Act 3, Scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Act 3, Scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Act 3 Scene 5 greatly changes Juliet's character and situation. Show

how the events of the scene change Juliet from the girl who insists:

"It was the nightingale and not the lark," to someone who can calmly

say "If all else fail, myself have power to die."

At the beginning of this scene, we see Juliet as a calm girl very much

in love with Romeo. She cannot bear to see him go as she just wants

to spend all of her time with him and for all to be merry. The

audience can tell that she is sound of mind and believes that all is

right with the world, they can tell this because all of her thoughts

are rational and she can formulate plans and keep to them. This

however contrasts with Juliet at the end of the scene where she seems

rash and appears to have totally ignored what her father has said and

has chosen to go and try and see Romeo anyway. Having her father bring

her down to earth changed her state of mind from the beginning of the

scene to the end.

The way that Romeo and Juliet speak to other is a lot of the time in

similes and metaphors.

"'Tis but a pale reflex on Cynthia's brow;"

This shows the emphasis of their love as they are describing it as

being so wonderful and mighty that nothing literal can quite give

justice to it. Juliet cannot admit to herself that it is daylight and

Romeo must leave:

"Yond light is not daylight, I know it,"

This shows that Juliet is in a world of her own, she cannot and does

not want to face reality as it is too harsh compared to the easy,

care-free moment she is having with Romeo at her window. But Romeo

brings her back to ...

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...et has a brief outburst of emotion:

‘Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!’

The audience would see this as quite unexpected as Juliet has been

calm and in control for the most part of this scene. But this outburst

is her feeling of betrayal from the Nurse as she leaves her to do this

on her own. Juliet has matured during this scene alone because she

has had to face many problems mostly on her own. This give the

audience the final message that Juliet is fixated on her one goal and

absolutely nothing will stop her from achieving it. Juliet has gone

from relying on the Nurse to do everything for her to being her own

individual person. She is now independent and can sort out her own

problems which lead to her going to the apothecary to get the poison.

This of course leads to the final climax and the tragic ending.