The second part of this soliloquy seems to illustrate that Juliet is still unsure and childish. She is afraid that the darkness of the vault, the sight of dead bodies, and the horrible smell of the corpses will all drive her mad.
“At some hours in the night spirits resort – “
“And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,”
Through these quotes, we can observe her wild imagination and juvenile imagery. The second quote creates a distinctive image of an innocent child playing, yet it seems that Juliet isn’t innocent because she is playing with bones of her ancestors. Perhaps this can be related to the ancient family feud of the Montagues and the Capulets, through the fact that if Juliet breaks the structure of the skeletons, she will break the families’ feud. Another possibility is that Juliet is “playing” with the reputation of the Capulets.
In the third part Juliet imagines Tybalt's ghost crying for revenge on Romeo and this seems to jolt her back to reality. In this reality, Juliet acts quickly and drinks the poison out of pure love for Romeo. In this part it seems that Juliet is back to being a mature, quick thinker.
It’s interesting to observe how with time, both Romeo and Juliet start denying help of others and start depending on themselves. In this soliloquy Juliet first dismisses the Nurse, and then begins doubting the Friar’s intentions, as revealed in this quote.
“What if it be a poison which the Friar
Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,”
Juliet uses temperature metaphors, such as
“I have a faint cold fear” and “freezes up the heat of life”
The first metaphor creates a good description of her fear, which can be also compared to the coldness of the tomb which she is to lie in later. The second metaphor provides a successful comparison of the heated, eventful life that she has been leading to the freezing fear that now threatens her life. The fear seems to be almost personified as something lethal, which is to somehow cut off her existence.
It is ironic that Juliet works herself up to think that she will wake up before Romeo comes to free her, when in reality she will wake up only after Romeo is dead. This is shown when Juliet says:
“How if…
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me?”
We witness more prophetic irony when Juliet says
“The horrible conceit of death and night”
Later, we find out that she actually dies at night.
Juliet personifies the vault, saying that it has a “foul mouth” in which “no healthsome air breathes in”. This is similar to Act V, Scene 3 in which Romeo also compares the vault to a monster and talks about it’s rotten mouth (Thou detestable maw,” and “I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,”).
It is perhaps surprising that Juliet sends away the Nurse, on pretenses that she has to pray, shown in this quote:
“I have need of many orisons”
However, Juliet doesn’t pray, despite of the task at hand. Juliet simply addresses her fears about the potion not working, or the Friar trying to poison her or Romeo not being in the tomb when she wakes up. This can perhaps reveal that Juliet is quite confident in her plan working, because of the fact that she doesn’t pray.
