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-

being stuck it the tomb with no one to hear her scream but the ghosts of her deceased ancestors. When debating the decision of taking the potion and imagining the possible consequences of her decision, fear sends thrills down her spine. The use of words like fear, cold and thrills helps the reader comprehend Juliet’s feelings of distress as well as envision a young girl trembling with fear of the unknown. The contrast of cold fear and heat of life provides the reader with a clearer representation of how uneasy she is feeling. In a similar fashion, the poet describes the scene as dismal; “My dismal scene I needs must act alone” (29). The word dismal means depressing and dreary-the way Juliet feels. Juliet sees the decision as a dead end; she has no choice but to take the vile. Therefore, she sees the possible uncertainties of the potion as unavoidable. When she realizes this, she becomes fearful and dismal. Likewise, the poet describes Juliet’s doubts further in depth with rich vocabulary in lines such as “There’s a fearful point! / Shall I not then be stifled in a vault/To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,” (32-34). Words like vault, stifled, fearful, and foul explain how horrid Juliet thinks it will be if she wakes up before Romeo is able to arrive at the Capulet family tomb and how trapped she would feel. Stifled and vault gives the reader a feeling of being caught in an undesired place. Foul gives the readers a feeling that the vault nasty place. She even describes the family tomb as a “… horrible conceit of death and night, / Together with the terror of the place” (37-38) and “… Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, / lies fest’ring in his shroud, where, as they say, / At some hours in the night spirits resort…” (42-43). Death and night, both have negative connotations. This generates disconsolate feelings. Not only is she afraid of the daunting sights and smells, but also of the spirits that are believed to lurk in the tomb at night. Vocabulary like bloody, fest’ring and green give the reader of picture of a rotting corpse with putrid smells emerging off of it. Juliet also fears that she will go insane with the sound of ghosts’ screaming invading her ears. She describes dreaded sounds as “…shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,” (47). Shakespeare’s use of a word like shrieks enables the reader to imagine the horrifying screams. Shakespeare compares mandrakes to the ghosts because the plant is said to make a scream like sound when pulled from the ground. This provides the reader with a vivid image of a soul being ripped from the ground while making screeching sounds.
Shakespeare’s uses the literary element of questioning to further develops this theme of “…hideous fears…” (50).

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

ancestors.
Shakespeare uses various literary elements such as imagery and the rhetorical device of questioning to further develop his poems and their controlling ideas. Because of this imagery and questioning, readers understand the fear has consumed Juliet’s mind, whether it’s the fear of the sounds, sights, sprits or not waking up at all. But, in the end, Juliet’s love for Romeo and desire to be with him overpowers all the fears and uncertainty she faces and she consumes the friar’s potion. This is real love.