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Gabriel Octavio

Ms. Woelke

Pre-AP English 9

11 December 2019

Literary Analysis of ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet​, Act IV, Scene 3

William Shakespeare is renowned for his work as a poet and a playwright. He is well

known for ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet​, which is a story that has been the roots of many

romance films and literature since its creation in 1594. The famous play is located in the Italian

city of Verona, where two prestigious families, Montague and Capulet, have clashed in familial

rivalry for generations. Romeo of the Montague family and Juliet of the Capulet family fall in

love, an action which would be rightfully against the moral code of each family. They are

married in secret, but tensions boil as Romeo kills a Capulet servant, Tybalt, and a series of

events leads to Romeo’s banishment by the Prince of Verona and Juliet being forced into a

marriage that she had previously been against. In Act IV, the Friar brings a plan into action in

which Juliet must fake her death the day before the wedding so that she can run away from

Verona with Romeo. Meanwhile, the Friar would discuss Romeo’s pardon with the Prince and

families. The night before Juliet's second wedding, Juliet contemplates the legitimacy of the vial

the Friar, the Friar’s true intentions, and becomes quick to make superstitions and seemingly

impossible scenarios that would happen if the plan had turned wrong. Through Shakespeare’s

use of varieties of vivid imagery and other devices such as the redundancies in self-questioning,

Juliet’s distressed and panic-like state of mind is clearly shown in this scene of ​The Tragedy of

Romeo and Juliet​.

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Juliet begins her soliloquy with mild nervousness as she inspects the vial. Shakespeare's

use of descriptive imagery and the repetition of self-questioning reveals Juliet’s inner struggles.

As she is left to her thoughts in her chamber, she says to herself that she “[has] a faint cold fear

[thrilling] through [her] veins,” comparing its chilling effect as to “almost [freezing] up the heat

of life” (Shakespeare IV.iii.16-17). Juliet holds the burden of uneasiness as she contemplates

whether or not she should drink the potion. The uneasiness, though it is purely mental, reaches

into the physical world as it courses through Juliet’s veins. She feels it freezing her in the

moment as it takes over her comfort. While she has trust in the Friar’s plan, she is equally afraid

of it. Her vivid description of the fear consuming her on the inside shows her inner conflict of

trusting the process and holding back her second thoughts. She doubts herself again, asking

“What if this mixture do not work at all?” worrying that she “be married then to-morrow

morning,” but then proceeds to ensure she doesn’t by laying a dagger by her bed (Shakespeare

IV, iii, 21-24). Juliet builds upon her previous concerns as she begins to doubt the potency of the

vial. She realizes that, if the potion should not work, she will be hence married to Paris and be

forever broken away from Romeo. Shakespeare’s use of self-questioning shows Juliet’s concern

for the future. It is a chance Juliet is not willing to take, so she hides away the dagger to make

sure that, if she cannot be with Romeo, then no one can be with her. She ultimately fears for the

future of Romeo and their relationship, as their entire future relies on that of a liquid in a glass

vial. Shakespeare’s use of literary devices such as self-questioning and illustrating Juliet’s inner

feelings with colorful imagery depicts Juliet’s conflicting thoughts as she contemplates her future

in this scene.
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Panic and angst become the tones of the second part of Juliet’s speech to herself as she

questions the potion and the friar themselves, illustrated by vivid visual and raw olfactory

imagery. As she holds the potion Juliet asks “if it be a poison, which the friar subtly hath

minister’d to have [her] dead,” but she contradicts herself, assuring that “he should be

dishonour’d,/Because he married [her] before to Romeo” (Shakespeare IV.iii.25-28). Juliet

begins to question not the potions effectiveness, but it’s creator’s intentions. She, to a certain

extent, questions what is truly in the plan for the friar to gain. It would be logical to propose such

a question, as the friar gains nothing but the risk of being discovered to be the person that had

married Romeo and Juliet. After all, if he had been discovered, he would most likely lose his

legitimacy as a member of the church. Juliet makes another reasonable observation, proposing

that, “when [she is] laid into the tomb, [she wakes] before the time that Romeo come to redeem

[her],” further stating that she’d “be stifled in the vault,/To whose foul mouth no healthsome air

breathes in,” concluding that she would die from asphyxiation before Romeo came to rescue her

(Shakespeare IV, iii, 31-36). Juliet worries again of the potions efficiency as she draws another

observation similar to one she had made in the first section of her soliloquy. Describing the

interior of the tomb as foul and unhealthy characterizes it in a dry and deadly fashion, similar to

the death and decay in the family grave. Shakespeare’s use of olfactory imagery brings insight

the magnitude of Juliet’s concern. Ultimately, these literary devices Shakespeare uses further

illustrate Juliet’s inner conflict.

Juliet succumbs to paranoia and borderline hysteria in the final section of her soliloquy as

her previously rational observations turn into audacious conspiracies. Shakespeare’s use of

various forms of literary devices and imagery heighten in parallel with Juliet’s hysteria as she
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describes her nightmarish scenarios in lucidity. Amidst her panic, she notes that, should she

awaken in the tomb, she’ll see “Where bloody Tybalt… lies festering in his shroud,” and take in

the “loathsome smells, And shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth, That living mortals,

hearing them, run mad” (Shakespeare IV, iii, 43-49). At the height of her anxiety, Juliet fully

believes that she will not only find Tybalt’s rotting corpse in the Capulet tomb, but she will be

driven mad from the spirits that were disturbed in her presence. Her vivid description of Tybalt’s

decaying corpse and the deafening shrieks of the spirits clearly depict Juliet’s hysteria as she is

losing her sense of rationale and drowning in her own thoughts. She builds upon her conspiracy,

saying that, should she turn mad, she’d “pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,” and in her

frenzy “with some kinsman’s bone… dash out [her] desperate brains” (Shakespeare III.iii.53-55).

Juliet has peaked in her paranoia as she both accepts and builds upon her conspiracy with no

reasoning involved. Her thought of simply plucking the limbs off of Tybalt’s rotting body leaves

a vivid image stained onto the audience’s minds. The grotesque monologue Juliet gives is a

bridge to her panic-like state of mind as her rationality and inner thoughts mix together in this

final section as she descends into hysteria. Shakespeare’s usage of descriptive visual and

auditory imagery clearly reveals Juliet’s increasing desperation and fear.

The third scene of Act IV in ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet​ is an inner struggle of

Juliet attempting to rationalize the situation she has before her. She is at first reasonably afraid of

what events would occur if the friar’s plan to bring Romeo to Juliet had failed, but she eventually

succumbs to paranoia and hysteria as her inner thoughts overtake her rationale. Through

Shakespeare’s descriptive imagery and other literary devices, audiences are quick to understand

Juliet’s conflicting and panicked state of mind.

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