Another soliloquy is uttered by Juliet at the end of the balcony scene. Here she laments the freedom of speech she doesn’t have in her own house, as Lord Capulet and Lord Montague are bitter enemies. She says that if she had freedom of speech she would chant his name so often that Echo’s voice would become ‘more hoarse than mine with repetition of My Romeo.’ This emphasizes her love for Romeo.
In Act 2, Scene 5, Juliet utters another soliloquy as she waits for the Nurse to return after meeting Romeo. The Nurse ‘in half an hour she promised to return’ hadn’t returned even after ‘three long hours’ Juliet says that love’s messengers should travel fast. Examples of Venus’ chariot being drawn by swift-winged doves, and Cupid having wings that enable him to fly very fast. This soliloquy shows the poetical temperament of Juliet. It reveals to the audience a little more about Juliet’s character and marks a step forward in the action of the play.
Juliet reveals her impatience in the soliloquy as she stays up waiting for her wedding night at the Capulet residence. She commands the horses of the sun god Phoebus to ‘gallop apace’ and she wants them to leave ‘and bring in a cloudy night immediately.’ She invokes the night that would bring Romeo into her arms. ‘Come night! Come Romeo!’ She feels like ‘the night before some festival, to an impatient child that hath new robes and may not wear them.’ She says ‘I am sold; not yet enjoyed’
The dramatic irony of this soliloquy is intense as the audiences are aware of Romeo’s fate. They know that the person she is waiting for has been banished from Verona.
The next soliloquy that Juliet utters is after her father has rebuked her and her mother and Nurse too have spoken to her unsympathetically. She curses the Nurse to eternal damnation for asking her to marry Paris. Juliet vows to never trust the nurse again as she has betrayed her. She decides that she go ‘to the friar to know his remedy’.
This soliloquy makes Juliet an independent girl as she vows to never take the Nurse into confidence again. Though she doesn’t speak defiantly to her parents or Nurse, we observe that she has formed her own resolves and has matured enough to make her own decisions.
Juliet, in her final soliloquy, conveys her apprehensions and fears before consuming the sleep-inducing potion concocted by the Friar. It first occurs to her that the potion may not work at all and hence lays a dagger beside her. Her second fear was whether the potion was actually a poison that the Friar had given her ‘lest in this marriage, he should be dishonored because he married’ her to Romeo a few days ago. She feels that she would experience unimaginable terrors and horrors and imagines Tybalt’s ghost ‘seeking out’ for revenge. This ultimate terror drives her to quickly drink the potion. This soliloquy is regarded as a magnificent piece of moving poetry. It shows Juliet’s maturity. She is ready to drink the potion, without knowing its consequences.
All these soliloquies are significant as they reveal to the audience the love and desperation in Juliet based on the events that happened between her and Romeo. These soliloquies play an important role in revealing the character of Juliet and development of the plot.