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Romeo and Juliet Act 4, Scene 4
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Transcript
An analysis of Scene 4 in Act 4 and Scenes 1-2 in Act 5
Romeo and Juliet Act 4, Scene 4 & Act 5, Scenes 1-2
"Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field."
She's Dead
- Scene 4 begins with Lady Capulet and Nurse trying to wake up Juliet. It is the morning of her wedding day.
- Lord Capulet and the servants are preparing the house for the ceremony.
- Nurse returns to wake up Juliet, but she won't get up. Nurse alerts the family that Juliet is dead.
- Lord and Lady Capulet enter Juliet's room and break down at the sight of their dead daughter.
"She's not well married that lives married long, but she's best married that dies married young."
Turning a Wedding to a Funeral
- Friar Laurence and Count Paris arrive to find Juliet is dead.
- Friar Laurence is a little surprised because this was supposed to take place the next day, but he knows Juliet isn't actually dead.
- While the family is mourning, Friar Laurence tries to redirect their focus to a funeral for Juliet. Per his plan, he needs to get her body to the catacombs.
- Lord Capulet agrees that the celebration he planned could be switched to a funeral to honor his daughter.
- "The heavens do lour upon you for some ill. Move them no more by crossing their high will."
"If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, my dreams presage some joyful news at hand."
Act 5, Scene 1
- Act 5 kicks off with Romeo in Mantua, waiting for word from Friar Laurence. He has just awoken from a dream where Juliet found him dead and breathed life back into him with a kiss.
- Anxious for his letter, Romeo asks his servant Balthasar if he's heard anything about from the Friar.
- "How doth my lady Juliet? That I ask again, for nothing can be ill if she be well."
- Balthasar has just arrived to Mantua from Verona and lets Romeo know that he saw Juliet's body being lowered into the catacombs.
- "Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars."
- Romeo is emotionally destroyed. He sends Balthasar away and sets out to find an apothecary who can sell him poison so that he can meet Juliet in the afterlife.
"There is they gold, worse poison to men's souls, doing more murder in this loathsome world than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell."
Gold and Poison
- Romeo recalls a run-down building where an apothecary lives and decides to find the man and buy the poison.
- The apothecary at first refuses to sell the poison because it's against the law.
- Romeo notices that the man is living in filth and he is emaciated. He's starving to death.
- "The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law. The world affords no law to make thee rich; then be no poor, but break it and take this."
- The apothecary agrees to sell the poison out of necessity, not will.
- "I sell thee poison; thou has sold me none."
"Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?"
The letter to Mantua
- Scene 2 starts with Friar John returning to Verona. A friend of Friar Laurence, he was tasked with getting the letter to Romeo detailing the plan.
- Friar Laurence asks him for the response letter from Romeo, but Friar John explains that he was never able to get the letter to Romeo.
- Mantua has recently had an outbreak of the Black Plague, and the city is under quarantine. Friar John was never able to enter the area where Romeo is staying to give him the letter.
- Friar Laurence realizes how serious this is, and decides to rush to the catacombs to get Juliet, who is about to wake up in three hours.
Discussion Questions
Why does Friar Laurence scold the parents for Juliet's death when he knows the truth about what has happened to her?
What does the speed with which Romeo makes his decision to buy the poison tell you about his character?
What do you think Friar Laurence fears with Juliet waking up in the catacombs alone?
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