Romeo And Juliet's Soliloquy Analysis

In Act IV, scene III of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is forced to make a decision; take a sleeping potion gifted to her by Friar Laurence and risk possibly being stuck in the Capulet family tomb, or marry Paris. To her, marrying Paris is not an option and so she drinks the vile. Although, before consuming the Friar’s remedy, Juliet expresses her worries in her soliloquy. To do this, Shakespeare manipulates imagery and the rhetorical device of questioning to reveal his main character’s deepest and darkest fears.

Shakespeare’s use of imagery further develops the theme of anxiety when Juliet nervously admits, “I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins/ That almost freezes up the heat of life” (15-16). Juliet fears the worst-

The constant questioning gives the reader a sense of doubt that Juliet is feeling. Some examples are evident in lines such as “What if this mixture do not work at all? / Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?” (21-22). She questions the potion’s effectiveness and authenticity. Soon thereafter, Juliet questions the Friar’s motives for giving her the potion as well as the potion’s purpose. She inquires, “What if it be a poison which the friar/ Subtly hath ministered to have me dead, / Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored/ Because he married me before to Romeo? I fear it is…” (24-28). Juliet wonders if the potion is meant to kill her for the friar’s benefit. Because the friar has already married Romeo and Juliet, it would be against his vows as a holy man to now marry Paris and Juliet- making Juliet a wife to two husbands. By killing Juliet, Friar Laurence wouldn’t have to preform the ceremony. Juliet also fears awakening prematurely to Romeo rescue; Juliet laments “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, / I wake before the time that Romeo/ Come to redeem me?” (30-31). Along with all of those uncertainties, she faces another; will she go mad with all of the rancid odors and petrifying sites? Juliet apprehensively questions “Environed with all these hideous fears, /And madly play with my forefathers’ joints, /And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud, /And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone/ As with a club dash out my desp’rate brains?” (50-54). She wonders if the sights and sounds will make her preform unusual acts such as playing with the bones of her