In Act 3 Scene 2 Juliet sends the nurse off to arrange the marriage. Romeo agrees and Friar Laurence marries them the same day. Later that same day in Act 3 Scene 1 Tybalt murders Romeo’s best friend- Mercutio and as a result of this Romeo murders Juliet’s cousin- Tybolt. After Romeo murders Tybolt he says “I am fortunes fool”. So Juliet’s husband- Romeo is banished. So soon after her marriage, she is thrust into turmoil by the death of Tybolt. Banishment of course adds an extra twist to the play and both Romeo and Juliet are distraught after it. The nurse, who is with Juliet, as she waits for Romeo explains the death of Tybolt in such a way as to make Juliet think it is Romeo who has been killed. When the nurse claims that Romeo killed Tybalt Juliet turns against him “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face”. However she realises that Romeo was only defending himself. Juliet loved Tybalt and it causes her a real test. It questions her love for Romeo because she went into the marriage so fast- “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?”. This see-saw of emotions makes us feel sympathy for Juliet as she now anticipated a final meeting with Romeo.
In Act 3 Scene 4, Shakespeare presents the Nurse a very loving but not able to think through the consequences of her actions, a character, who only thinks of the here and now. The nurse values Juliet’s happiness but she only understands it in terms of immediate satisfaction of Juliet’s love- “Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo to comfort you”. The advice that the Nurse gives Juliet turns out to be worse for her.
So from Act 1 Scene 3 to Act 2 Scene 2 which is only a few hours Juliet has gone from innocent to in love, sensible and grown-up. Then from Act 2 Scene 2 to Act 3 Scene 3 she has gone from just meeting Romeo and falling in love to getting married then her husband is banished. The events move quickly and we see Juliet overcome by her feelings and unsure what do to. It seems as though fate does have an influence on her and this increases the audience’s sympathy. The speed of events are building up more and more problems for Juliet. She has had to face so many different emotions in such a short space of time. She was so unaware of the world at the beginning and in just two days everything has changed. So when Act 3 Scene 5 opens the audience already feel sympathy for her.
There is tension at the beginning of Act 3 Scene 5 because there is dramatic irony because we know that Capulet has planned the marriage. So the audience can see how happy Juliet is with Romeo but they know it will be ruined- it’s fate. The audience a fairly sure Capulet will go through with making Juliet marry Paris for his benefit too because it was common in the times of Shakespeare for children (mainly of the rich and often girls) to be married to a person chosen by the parents. This was to gain money, power or/and to improve relations with other families, countries or regions and Paris we know is an eligible bachelor.
The same night as Juliet makes love to Romeo, her father organises her wedding to Paris- “So worthy a gentlemen to be her bride”.
At the opening as dawn ends Romeo and Juliet's one night of married happiness. Shakespeare shows us that Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love and must part. This is shown in the language. Romeo is getting ready to leave and Juliet says, "Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear". The song of the lark, herald of the morning, has awakened Romeo and filled him with fear of being caught in Verona, but Juliet tries to reassure him that he has heard only the nightingale that sings every night on a nearby pomegranate tree. Romeo knows better. He says it was the lark, and adds, "Look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east". The word-picture he paints is beautiful, but ominous. Streaks of sunlight are filtering through the slowly parting clouds in the east, but those streaks are "envious" because they announce the end of the happiness that the lovers have had in the night. Juliet replies “Yon light is not day-light, I know it” she really does not want them to part so she tries to persuade Romeo that it is still night but this does not work.
The Friar had previously instructed Romeo to leave by dawn so as to avoid being spotted. The lovers do not want to believe the time has come and attempt to deny that fact- “Therefore stay yet; thou need’s not to be gone” says Juliet. She also pretends that it is still night so that he could say- “It is not yet near day”. When Juliet realizes her husband will die if he doesn't go she has to keep his feet on the ground- “I have more sense to stay than will to go” says Romeo. He is saying he would prefer to stay. Only it is not sensible to stay because Romeo will be killed because he has been banished so Juliet urges him to go- “Hie hence, be gone, away!” The audience sympathise immensely with this because they are unable to see each other.
Romeo escapes down the rope ladder and says that they will be together again. Juliet fears that it will be only in death. She begins to weep.
After Romeo leaves you feel sorry for Juliet because she may never see him again. Also Juliet is stuck because she has secured the marriage with Romeo and it looks lie like there is no possible way for it to work out because Romeo has been banished.
It won’t work out because there isn’t a way out now: it is fate. At the beginning it may have seemed that there was a way out of fate but now there is not.
Her mother enters. Lady Capulet believes her daughter is still weeping for the death of Tybalt and proposes a plan to have Romeo poisoned. Juliet tries to answer as she should without giving away her true feelings. The audience feels real sympathy for Juliet at this point because she is isolated and has to hide her feelings. She says that her heart will be dead until she sees Romeo- “I shall never be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold him-dead-is my poor heart” but her mother takes her statement to mean she wishes to see Romeo dead. Lady Capulet then tries to cheer her up by telling her of the planned marriage with Paris.
Lady Capulet seems to be quite cruel because she won’t listen to Juliet “I will not marry yet” says Juliet and all her mother says is “here comes your father, tell him so yourself”. Despite the triviality of this Shakespeare seems to understand how a young woman might feel being married to someone she does not know or like. Juliet gets very upset and refuses to marry. The audience is feeling sympathy for Juliet but also expect her to confess as last to get rid of Paris. There is a combination of excitement and fear that mix together well and get the audience on the edge of their seats. We may feel extra sympathy in this scene because there is dramatic irony because we as the audience know that Juliet is married to Romeo but Lady Capulet doesn’t she hates Romeo for murdering Tybalt.
The audience can see the plan as Capulet begins the same way as Lady Capulet. He changes the atmosphere by jumping into business-“How now wife have you deliver’d to her our decree?”. Then when he hears that Juliet turned down the proposal- “she will have none” Capulet is furious. We feel sympathy with Juliet because the cruel way he speaks to her “Doth she not give us thanks?”, “Out on her, hiding!”, “we have a curse in having her”, because Juliet is fighting a battle on her own against her parents the nurse isn’t supporting her she will be feeling very much alone in this but she doesn’t give up, because Capulet mocks Juliet and her words she uses- “you, thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds” (this must make Juliet feel stupid) and worthless and because the audience can see that she is desperate because she begs him to listen to her “I beseech you on my knees, hear me with patience” and her mother “O sweet my mother, cast me not away!” but neither of them will have any of it -“talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word”. This rouses the sympathy of the audience because they know that deep down inside Juliet’s head she is trying to hide her emotions and feelings in front of her father, which in fact she does very well.
Just as the audience feel the utmost sympathy for Juliet and that things couldn’t get much worse they realise that at a time when Juliet needs the nurse the most to comfort her (“Some comfort, Nurse”) as she has know one else who understands her,the Nurse has put her in an impossible situation and didn’t think of the consequences of her help so all the comfort the nurse can give is to forget Romeo now that he is banished and to marry Paris- “Romeo is banished” “I think it best you married with the County”. Juliet of course cannot believe that the Nurse has told her to forget about Romeo after the Nurse got Romeo to sleep with her a secure the marriage. Shakespeare shows the audience it’s now hopeless for Juliet. The Nurse is a Capulet servant and must support their wishes. She believes that everything will be fine if Juliet simply follows her parents' directive. So when Juliet pretends to agree (though she feels betrayed)-“thou hast comforted me marvellous much” and tells her to inform her parents that she has gone to Friar Lawrence's cell for confession-“tell my lady I am gone. Having displeas’d my father, to Laurence’ cell. To make confession” Shakespeare makes the audience feel like Juliet is completely alone at such a young age. The audience are soon sure that Juliet was pretending to agree when they hear what Juliet says about the nurse after the Nurse leaves-“O most wicked fiend”.
We as the audience sympathise for Juliet because of her predicament, she has no one left; her mother and father want nothing to do with her and the nurse has betrayed her. She has nowhere to go. The only person she has left now is her husband- Romeo but he is banished or he will die; and because of the way she has been treated. Everything has happened so fast in such a short space of time everything has changed. Juliet has little choices left and she is running out of time to make them.
