Although Romeo wants to stay longer he knows that if he does he will get executed, he hesitates, “ I must be gone and live or stay and die.”
Romeo says that if he were to stay he would die and that would break Juliet’s heart. Juliet suddenly becomes fearful and worried, she hesitates and light tears run down her face. Romeo shows a worried expression but he knows that he can only comfort Juliet for the sake of their breaking marriage and their heartbreaking love. He hugs Juliet and sighs.
The nurse quietly creeps outside on the balcony to tell Juliet that her mother is coming, with a withering glare she says, “Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.” The Nurse creeps away and Romeo kisses Juliet goodbye and climbs down the rope into the garden. Juliet tells Romeo that she shall surely miss him.
“ I must hear from thee everyday in the hour, for in a minute there are many days.”
She talks of how slowly time will pass by without him.
She suddenly has a premonition; she looks down on Romeo from the balcony and says in words, which anticipate the scenes in the tomb at the end of the play: “O God, I have an ill divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”
Juliet has a picture in her imagination that she sees Romeo lying dead in a tomb. This is dramatic irony.
When Romeo has gone Juliet is sobbing which shows how upset she is and her strong feelings for Romeo.
Lady Capulet comes into Juliet’s room to see Juliet on her bed weeping noisily.
Lady Capulet thinks that she is crying because of the death of Tybalt. Lady Capulet connives and tells her that she will have revenge on Romeo saying that she will have Romeo dead. “ I will send him an unaccustom’d dram that he shall soon keep Tybalt company.”
Juliet discovers that her mother is selfish and she is furious at the thought of hearing her mother saying these awful things about the man she loves. Her mother changes the subject and tells Juliet that her Father has arranged Juliet to marry the County Paris in a few days. Juliet immediately refuses and makes her mother angry. Before Juliet was married to Romeo she was like a little child and very immature who would never dare to go against her parents, but now she is defying them. This shows the audience that Juliet has become independent and stronger and what most saddens the audience is that she is fighting all on her own.
She shouts and screams, “ I pray you, tell my lord and father I will not marry yet.”
She says that she will not marry ‘yet’. By this she is saying that she needs more time to think about it BUT actually she is planning to solve the problem that she has got her self into by marrying Romeo. Juliet’s mother is not happy and does not support Juliet’s decision. Her Mother is shocked and says,“ Here comes your father, tell him yourself.” This shows an amount of hatred that her mother has and how horrible and cruel she is. Her mother goes out of the room and comes back in with Juliet’s father who is an immense amount of anger, what makes the audience feel more sympathetic towards Juliet is when her Mother says to Juliet’s father, “I would the fool were married to her grave.” She is saying that she is ashamed of Juliet and that she’d rather see Juliet dead. Lady Capulet will regret this later in the play, as what she has just said is dramatic irony and will surely come true. This is so cold and it shocks the audience who are asking themselves of how can a Mother say that to her own daughter? On the other hand Juliet has an unsupportive and greedy father who is in an immense amount of anger, “ Doth she not give us thanks?” He says that what he has done is a good thing for Juliet and he is not pleased at the way she has reacted, he thought that he should be thanked for the great deed. This is more like greed to the audience.
Juliet begs to her father on her knees crying and dragging his clothes, but he is very close to hitting her. This will be very dramatic on the audience as it shows Juliet’s desperation not to get married. He pushes her out of the way. This shows that her father is a control freak and he too is selfish. “ I tell thee what, get thee to church o’ Thursday, or never after look me in the face.” He forces Juliet to get married whether she likes it or not or she may never return. He calls her nasty things like, ‘baggage’ and ‘tallow face’.
Men in the medieval days were the boss of their families and were unsupportive and too strict on their daughters but only to protect them. Lady Capulet doesn’t even defend her daughter, maybe because she cannot go against her husband.
The Nurse defends Juliet. “You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so!” She blames Juliet’s father for the refusal of Juliet not wanting to get married to Paris.
But Capulet does not like what he is hearing and tells the Nurse to ‘hold her tongue.’
Lord Capulet says that he shall kick Juliet onto the streets if she does not get married.
“ An you be not, hang, starve, die in the streets.” He leaves in an angry mood.
Juliet, who is in huge tears and isolation, turns to her mother for help but her mother withdraws and refuses to speak.
“Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.” Lady Capulet leaves not caring about Juliet’s feelings. Juliet goes mad and asks the Nurse what to do, but the nurse betrays Juliet.
“I think you are happy in this second match.” Juliet is stunned by this and withdraws from the nurse. She cannot believe what she is hearing. Juliet realises that her whole family have deceived her. She tries to act tough. This saddens the audience because Juliet has no one left to help her. “ Go in and tell my lady I am gone.” Juliet agrees to marry Paris but she is fooling the Nurse and seeks the Friar Lawrence for help. This is very clever. The nurse leaves and with her heart broken, Juliet says she is ready to die.
“ If all else fail, myself have power to die.”
This is where the scene ends, with Juliet acting strong and the audience saddened by what they have seen.
Conclusion
This scene is the main scene where Romeo and Juliet’s fate lie. The language used has been very clear and dramatic as it is supposed to be. I think the body language has been very well produced as body language always explains what the character’s true feelings are. When Juliet was begging to her father it showed how much commitment and how much love and loyalty she had for Romeo. It also showed two selfish parents’ and a nurse who had always supported Juliet but turned into a bitter and deceptive person. This is where the real tragedy leads to and I think the whole reason why Shakespeare has chosen to show this is to emphasise that bad decisions can lead to tragic and frightening consequences as it did with Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare wrote an immense amount of plays but whatever their theme may be they all have one thing in common. This is the message that he tries to put across to people. He has such a brilliant imagination, that his plays still captivate our attention. At the beginning of year 10, I went to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to see Romeo and Juliet and to be honest I could not have been so interested and fascinated about such a scene as it made me jump! It was a great experience for me to see that play as it really help me in this essay. I think that Shakespeare tried to say that there is nothing good or important about family hatred and that parents’ should be more loving and supportive to their children, just as Juliet was isolated and the whole world turned against her and Romeo because of their exhilarating love for each other.
