pretending to support her in this wish and insisting that he will die by suicide as well—he can convince Emily to change her mind at the last moment. The scene at the carousel parallels the scene at Juliet’s tomb, with an important twist: Chris chooses to assist Emily in death by suicide.

Through the Romeo and Juliet model, Picoult raises moral questions about the promises a couple makes to one another and the obligations one has to do what a loved one wishes, no matter how painful that might be.