This speech is typical of Romeo. It is very romantic and poetic; the poetry is gentle and flowing. It makes the audience feel very romantic and the metaphors and style give the reader a true sense of what Romeo feels for Juliet and how much he loves her. The fact that he uses such heavenly images also shows how much he loves her. The fact that Romeo constantly compared Juliet to light and angels suggests sincerity and consistency, making you more inclined to believe that he really does love Juliet. With Rosaline it was only her beauty that attracted him to her, whereas with Juliet he sees her in more genuine and characteristic terms. He uses soft and gentle language, which hints at his gentle nature as well as the gentleness he sees in.
Juliet’s speech in Act IV Scene III is just after Tybalt’s death. Juliet’s father mistakes her grief for Romeo being banished for that of Tybalt’s death and hurries to find her a suitor. This is obviously exactly what Juliet does not want since she is already married to her true love, Romeo. Juliet visits the priest and begs him to help her. He gives her a poison, which will ‘kill’ her for forty-six hours so that she will not have to marry her suitor, Paris. After this time she will wake up and be able to run away with Romeo. This speech is just before Juliet is about to take the poison. She obviously has mixed feelings about taking it and a lot of rhetorical questions. Among her fears are that the poison may not be successful at all or that if it is successful she will be laid to rest in the Capulet’s tomb amongst the bodies of her ancestors and the recently deceased Tybalt.
She is alone and begins her speech with a decisive, “come vial.” She is determined to take the poison. She then begins to question its reliability to the extent that she points to a dagger beside her and says, “No, no; this shall forbid it.” In other words, if the poison fails then she will kill herself with the dagger. Although Juliet is concerned that the vial will not work, the fact that she puts all of her faith in it shows maturity as well as her unswerving devotion to Romeo. The vial is her only comfort as she slowly begins to lose control.
Her second fear stems from distrust of the friar. She fears that he has actually given her ‘eternal death’ poison in order to hide the fact that he has already married her to Romeo. She is acting calmly and thinking rationally even though she is nervous which further shows her maturity and ability to cope. She then becomes indecisive and this results in her building up a state of tension and anxiety for herself. She says, “I fear it is, and yet, methinks it not.” With every sentence she changes her mind. She consoles herself and still remains hopeful with the thought that the priest has “still been tried a holy man” and therefore would never do such a thing. There is still a trace of optimism as Juliet thinks there is a slim chance the plan will still work. It is however from here onwards that she begins to lose control. She gets no comfort from her thoughts or from physical items and she is obsessed with images of torture. The constant mention of death contrast with Juliet; slight mention of life, where she says “…thrills through my veins” and “heat of life.” She is comparing her future, which should be full of hope, to one of darkness and death. This change of mood builds up a feeling of tension and panic.
Her third fear is possibly the most prolific. It is the fear that she will wake up before Romeo comes to her and that she will be alone in the tomb where her cousin, Tybalt, has just been laid to rest as well as to those “whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in” i.e. the many hundreds of Capulet relatives that occupy the tomb already. She uses cold imagery to depict what she will find in this tomb and the picture she paints is very graphic and somewhat horrific. To describe the bodies she uses words such as “festering” and loathsome smells.” She also creates images with phrases such as “Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth lies festering in his shroud” and “And madly play with my forefathers’ joints”. She uses sounds and smells to make her speech come alive and to demonstrate her fear at having not only to kill herself temporarily but to have to face the harsh reality of waking up surrounded by dead bodies. She personifies her tomb by comparing it to a huge, foul mouth caused by the stench of rotting bodies. She thinks that she will feel strangled on account of these smells. The words “stifled” as well as “strangl’d” add to the feelings of torture and fear.
The reference to Tybalt’s body provides the main terror of the speech. It appears as if most of Juliet’s fear has stemmed from waking up beside his body. It is when she gets to this part of her speech - describing her fear of waking up in the tomb next to Tybalt’s body - that the speech becomes disjointed and the speech ‘picks up’ some speed. It becomes uncontrolled towards the end with all her fears tumbling out, to the point where she appears somewhat hysterical, whereas at the beginning, although panicked, she seemed somewhat in control. The end of her speech shows determination and commitment to love - the fact that she is prepared to suffer in order to be with Romeo.
The first image we get of the speech is a feeling of coldness, which depicts death - something cold, empty. She uses phrases such as, “freezes up” which adds to the fear - that of the reader for Juliet and that of herself. The use of the word “dismal” adds to the feeling of darkness and emptiness. It is used at the beginning of the speech when Juliet realizes that she must carry out this act alone, without the help and advice of her trusted nurse or her mother. This makes the audience feel even more sorry for Juliet: not only does she have to go to such lengths to be with the one she loves but she has no one to turn to and must act alone. Her words also suggest an element of disorder. Phrases such as, “bones are pack’d” give over a feeling of disarray. This is symbolic of Juliet’ current state of mind and gives the audience a feeling that she is in a complete state of disarray, not dissimilar to an image of bines strewn all over the place.
Juliet is worried that she will see the skeletons and ghosts of her deceased family. Again we notice the use of language, which sends out a feeling of terror and ugliness. She also uses the word “Alack,” which is an exclamation of fear and building tension.
Juliet speaks of “...mandrakes shrieks.” Mandrakes were a mythical creature whose cry had the power to kill those who heard it. She is worried that the sounds in the tomb will be as bad as those the mandrakes make, and she will go mad or become demented.
Here, we notice that Juliet makes references to all her senses being assaulted and many images add to this feeling. All Juliet’s senses are referred to in her speech; they will all be affected. Her sound will be affected by the fatal cry of the mandrake “…shrieks like mandrakes,” her touch by what is around her and how she may be forced to feel it. She fears that she will touch “…my forefathers’ joints,” and “…the mangled Tybalt.” Her sense of smell will be affected by the putrid stench of bodies rotting, her sight by the bodies of her dead family around her “…my cousin’s ghost.”, and her taste by the poison she will have to take. This gives the impression that Juliet’s whole body is involved in this traumatic experience.
By the end of the speech, Juliet has totally lost touch with reality and has let her crazed ideas take control of her. She says that she feels she will “ dash out her desperate brains.” This, along with words like “...pluck,” and “mangled...” go to a feeling of violence and a lack of control. Juliet has not even been buried in the tomb, but she is so frantic that she is already hallucinating. She says “..I see my cousin’s ghost.” She thinks that as Romeo killed him, Tybalt is out for revenge and will take it out by killing Juliet. Juliet is so distressed that not even thoughts of Romeo can calm her because she thinks that Tybalt is going to come back from the dead just to kill him.
Juliet exclaims “Romeo Romeo Romeo!” After all this dark language she does see a future for them together and drinks to their love. She hopes that maybe they will be together again and either becomes a little optimistic or drinks in desperation that her dream will come true. Usually when one makes a toast they do it on wine or alcohol of some type, and toast to life. Juliet’s mind has become so twisted because of her desperate situation that she cannot think of life, only death and morbid things.
Both speeches are similar and different in certain ways. Firstly, the themes of both speeches are completely in contrast. Whilst Romeo’s is on the theme of love, light, brightness and celestial beauty, Juliet’s speech is completely morbid and deathly. She is totally obsessed with images of ungainly items and ugliness, while Romeo is obsessed with images of light. Romeo uses the sun, moon and stars to describe Juliet; in fact almost all of the speech is about Juliet, whereas Juliet only briefly mentions Romeo’s name at the end. In Romeo’s speech, his family does not abandon him; he does not give the impression of being lonely, but Juliet is all alone. When she goes to call out to the nurse or even her mother whom she is not at all close to, she stops herself and realises she must do this alone. She even talks to herself or perhaps the vial and dagger, for comfort and reassurance that she is doing the right thing. Both the characters are highly emotional and their speeches reveal the intensity of their feelings. They both personify items in their speeches but the items chosen are different. Romeo gives the sun, moon and stars human qualities and equates them to Juliet (except that he says Juliet is better), but Juliet personifies the tomb where she is about to be laid. Although both of the speeches are motivated by love - Romeo’s in a positive way i.e. his love has enabled him to express his feelings poetically and in an extremely passionate way but Juliet on the other hand has had to go to such extreme measures - killing’ herself on account of her love for Romeo. Whilst Romeo’s speech is beautiful and passionate, Juliet’s is pessimistic, doubtful and dark. Both therefore make the audience feel differently whilst watching them. Juliet’s was very morbid whilst Romeo’s was full of love. They both exaggerate and tend to lose touch with reality, Juliet because she is about to die and Romeo because he has just discovered Juliet. Romeo speaks about giving life in contrast to Juliet who speaks about taking away life. Both of the speeches give off very different atmospheres and feelings. Juliet’s speech made me feel very sympathetic towards her. I was able to put myself in her position because the imagery and she used and the phrases that enabled me to picture the scene. Although she was a bit too hysterical, she is not to blame. Romeo’s speech had the opposite effect. It made me feel very hopeful and happy for the both of them, even though they were from opposing sides and I knew that in the end they died. The speech was purely about Juliet and although I felt it was over exaggerated at times, this can be accounted for by saying that Romeo had such strong feelings for Juliet.