Romeo And Juliet Act 2 Soliloquy Analysis

In lines 14-27 of Act IV, Scene 3 Juliet is talking aloud to herself. In this scene, Juliet is on her knees weeping about never seeing Romeo again, and having to marry Paris. The meaning behind line fourteen is that Juliet believes that only God knows when she will see the nurse and her mother again. As the scene goes on, she wants to call the nurse back to comfort her. She believes that the nurse will do nothing and that she should act alone in her desperate situation. She wants the mixture of the poison to work so that she will not have to marry Paris the next day. She believes that this mixture will stop the marriage. The poison is supposed to make Juliet “dead like” for forty-two hours. Juliet is comforted by the fact that if the mixture does not work, she has the knife to kill herself. Lines 24-27 tell the reader that Juliet is afraid that the potion may kill her.

Her thoughts express how she feels about the friar and how she feels about drinking the mixture. Juliet is talking to herself about what could happen-good or bad-if she drinks the mixture. By keeping these thoughts to herself, one could assume that death is about to occur for many characters. The characters will believe that Juliet is dead since no one knows that she is only lifeless for forty-two hours. Earlier in the play, the chorus even says, “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life…” The message that Juliet is dead will get back to Romeo and he will kill himself. Juliet will then kill herself because she does not want to live without Romeo. When Juliet says, “I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins” (4.3 15), Shakespeare is using imagery. This imagery provides the reader with feeling and sight of how Juliet was painfully feeling. These poetic devices develop sincerity to the meaning of this part of the