“It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away.” The pace of Juliet’s speech quickens at this point as she realizes Romeo, her love, could be in danger. This urgency for Romeo to leave shows the audience the care and love Juliet has for him. This point in the scene makes the audience feel compassionate for their separation as they clearly love each other so intensely.
The next key point in this scene is after the Nurse has warned Romeo and Juliet of Lady Capulet’s proximity. Romeo is about to leave out of the window and is saying his last words to Juliet. He makes a promise to her that he will not forget to keep in touch:
“I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love to thee.”
When Romeo is below Juliet’s window before he leaves, Juliet looks down and sees Romeo’s grave with him in it. This premonition is an example of the Irony in this scene, because death and both Romeo and Juliet come together near the end of the play. Juliet’s premonition also has an effect on what the audience feel about the events that may occur after this scene. It makes the think what could come about of this premonition and why. Is Romeo going to die and if he does is it because of Juliet?
The exit of Romeo brings to another key scene in the play. This is where Lady Capulet enters and brings with her a sudden change in mood and pace of speech. The romance is gone and the mood which Lady Capulet perceives as Juliet’s grief for her cousin Tybalt is really her sadness of Romeo leaving. The audience is shown the miss-conception of Lady Capulet when Juliet plays on words and makes it seem like she wants to kill Romeo as revenge for her cousins death, but I think when she says
“Ay Madam, from the reach of these hands”
she really means that she wants to be with him than to kill him which is what she intends Lady Capulet to understand.
The audience now know what Juliet is feeling, but they also know what Lady Capulet is there to do. She is there to deliver the news of the proposed marriage of her daughter and the County Paris next Thursday morning. They are led to wonder how Juliet will take the news, and what she will decide to do. If she will decline and tell her mother she will not marry, hiding the fact that she is already married to Romeo, or accept and go ahead and marry Paris without any hesitation.
Lady Capulet reveals she has good news
“I’ll tell thee joyful tidings girl.”
She then tells Juliet that her father has arranged for her to marry Paris (lines 112-115) and awaits Juliet’s reaction.
Juliet immediately refuses claiming that if she was to marry,
“It shall be Romeo,” whom she claims to hate, rather than Paris.”
This leaves the audience wondering how Juliet is going to get out of the marriage, if she does at all, and how her father will react. It also makes the audience feel considerate for Juliet and her predicament.
As Lady Capulet hears Juliet’s reaction to the arranged marriage, Lord Capulet is on his way to Juliet’s room. As he arrives he sees Juliet in distress and as Lady Capulet did think that the distress is grief for the recent death of his nephew Tybalt.
“How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?”
His concern for Juliet shows the audience his fatherly side, but as the topic of the arranged marriage with Paris creeps back into conversation the audience see another side to him. He asks Lady Capulet if she has delivered the news and she tells him that she will not marry Paris. He responds in a confused manner:
“Soft, take me with you, take me with you wife?”
Then the fury of the disobedience of his daughter is seen in his speech. The pace begins to quicken, by more punctuation, which leads to more breaking up of his speech. This shows the anger in Lord Capulet’s feelings. Juliet tries to reply with some words of defence but does not make much sense and Lord Capulet just starts to pull her to bits.
“How, how, how, how chopt-logic. What is this?
Out you green-sickness carrion, out you baggage,
You tallow-face!”
The idea of an arranged marriage was accepted as an everyday event in the Elizabethan Times. Nowadays this would have been looked up on as an unreasonable drama, but in the 1500’s it was common for parents, particularly the father, to arrange a husband for their daughter. Modern individuality brings the freedom for women to choose who they marry, but arranged marriages are not totally unheard of.
I have picked out and described the main key moments in this scene and described them in relation to the reaction of the audience. I believe that the first key scene where Romeo and Juliet are in the bed talking to each other is important because it shows the audience the depth of the love they both have for one another. Shakespeare could have just started the scene with the two saying brief words before
Romeo departs, but instead he uses his time to show what is felt between them.
The second key moment is where Lady Capulet enters Juliet’s room and sees that Juliet is in distress. I believe that this is an important moment for the audience because it shows that Juliet has decided to keep her marriage to Romeo a secret and by introducing the play on words with Romeo, revenge and love shows how Juliet deals with this secret.
The last key moment that I have picked out in this scene is where the Lord Capulet shows his disgrace for the disobedience of his daughter. I believe that this shows the character of Lord Capulet. I think it shows how strong Lord Capulet is in the Capulet family and how offended he is when defied. It also shows the difference between opinions of society of arranged marriages in Elizabethan times compared with modern day.