SUGGESTED APPROACH TO ANSWERING THE DRAMATIC QUESTION:

How dramatic/ What makes this dramatically effective?/ How is this passage dramatic/
What is the dramatic significance of this passage?
When a question calls for us to evaluate/ analyse the dramatic quality or dramatic effectiveness
of the passage, we have to:
1. Watch the scene play out before our eyes.
2. Be sensitive to:
- stage directions
- tone of voice (from the words, language used; the punctuation; sentence length)
- the mood and atmosphere of the scene.
- the images (which senses are evoked by the images?)
3. Think about and explore in your essay:
- dramatic significance/ purpose how does this scene allow you to get a deeper
understanding/ impression of the plot/ theme/ character?
- what emotions are evoked in the audience?
i)

What makes this passage dramatic?

The intense isolation that Juliet is in is dramatic. The audience sees that she has

deliberately distanced herself from everyone, saying that her dismal scene/ [she] needs
must act alone. Being all alone to face her fears is no easy state to be in. We are taken
on a highly exhausting journey as Juliet faces the wildest and most imaginable fears
ever. In this scene, all that she has is the vial and her dagger: just two options but both
presenting extreme avenues of action: the former the potential of not working at all,
hence sending her to her death; and the latter death by stabbing. Both avenues hold
very grim results and so, her very lonely state at this point is very tragic, for she has to
battle her fears that come with what seems to be the easier of the two: taking the potion
which should ideally only promise death-like sleep. Of course, from the emotional journey
of fear that we travel on with Juliet, the potion is definitely not much easier an option for
her. The audience feels great pain for this young 13-year old girl having to entertain such
vividly horrifying fears. We want to reach out to rescue her but cannot and so this
inability to help is also painfully frustrating.

Shakespeare paints very terrifyingly vivid images of the fears Juliet has and these
grip the audience members with fear too. These images appeal to our sense of smell
the foul mouth of the vault that breathes in no healthsome air makes us envision a
terrible beast whose mouth reeks with the stench of dead bodies. This stench is later
reinforced by the loathsome smells that Juliet refers to, that she smells upon waking.
Clearly, the audience has been transported to a horrible place of death. Shakespeare
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Prepared by Ms Michele Sim - Sec 4E Core Lit Romeo and Juliet

allows us also to hear the shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth which bring on
madness in those who hear them. The horrific shouts echo in our heads, disturbing the
peace in our hearts the tomb is going to be frightening and threatening we are truly
disturbed that Juliet has to find herself in such a terrifying place. Yet while we are
transported to this dark and sinister place with all of this rich description, we also realise
that Juliets fear is quite irrational at this point: in her over-active imagination fuelled and
gripped by irrational fears, the horrific images of the tomb overwhelm her. We feel a strong
sense of pity and pain for this girl whose mind is so wrought with fear that it has become
quite irrational.

The use of multiple questions that come one after the other which forces us into the
mind of this young girl and help us understand her highly confused and fearful mental
state. She asks, What if the potion be a poison? How if she wakes before the stipulated
time and has to spend time alone in the tomb? She entertains a possible outcome with the
question Shall I not be suffocated in the vault? and yet another possible outcome that if
[she lives] and if [she wakes], will she not be driven crazy by the horrible sights, smells
and sounds in the tomb? The audience asks themselves if all this will really happen. We
are taken on a journey of horrifying possibilities that exist because Juliet is plagued by
fear. We strongly sympathise with Juliet as she has been forced into a corner by her
parents with their decision for her to marry Paris; and the torturous secrecy forced on
Romeo and Juliet by the ancient grudge. This is no situation to be in for a 13-year old.

This scene is also dramatic because of its strong bearing on our impression of Juliet
as devoted and sacrificial wife. Our admiration for her grows stronger at the end of this
scene because Shakespeare portrays Juliet in a very noble and self-sacrificial light at the
end of the scene. She is seen to have made up her mind about taking the potion on the sole
reason that she wants to save Romeo from Tybalt who is seeking out Romeo. With her cry,
Romeo, I come!, we are in awe of her courage to dismiss all of her terrible fears about
the outcome just so she can save her beloved husband.

Prepared by Ms Michele Sim - Sec 4E Core Lit Romeo and Juliet