‘It was the Nightingale and not the lark’ which is saying that the bird that is singing is the Nightingale, which sings at night, and not the Lark which sings during the day. Then the nurse enters telling Juliet her mother in coming, Romeo starts rushing around trying to get out, he doesn’t want to be caught by the Capulets, he would immediately be taken to the prince, who would have him executed, as he should have left Verona already. There is some foreshadowing that occurs as Romeo is leaving, Juliet says
‘Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb’. This is saying as I see you so far down the balcony it looks like you’re at the bottom of a tomb.
Lady Capulet enters the room and she sees Juliet crying, she thinks that she is crying for the murder of Tybalt, but the audience know that she is crying for Romeo being banished and just leaving as Juliet thinks it would be a long time till they next meet.
Lady Capulet then says she is going to try and have Romeo assassinated, by poisoning him, she will send an assassin to Mantua (where Romeo is living), and have him murdered, she asks if she can have the poison before it is given to Romeo, she wants to ‘temper’ it, she wants to make the potion so that Romeo would go to sleep, and make it seem as if he was dead. Shakespeare uses many clever double meanings, only the audience would understand these, one of double meanings is when Juliet says
‘Indeed I shall never be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold him-dead-is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex’d.’ Which could have different meanings if you put a comma on either side of dead has a different meaning.
When Juliet learns of her proposed marriage to Paris, she is uncertain of what to do, but her reaction is not what her mother expected, she feels trapped; there is nobody who can help her. Though her parents think they are making it better for Juliet, they think that the marriage would get her mind off Tybalt’s murder.
Shakespeare shows her panic and desperation by her saying bursting out things that she shouldn’t be like ‘I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear, it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate.’ Juliet asks her mother to tell her father, she may be worried that he would throw her out of the house if she told him. Lady Capulet is surprised about her decision not to marry Paris, in that time children were the property of their fathers until they were married, so she is owned by her father.
Lord Capulet’s reaction when he first sees his daughter is sympathetic, he thinks she is still crying over Tybalt. He doesn’t know if Lady Capulet has told her she is marrying Paris, he tries to cheer her up; Juliet may expect this support because before Lord Capulet asked Juliet if she wanted to marry Paris, he also asked Juliet if she ever could or did love Paris.
Lady Capulet makes a very ironic remark, ‘I would the fool were married to her grave.’ which as the audience already know is going to happen.
Capulet’s attitude becomes more violent when he learns Juliet won’t marry Paris, he shouts his words at Juliet and becomes violent in the language he is using. This is much different from the happier Lord Capulet that we saw at the start of the play. Juliet and the audience are shocked at this behaviour from Lord Capulet, in the earlier scenes he looked to be a nice person but his attitude greatly changes during this phase. Juliet must be scared of her father.
He gives Juliet an ultimatum, if she doesn’t marry Paris he will kick her out of the house, take away all her possessions etc, I think he reacts this way because he doesn’t want to look untrustworthy to the prince (as Paris is his nephew) and he doesn’t want to pull out of a deal he has made with Paris.
Juliet tries to persuade her mother by saying ‘Is there no pity in the clouds, that sees into the bottom of my grief?’ and then she asks her mother to delay the marriage, ‘Delay this marriage, for a month, a week’ and then says
‘Or if you do not, make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies.’ and this is another piece of foreshadowing that happens, after Lady leaves Juliet turns to the nurse for advice, from the way that Shakespeare has already presented the nurse most people may think that she would help Juliet, I think the nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris because her job could be in jeopardy if she didn’t, the Capulet’s might find out about the marriage of Juliet and Romeo and they would realise the nurse was involved, Juliet doesn’t react well to this advice she speaks in another two meaning way by saying ‘Well. Thou hast comforted me marvellous much.’
This can be said sarcastically or normally, Juliet delivers a soliloquy at the end of the phase, she curses the nurse, and says that she will no longer confide in her, the nurse has always been Juliet’s confidant, and she says that she will ask for the friars advice, and if that doesn’t work she would ‘myself have the power to die.’
Shakespeare makes Juliet go through many different emotions through the whole scene, at the start of the scene she is happy, then after Romeo leaves she starts crying, then she calms down a bit when her mother enters the room but becomes angry, she thought her father would only let Juliet decide who to marry, then after her father leaves she pleads with her mother to help her, but after Lady Capulet leaves and she talks to the nurse she becomes surprised with what the nurse says. Shakespeare strips away Juliet’s support by firstly Romeo being banished and having to leave, then her mother tells her that Lord Capulet has arranged for her to marry Paris, but when Juliet reacts negatively to this she doesn’t think she should help Juliet saying things like ‘Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.’ Then when her father enters he gets very angry, shouting at Juliet and cursing her.
Then when Juliet asks the nurse for her advice she tells Juliet to marry Paris, Juliet has nobody else to turn to, except the friar.
Juliet’s feelings change dramatically during the course of this scene at the start she was happy, just having consummated her marriage, then as the scene progresses her happiness deteriorates.
Irony and Foreshowing are used throughout the scene, mostly saying things about Juliet and Romeo dead in tombs together etc.
