Examining Juliet's Response in Act 3, Scene 5

Examining Juliet's Response in Act 3, Scene 5

Juliet is very sad, extremely worried, by the time she is with her

parents again. Romeo is going to leave Juliet after spending their

wedding night together. This thought is unbearable for Juliet. Romeo

has to go before day comes because otherwise, he will get caught by

Juliet's kinsman and might be killed. Romeo uses a contrast and very

direct simple language to explain his situation to Juliet 'I must be

gone and live, or stay and die.' The stress and emotional anxiety

caused by this deep situation impacts on Juliet's response to her

parents. She is worried and scared. She is crying when her lady

Capulet comes in.

Lady Capulet comes in and sees Juliet is crying and thinks she is

crying for her loss of cousin, Tyblat. 'Evermore weeping for your

cousin's death?' then Juliet responds 'yet let me weep for such

feeling loss.' Her mother assumes Juliet's loss is Tybalt, because she

does not know she is completely in love with Romeo. This use of

dramatic irony because the audiences know that Juliet's loss means

Romeo but Lady Capulet thinks her loss is Tybalt. Juliet is misleads

her mother by answering her questions in a tricky way. Shakespeare

uses it to shows she is intelligent and artful. She also says to her

mother 'indeed I never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till I behold

him - dead, notice when she speaks this sentence there is a pause

before she says dead. This means she does not want Romeo dead. The

reason that she says that is to mislead her mother. She answers her

mother's question skilfully, and she is playing on words.

When Lady Capulet tells Juliet that they have arranged her marriage

for her with Paris, She refuses to marry him. She says 'I will not

marry yet. And when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I

hate, rather than Paris.' At this point Shakespeare uses another

effective dramatic irony. She does not want to marry Paris because she