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Emily Sam

Ms. Woelke

Pre-AP English 9

10 December 2019

Juliet’s Soliloquy

Shakespeare’s ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet ​highlights the tragedy of two lovers

from opposing sides of a feud, who are desperate to reunite. In this scene, Juliet is informed

about Romeo’s banishment and prepares to go through with Friar Lawrence’s plan, which

includes drinking a potion that will put her in a death-like coma for 48 hours. The supposed

outcome of the plan would be for the two lovers to meet and to run away to Mantua together.

Juliet rationalizes with herself and expresses her concerns regarding the potion in her soliloquy,

which is significant because it shows Juliet’s logic, builds suspense, and reveals her second

thoughts.

After dismissing her nurse and mother, Juliet introduces her uncertainty with the friar’s

potion. Juliet is skeptical and poses the question: “What if this mixture do not work at all?”

(Shakespeare 4.3.22). Even though she is desperate to be with Romeo, Juliet is fearful that the

plan might not work. She worries that the plan will backfire and she will be forced to marry

Paris. Juliet also reveals her solution to if the potion does not work, “shall I be married then

to-morrow morning?/No, no; this shall forbid it: lie thou there” (Shakespeare 4.3.23-24). She

then proceeds to hide a dagger under her mattress. She concludes that if she can’t be with

Romeo, her last resort would be to die. Although she wants to go through with the plan, she is
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hesitant as to if it will go the way she and the friar had hoped, and tries to find rationality in her

actions.

In lines 25-36, Juliet goes into further detail of her concerns with the friar’s true

intentions. For a moment she is weary and wonders if the potion is real poison, “which the friar/

Subtly hath minister’d to have me dead,/Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d,/Because

he married me before to Romeo?” (Shakespeare 4.3.25-28). She is uneasy and questions whether

or not the friar is deceiving her and wants her gone to salvage his reputation. After more thought,

Juliet is quick to disregard her accusations since the friar is a holy man and has done nothing but

help her so far. She proceeds to profess more of her worries,”How if, when I am laid into the

tomb,/I wake before the time that Romeo/Come to redeem me? there’s a fearful point!/Shall I

not, then, be stifled in the vault,/To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,/And there

die strangled ere my Romeo comes?”(Shakespeare 4.3.31-36). Shakespeare uses visual and

olfactory imagery to help readers fully perceive Juliet’s dismay. Juliet is paranoid that she won’t

wake up on time for Romeo or that he won’t be there in time, and that the stench of the vault will

be too much for her to handle. Anxiously anticipating that things won’t go according to plan,

Juliet finds herself overthinking everything.

Lastly, Shakespeare utilizes visual and olfactory imagery to convey how distraught Juliet

has become, as she lets herself dwell over the problems that she might face if the plan does not

carry out as desired. Juliet brings up the vault multiple times, and each time, she briefly states the

fear it causes her to be locked up where “buried ancestors are packed:/Where bloody Tybalt, yet

but green in earth,/Lies festering in his shroud”(Shakespeare 4.3.41-44). Readers can identify the

visual imagery and visualize a vault full of corpses, which can also help them to perceive the
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heaviness and terror that one in said situation would feel. It is an undesired circumstance that

Juliet is afraid to find herself in. Readers can also indicate that Juliet is not in the right state of

mind when she claims to have seen her “cousin’s ghost/Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his

body/Upon a rapier’s point: stay, Tybalt, stay!”(Shakespeare 4.3.56-58). At this point, Juliet has

let her fears fester into something of irrationality. Readers can see that Juliet is at her breaking

point; as she believes to have seen her cousin’s ghost and actually talks to him. The imagery can

also help readers visualize the fight between Romeo and Tybalt, ending in complete chaos. Due

to Shakespeare’s use of imagery and exclamatory sentences, it is clear that Juliet is overruled by

angst and lets her ongoing thoughts alter her logic.

In conclusion, Shakespeare uses various literary devices to help readers better interpret

Juliet’s mindset and actions throughout the course of the play. Imagery is used in the play to

make something so impractical as “Juliet’s love for Romeo” seem so familiar, which lets readers

further understand the tone and feelings associated with Juliet’s concern. The multiple

exclamatory sentences help provide a sense of aliveness, where Juliet's feelings can be easier to

decipher. Her thoughts and reasoning help to sculpt the entire ending of the play, and with the

help of Shakespeare’s strategies, we are able to comprehend them. Readers are left with suspense

as Juliet stops hesitating and abruptly drinks the potion.