Sunday, May 17, 2015

What does Juliet plan to do if Friar Lawrence refuses to help her? What does Juliet's language in the scene reveal about her state of mind?

In Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1, Juliet and Friar Lawrence devise a plan to fake Juliet's death in order to save her from having to marry Paris and forever be separated from her one true love, Romeo. Her first words to Friar Lawrence after Paris is gone have to do with violence - specifically suicide. This prompts Friar Lawrence to devise the plan to fake her death by taking a sleeping drought,...

In Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1, Juliet and Friar Lawrence devise a plan to fake Juliet's death in order to save her from having to marry Paris and forever be separated from her one true love, Romeo. Her first words to Friar Lawrence after Paris is gone have to do with violence - specifically suicide. This prompts Friar Lawrence to devise the plan to fake her death by taking a sleeping drought, "bury" her in the tomb, and then free her with Romeo. From there, Romeo and Juliet can flee to Mantua, far away from the bitter rivalry between their families. The plan would in theory leave no one the wiser, but there are clearly a lot of things that could go wrong. The biggest "what if" hinges on Romeo being informed of the plan, which of course is where it falls apart and leads to the lovers' double suicide. 
As far as Juliet's language goes in the scene, she uses very violent terms (which is pretty obvious since she is talking about killing herself) and she reveals that her state of mind has become quite desperate by this point. In her second long speech before the plan is hatched, beginning around line 77, she uses allusions to mythology to link her love story to those of old. The first method of death she refers to is "O bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,/From off the battlements of any tower," (4.1.77-78), which is a reference to Hero's reaction when hearing of her lover's, Leander's, death. The next section refers to being buried alive, which leads to Friar Lawrence's plan. The nature of Juliet's speech relates both her desperation and also her equating of her own love story to the great stories of the past. 

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