The soliloquies are unarguably the only time we see Juliet speak her true mind fully. When she is with others she is usually honest, but doesn’t give much detail. Through this undisclosed honesty, we are able to see not just Juliet’s point of view, but also who she actually is; what she thinks, desires and is learning as the play goes on. Juliet’s opinions, hopes and dreams change as the play goes on, and so we can see different aspects of what she is like at different stages of the play. Also, we can see how she feels about events and people after certain things happen. Like when Romeo kills Tybalt, we then see that Juliet does not resent Romeo, and that in fact she still loves him, if not more now than ever; “O, I have bought the mansion of a love”. Together, the honesty and clarity help us to bond with Juliet. As with now in modern times we can bond with characters on television, we can grow with Juliet’s character development. The concept of her telling us what is on her mind at the time of the soliloquy is almost like a diary. Each soliloquy helps us to put together the pieces of the puzzle, until the end of the play where we can finally build up the complete view of Juliet, and use past circumstance to see if Juliet learns from her mistakes and amplifies her maturity.
An important job that the soliloquies take on is to build one of the dominating comparisons; light and dark. Juliet’s first soliloquy shows the perspective of light. Juliet makes several references to the sun; “Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams”, and “Now the sun is upon the highmost hill”. These mean that her happiness is as bright as the sun, and that love is so powerful that a message of love will travel faster than the speed of light; now that she is at the peak of existence. However, in her second soliloquy, she discards the sun, and welcomes the moon in the darkness night; “…and pay no worship to the garish sun”. The differences between light and dark create tension in Juliet’s mind, and affect the choices she must make about Romeo and her family (whether to go with her heart and choose Romeo or to be loyal to her family and marry Paris).
Between each soliloquy, it is clear that Juliet changes in personality and judgment. It is her growing up, and the soliloquies are an excellent way to portray this. In the first soliloquy, Juliet is very dependent on the nurse. She is desperately awaiting her return; “the clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; in half an hour she promis’d to return.” In the second soliloquy, Juliet is less dependent but still wants the nurse to help her. She wants to lose her virginity, which shows that she is mature or at least wants to be; “And learn me how to lose a winning mach”. By the third soliloquy, she is completely sovereign; “Nurse!-What should she do here? My dismal scene I needs must act alone”. She thinks about calling the nurse to help her drink the potion to make her look dead, but then decides that she must do it alone, so that no one will find out. This may have been because she had trust issues with the nurse, and did not believe that the nurse could keep the secret, or even if she could until Juliet woke up, she probably would have told someone after Romeo and Juliet had left Verona. She doesn’t think twice about the nurse, and therefore is totally changed from the first soliloquy where she could not do anything without her, to the last; where she did everything without her. However, there is an aspect of Juliet’s character in the third soliloquy that does suggest she has not changed that much. She is still desperate to be wit Romeo, the only difference is that before she was light and happy in love, but now she is in the dark, and has to betray her family to be with him. So again the light and dark scenario comes into the play.
The three soliloquies are positioned carefully throughout the play at relative stage to let the audience digest what has been said or what has happened. The soliloquies are like intervals to reflect on what has happened, and as they are all performed by Juliet, it ties the three stages of the play together to compare and appreciate. The overall plot can then be seen and remembered. The audiences considers what happened in the begging of the play, and now sees the ending, and answers questions from all over the story line and can therefore be satisfied with the conclusion. Shakespeare must have chosen Juliet to tie the play together because she was at the centre of it. It was her choice to pretend to die and her in the middle of Romeo and her family. She had the perspective of everyone and consequently acted as a second hand narrator. She is not quite a narrator because she is not aware of the audience, but still performs the same job; filling in the details so that the viewers can fully understand what is going on, and try to realise how the characters feel about previous events.
In conclusion, my essay has answered what the significance of Juliet’s three soliloquies is. Without them, the audience would not have as much detail or time to reflect. They would not know how Juliet really feels, or what she is thinking. Juliet herself would not have time to think, and therefore may have stayed true to her family’s wishes and married Paris. The play would feel rushed, and we would have no implication that Juliet had changed or grown up at all. But, with the soliloquies, the play is complete and the audience is pleased with the performance.
