The Importance of Act 3 scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Importance of Act 3 scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

This extract is important t the play as a whole because this is the

scene in which we see Romeo has to leave for Mantua as morning breaks,

but as can be expected Juliet doesn't want Romeo leave, we hear

birdsong and Juliet claims that "it was the nightingale and not the

lark" which shows that Juliet wants to spend longer with Romeo and she

tells him that it was a bird of the night and not one of the day, she

is uneasy at the fact of not seeing Romeo again scares her so she goes

on to claim that "Yond light is not daylight … It is some meteor that

the sun exhales" Again here she try's to persuade Romeo to stay a

while longer.

It is in this extract we see the biggest change of a character, and

that change is in Juliet she matures, and for the first time she goes

against her mother as when her mother tells her "Marry my child, early

next Thursday morn" this is when she goes against her mother by saying

"Now by St. Peters church and St. Peter too, he shall not make me

there a joyful bride" in this quote she is swearing by the church not

to marry County Paris.

We know that in the past Juliet has always been respectful towards her

mother because at the start of the scene she addresses her mother as

"madam" showing courtesy towards her mother. Juliet's parents may have

put down Juliet's sudden mood change down to Tybalts death; we know

that they think like this because at the start of the scene Lady

Capulet says to Juliet "evermore weeping for your cousins death?" Here

Shakespeare uses dramatic irony because we, the audience know that

Juliet is upset for Romeo having to leave, but her parents do not.

Lord and Lady Capulet at this point be also upset for the death of

Tybalt but Shakespeare does not show this as he focus's on Lord and