Though Act 3 Scene 4 is very short it plays an important part in the play. It is important because it holds the play together. Things were very different before act 3 scene 4; everything was playful and relaxed, until Tybalt kills Mercutio causing things to speed up. The play starts to turn serious and hasty decisions are made. In this
scene Capulet agrees with Paris that Juliet is to marry him on the coming Thursday. Capulet’s thinking is very different from the beginning of the play, before he wanted
Romeo and Juliet
Explore the ways in which Act 3 scene 5
Prepares the audience for the tragic ending of the play
what was best for Juliet, he did not want her to turn out like her mother, who married at a young age and lost her childhood, because she had to grow up quickly, and is now bitter.
“And too soon marr’d are those so early made. Earth hath swallow’d all my hopes but she; She’s the hopeful lady of my earth.”
The quotation from act 1 scene 2 shows how strongly Capulet loves his daughter. He doesn’t want Juliet to marry at her age so she won’t become like her mother, he wants her to live first, enjoy life. Even though Paris is persistent he stands his ground and shows that he has faith in his daughter’s choice of husband. None of this is reflected in act 3 scene 4. Instead of the calm and collected Capulet, he is rushed and makes decisions without really thinking. In the beginning of the play Capulet wants the best for Juliet, but seems to have changed his mind and talks like he is selling property not his own flesh and blood. The way he talks indicates he doesn’t want Paris to change his mind about marrying Juliet because of all the trouble happening involving their family. He talks quickly, asks questions and answers them himself as if he’s afraid of the answers:
“…I think she will be rul’d.
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,
Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love…”
“Monday, ha,ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,
A’Thursday let it be – A’Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
Well keep on great ado – a friend or two…”
From Capulet’s behavior, it is known that he is a man with too much power, he shows it in the way he controls his wife and daughter. Capulet is a man who has values that can easily be forgotten when faced with the possibility of more money and power, which is what he’ll get if Paris marries Juliet. Verona’s society is made up of power and money, without it you are no one. Shakespeare makes it very clear the way act 3 scene 4 is written that everything is being arranged in haste. He shows that when people act in haste they make mistakes. There are lots of punctuation marks and ritorical questions by Capulet and he does all the talking, only letting Paris in with a few sentences.
Romeo and Juliet
Explore the ways in which Act 3 scene 5
Prepares the audience for the tragic ending of the play
In Romeo and Juliet’s parting after consummating their marriage, Shakespeare maintains the pressure of time pushing events by hinting with words. The words like “hour” and “days” are used to show how fast time is moving and how they don’t have time to do anything; to enjoy each other like most newly married couples.
someone could walk into Juliet’s bedroom and find Romeo there, which could end his life.
“I must hear from thee every day in the hour
For in a minute there are many days.”
The short lines show Romeo and Juliet are in a hurry. In lines 1-64 there are lots of images of death that affect the mood of the play. One of the strongest image of death is that of Romeo seen by Juliet. This is also one of the strongest ways in which act 3 scene 5 prepares the audience for the tragic ending 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.
Either my eyesight fails or thou look’st pale.”
In this scene there are two meanings; one is the future. Juliet is giving an insight to what is to happen to Romeo. The other meaning is based on facts , she sees him “so low” because Romeo has climbed down from the balcony into the orchard and he is pale because it is very early in the morning. All the images of death put together changes the mood of the whole play
In the middle of Act 3 Scene 5, Juliet’s responses to her mother are ambiguous. When she talks about “weeping for such a feeling loss”, her mother thinks she’s talking about her cousin Tybalt, while she means her own loss of Romeo. In Act 3 Scene 5 line 93 Juliet talks about her never being satisfied until she kills Romeo with poison and holds Romeo dead in her arms. That is what her mother thinks she says, what Juliet really means is that she’ll never rest until she holds him in her arms, she adds the killing him with poison and seeing him dead for her mother’s sake. Unknowingly Juliet is predicting her and Romeo’s future for the end of the play, And the image of death reinforce the sense of doom.
“Indeed I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him -dead-
Is my poor heart, so for a kinsman vex’d.
Madam, if you could find but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it,
That Romeo should upon receipt thereof
Soon sleep in quiet.”
Romeo and Juliet
Explore the ways in which Act 3 scene 5
Prepares the audience for the tragic ending of the play
In act 3 scene 5 lines 126-195 Capulet has entered the room after Juliet has told her mother she refuses to marry Paris. When he came he was sympathetic to Juliet but it quickly changed to anger when he found out she refused. The way he bullies and threatens her about throwing her out and beating her reveals that in Verona’s patriarchal society the women depend on the men for surviving, giving them total control over their lives. If I were the director I would tell the actors playing this scene to show their character status in the play. Juliet could be on the floor begging the father, the mother standing behind Capulet, and the Nurse behind the wife but in the background while Capulet stands in between the mother and Juliet proud and taller than all of them to show he runs them and the house. The two women are behind Capulet to show they’ll agree with everything he says and won’t dare disobey him. Juliet is on the floor to show that she is considered lower than all of them because she is a child. Capulet’s rage can be seen clearly in lines 126-195. He shows it when he refers to Juliet in the third person, insults her, repeats himself, speaks with broken rhythm, uses lists, and speaks with alliteration.
“How how, how how, chopt-logic? What is this?
‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ‘I thank you’, mistress minion you?
“… Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!…
…Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!
My fingers itch…”
As you can see he speaks with short sentences and there are lots of punctuation marks, this emphasizes that he is talking fast, which means he’s angry. Capulet’s behavior pushes Juliet into taking drastic action. This is the tragic flaw through out the play that leads to the tragedy. She thinks she can’t talk to him about what’s happening because of all the threats he made. She feels trapped about the marriage and makes hasty decisions. The rushed pace and hasty decisions prepare the audience for the tragic ending.
Throughout the scene Juliet is abandoned by the people closest to her so that, with Romeo gone, she is left alone. She is abandoned by her father when he puts money and power before her. Before he cared for her feelings and wanted what was best for her, but he now seems blinded by greed. Her mother abandons her when her father is cursing her and she says nothing and when Juliet asks for support she refuses to talk to her.
“Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.”
Romeo and Juliet
Explore the ways in which Act 3 scene 5
Prepares the audience for the tragic ending of the play
Juliet’s mother has put her own well-being first instead of her daughter’s, she has made it clear she wants no part of what she thinks is her daughter’s foolishness, she doesn’t want to get in trouble with Capulet. Juliet and her mother do not have a relationship, it’s been said the Nurse was the one to breast feed her and look after her, she is more like a mom, yet she still abandons her. She does this when she puts Romeo down and changes her mind about him and advises Juliet to marry Paris:
“…I think it best you married with the County.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman!
Romeo’s a dishclout to him…”
This scene leads to the tragic ending. Shakespeare shows that by putting hints in the scene, the vision Juliet had is one, and when she unknowingly predicts Romeo’s future is another. Act 3 scene 5 prepares the audience for that ending because of the hints, haste, and pace. I would say the final image of death is Juliet’s threat at the end of the scene to commit suicide if she has no option. It hides nothing and goes straight to the truth about what’s going to happen. In Shakespeare’s plays there is always a tragic flaw in a character, the tragic flaw in some of the characters are greed, big egos, and the most important that the play talks about is fate.
