Ford 1

Makai Ford
Mrs.Woelke
Pre AP ELA 9
12 December 2019

Juliet's Last Words

William Shakespeare's ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet ​Shakespeare writes a dramatic
story of two star-crossed lovers forbidden to love each other by a family feud. In this scene of the
play, Juliet must drink a potion if she dreams to ever see her true love Romeo on the night before
she arranged marriage by her parents to a boy named Paris. As Juliet is left in her room she rips
himself apart debating whether to drink the potion or not. In this soliloquy by Juliet Shakespear
uses the literary devices of punctuation, repetition, and different forms of imagery to convey
Juliet's inner conflict and state of mind.
Through punctuation, Shakespeare can more clearly express the emotions Juliet is feeling
throughout this scene. After Juliet has confirmed her plan with the friars she returns to her room
and appendicular says, "Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again" (Shakespeare IV. iii.
15). Skakpears uses the exclamation point to emphasize that Juliet is very emotional at this part
of the play. The exclamatory sentence shows Juliet is feeling at ease and in the sentence after
proves the same fact that she is calm and relying on her hope that the potion will work and she
can see her true love again. As Juliet prepares to drink the vial she reluctantly asks," What is this
mixture does not work at all?" (Shakespeare IV. iii. 22). Since this line uses a question mark you
can see Juliet is now becoming more cautious of taking the potion and she is wondering what
will happen to her if the mixture does not work. As Juliet questions the ability of the potion, the
reader can tell that at the beginning of the scene Juliet was peaceful but now she is stressed. The
use of punctuation through this scene does display the change in emotion Juliet is going through.
Just as Shakespeare switches Juliets feeling towards the potion the audience can imply a scene of
the fear building in Juliet.
Repetition is the repeating of an already said or written word. Shakespeare uniquely uses
repetition to show to the audience directly what the characters are feeling. The particular word
Shakespeare repeats in this set of lines is the word fear. As Juliet keeps questioning the strength
of the potion "I [Juliet] Fear[s] it is: and yet, methinks, it should not" (Shaksepare IV. iii. 29". In
the paragraph before Shakespeare only hints at the fact that Juliet is afraid but in this line
Shakspeare makes Juliet admit it to the audience that she is truly afraid. In these lines, Juliet is
scared that the friar is secretly going to poison her because he married her to Romeo before and it
would ruin his reputation if Juliet's family found out he married their daughter to the rival
family's son. Juliet continues to talk to herself she fears she will "Wake before the time that
Romeo come to redeem me? There's a fearful point" (Shakspeare IV. iii. 33). Juliet is scared that
if she wakes up before Romeo is there to get her she will not know what to do and become more
afraid that she might die
Ford 2

and never see her true love again. Since Shakspeare uses the word fear once again the audience
can now clearly tell that Juliet is scared. Through this technique of repetition used by
Shakespeare, the audience can see the emotion Shakespeare is conveying through this literary
device.
Shakespeare uses many from of imagery throughout this scene to present Juliet's inner
conflict. As Juliet describes what will happen if she wakes up early she describes "Of all my
buried ancestors are packed" (Shakespeare IV. iii. 42). Juliet is describing all of her passed
family she would see if woke up early in the vault. This use of visual helps the audience was
traumatizing thing Juliet would see if the potion does not work. Frightened of all the possibilities
the potion provides Juliet is scared she will be so desperate to, "Madly play with my forefather
joints" (Shakespeare IV. iII. 52). This tactile imagery lets the reader's imagination think of Juliet
holding a bone and knowing she might try to break herself out or even worse commit suicide
with it. Imagery shows Juliet's inner conflict because she conflicting with herself to drink the
potion or not and all the possibility of if the potion doesn't work and if she has to wake up early
and suffer the consequences of that.
Through this uses or a variety of literary devices, Juliet is left disputing her options of the
potion that will determine her future. The use of punctuation helps the reader understand Juliet's
inner emotion that other characters in the play may not recognize. The use of Repetition forces
the emotion of the character to the audience to infer what the characters are feeling. As you can
see the literary devices of punctuation, repetition, and imagery help to channel the inner conflicts
and problems Juliet is facing.