Universidad de Playa Ancha

English Pedagogy Program

Literatures from English Speaking Cultures

Professor: Andrés Ferrada Aguilar

Group Members: Valeria Escudero
Valeska Jélvez

Literatures in English assignment.

No fear Shakespeare:
Romeo and Juliet
 Introduction

In the following written report, will be analized the speech of Juliet’s monologue in “No
fear Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet” act 3, scene 2, disclosing important aspects such as
main theme, feelings, important words and literary resources used by the autor and the role
they play in the plot.

Monologue:

Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
When I, thy three hours' wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring.
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
But oh, it presses to my memory,
Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners' minds.
“Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.”
 Questions

1.- What is the main theme or issue that is discussed in this speech?

Juliet, who at first curses Romeo then realizes that she can not criticize her husband because
If he hadn't killed Tybalt, then Tybalt would have killed him. Forced to choose between the
cousin she has loved all her life and her new husband, she chooses Romeo.

2.- What is the most important word in the speech? Why?

The most important word in the speech is “guilty”

“Wherefore weep I then?

Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
But oh, it presses to my memory,
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds.
“Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished.”

Apart from that she says it literally in the text above; the word "guilty", or in another of its
forms: "Guiltiness/ culpability" is the most important in the text because despite the different
emotions that Juliet feels in the soliloquy, the guilt is the one that predominates most, when
she finds herself involved in the situation where her beloved kills her cousin (a relative who
she owes her loyalty) she still loves Romeo and feels happy that he is alive.

3) How would you describe Juliet's feelings? What are the lines that best illustrate these
feelings?

Juliet feels several emotions in this situation, in the first instance she curses romeo trying to
be loyal to her family we can see it when she said: “But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill
my cousin?” Therefore, Julieta feels anger at the same time, but then realizes that who did
wrong from the beginning was her cousin (who wanted to kill romeo) for which feels kind
of happy and conflicted because her love for Romeo clashes with her love and sense of duty
to Tybalt, her cousin. Juliet expresses her conflicting emotions for Romeo. We can see it in
the lines when she says: "Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical." and “That villain cousin
would have killed my husband”.

4) Provide examples of the following resources and explain their function:

punning, image, metaphor, hyperbole (see Routledge Dictionary) and inversion.