Romeo And Juliet Queen Mab Speech

One of the most prominent faces of Disney, Cinderella was most famously known for singing ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes’, in which she proclaimed that “the dream that you wish for will come true”. However, when the Disney movie graced the screen in 1950, the film conveniently left out the parts in the original story in which the two sisters, desperate for the Prince’s affections, chopped off the heels of their feet and were later blinded by vindictive pigeons. As was with the sisters in the story of Cinderella, in the classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet, seemingly happy things hide an undercurrent of maliciousness, and dreams are often cruelly broken by reality. William Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s “Queen Mab” speech in Romeo and Juliet to

parallel Friar Lawrence’s plan to unite the town in order to create the larger theme that fantasies of happy endings often are shattered by harsh reality.
The topic of dreams was first introduced in Scene 1, Act 4, when Romeo’s friend Mercutio weaved a tale about how dreams reach the dreamers. Mercutio told of a fairy named Mab, who visits people when they sleep and grants them dreams of the things they most desire. She “gallops night by night through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love; on courtiers’ knees, that dream on cur’sies straight; o’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees” (), and always seems to know the things that they wish for. Although Mab seems like a saint for granting these people their heart’s desires, underneath her seemingly good wishes, “angry Mab” and her actions actually deteriorate the dreamer’s lives (). Described as riding a ghastly conglomeration of a carriage whose “wagon spokes [are] made of long spinners’ legs” and “the cover of the wings of grasshoppers” (), Queen Mab, “in shape no bigger than an agate stone” (), creeps into dreamers’ brains and disperses dreams that “much misfortune bodes” (). Because Mab has granted the dreamers their greatest wishes, her victims are stuck every day in reality, counting down the hours to go back to the dream land. Furthermore, after Romeo had frantically tried to calm Mercutio down from his raving by telling him “thou talk’st of nothing” (), Mercutio agreed, stating that dreams “are the children of an idle brain” (). With this, Mercutio cynically, but also realistically, dismissed dreams as delusions, or “vain fantasy” (). In Mercutio’s speech, he not only addressed that dreams are for the naïve, but also declared that dreams, especially those delivered by Queen Mab, are negative things that will harm the dreamer.
This sentiment that the Queen Mab speech portrays continued through the play, including in the catalyst for the disastrous events that occurred; Friar Lawrence’s dream of a united Verona.

Friar Lawrence, when approached by Romeo, was skeptical about marrying him to Juliet. He pointed out that “Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, so soon [is] foresaken” and that “much salt water [was] thrown away in waste” (). The Friar also risked hate from both the Capulet and Montague families, both of which held much prominence and power in Verona. However, Friar Lawrence did agree to wed the lovers because he believed “this alliance may so happy prove to turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (). However, the Friar’s dreams of happily ever after were torn apart in the worst possible way: Juliet and Romeo both committed suicide. In marrying Romeo and Juliet, the Friar married two star-crossed lovers, which caused “a greater power than we can contradict” to end both Romeo and Juliet’s lives (). Friar Lawrence’s dream, one filled with good intent, lead to the deaths of two teenagers.
Many characters in Shakespeare had dreams. Romeo dreamed of true love, Tybalt dreamed of social power and the Montagues’ demise, and Friar Lawrence dreamed of a peaceful and united Verona. All of those dreams lead to tragedy for the characters. With this, Shakespeare implied that, perhaps, dreams aren’t all as good as fairy tales make them seem to

be.