From The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Act IV, Scene 3
Literary Focus: Soliloquy
A soliloquy (suh LIHL uh kwee) is a long speech by a character alone
on the stage. In this speech the character tells about his or her
thoughts and feelings out loud. The soliloquy gives the audience a
chance to hear what the character is thinking. Modern plays seldom
use soliloquies, but you can find some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful
poetry, as well as some of his most famous lines, in his soliloquies.
Reading Skill: Making Inferences
Reading well takes lots of brain power. This is because writers don’t
state directly everything you need to understand the text. You have
to figure out the meaning by making inferences, or educated guesses,
based on information in the text and on your own experiences.
Into the Play
Shakespeare wrote his plays more than 400 years ago, yet they are
still popular today. In fact, almost thirty movies released between
2000 and 2002 list William Shakespeare as the writer. What is the
secret of Shakespeare’s timeless appeal? First, the plays deal with
powerful human emotions such as love, revenge, loyalty, and
betrayal. Second, the plays’ action can be set almost anywhere.
Modern New York City, 1930s Italy, ancient Japan—all these have
been used as settings for Shakespeare’s works. Pretend you are a
director. Where and when would you set Romeo and Juliet?
178
HOLT ADAPTED READER
Copyright
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FROM
Act IV, Scene 3
William Shakespeare
Copyright
© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
THE TRAGEDY
OF
ROMEO
AND
JULIET, ACT IV, SCENE 3
179
Act IV, Scene 3
YOU NEED TO KNOW
Juliet pretends to obey her
father and says that she will now marry Paris. Actually, she
plans to drink a potion given to her by Friar Laurence the
night before the wedding. The potion will make her appear
VOCABULARY
dead. Then she will be taken to the family tomb, where
I think I recognize the word attire
in line 1. I read a wedding invitation
once that said “formal attire.” I
think in this line attires means
“clothes or dresses.”
Romeo will meet her when she awakes. Her nurse, unaware
of this plan, is helping Juliet prepare for her wedding to Paris
in the morning.
Scene 3. Juliet’s chamber.
Enter
and
NURSE.
Juliet.
MAKING INFERENCES
I wonder what sins Juliet has
committed. I guess she considers
marrying Romeo without her
family’s permission a sin of
disobedience. And now she is
supposed to marry a second
man, which is a sin. It’s also illegal.
Today she could end up in jail!
JULIET
Ay, those attires are best; but, gentle nurse,
I pray thee leave me to myself tonight;
For I have need of many orisons1
To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
Which, well thou knowest, is cross and full of sin.
5
[Enter
LADY CAPULET.]
Lady Capulet.
What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
Juliet.
MAKING INFERENCES
Juliet has another reason
than the one she gives in
lines 11–12 for asking that the
nurse, who usually sleeps in
her room, stay with her mother
this night. What is it? (If you
don’t know, re-read You Need
to Know at the top of
the page.)
No, madam; we have culled2 such necessaries
As are behoveful3 for our state4 tomorrow.
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the nurse this night sit up with you;
10
For I am sure you have your hands full all
In this so sudden business.
Lady Capulet.
Good night.
Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
[Exeunt
1.
2.
3.
4.
180
HOLT ADAPTED READER
LADY CAPULET
and
NURSE.]
orisons: prayers.
culled: picked out.
behoveful: suitable.
state: ceremonies.
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Juliet.
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
15
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I’ll call them back again to comfort me.
Nurse!—What should she do here?
MAKING INFERENCES
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
What is Juliet talking about in
line 23? You’ll find the answer
in the stage direction below the
line. Write what she means in
your own words on the lines
below.
Come, vial.5
20
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No, no! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
[Lays down a dagger.]
IN OTHER WORDS
Tomorrow is the wedding. Juliet
asks her mother and nurse to leave her alone for the evening,
so she can pray. Alone, Juliet faces her fears. What if the potion
doesn’t work? Will she have to marry Paris in the morning?
No—she has a dagger ready and would stab herself first.
What if it be a poison which the friar
SOLILOQUY
Subtly hath ministered6 to have me dead,
25
In this soliloquy Juliet
expresses two main fears about
the potion she is going to take.
The first one is that it won’t
work. Circle the words in
lines 24–29 that describe the
second fear.
Lest7 in this marriage he should be dishonored
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is; and yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried8 a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
30
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled9 in the vault,
SOLILOQUY
Lines 30—35 show Juliet’s fear of
what she’s about to do. There
are so many things that could go
wrong! I can identify with her—I
would be terrified to wake up by
myself in a tomb.
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
35
Or, if I live, is it not very like
The horrible conceit10 of death and night,
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Copyright
vial: small bottle that holds liquid.
ministered: provided.
Lest: for fear that.
still been tried: always been proved.
stifled: suffocated.
conceit: idea.
© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
THE TRAGEDY
OF
ROMEO
AND
JULIET, ACT IV, SCENE 3
181
Together with the terror of the place—
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle11
Where for this many hundred years the bones
40
Of all my buried ancestors are packed;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,12
Lies fest’ring13 in his shroud; where, as they say,
SOLILOQUY
In lines 36–57 Juliet jumps
from thought to thought
without resolving any of them.
What does this suggest about
her state of mind?
At some hours in the night spirits resort—
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
45
So early waking—what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes14 torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad—
I, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environèd15 with all these hideous fears,
50
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?
VOCABULARY
O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
55
The word spit can mean either
“eject saliva from one’s mouth”
or “spear.” Which meaning is
correct in line 56?
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s16 point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee.
[She falls upon her bed within the curtains.]
IN OTHER WORDS
Juliet’s fears continue. What if
Friar Laurence has given her poison so that no one will
MAKING INFERENCES
This scene is so sad. I know Juliet
doesn’t die now and that she dies
at the end of the play in a tomb.
So maybe her fears about the
poison are misplaced, but she
certainly has good reasons to be
afraid!
discover he married her to Romeo in secret? What if she
suffocates in the tomb before Romeo arrives? Or, what if she
awakens next to Tybalt’s corpse and her ancestors’ bones and
the terror drives her insane? What if her cousin’s ghost wants
revenge on Romeo? At last, she drinks the potion and falls
unconscious.
11.
12.
13.
14.
receptacle: container.
green in earth: newly buried.
fest’ring: decaying.
mandrakes: plants resembling the human body that were said to scream when
pulled up.
15. Environèd: surrounded.
16. rapier’s: sword’s.
182
HOLT ADAPTED READER
Copyright
© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 3
Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a long speech by a character alone on the stage.
In this speech the character expresses his or her thoughts out loud.
This allows the audience a chance to hear what that character
is thinking and feeling.
Each of Juliet’s questions in the soliloquy builds in emotion,
showing that her terror is growing. Read the passages listed on the left
in the chart below. Remember to consult the footnotes for unfamiliar
words. In the middle column, write a brief summary of each passage in
your own words. In the right-hand column, comment briefly on Juliet’s
state of mind. The first one has been done for you.
Passage
1. “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?” (lines 24–27)
Summary
Juliet’s State of Mind
What if Friar Laurence
has given me poison in
order to save his own
reputation?
Juliet is becoming worried.
2. “How if, when I am laid into
the tomb, / I wake before the
time that Romeo / Come to
redeem me? There’s a fearful
point!” (lines 30–32)
3. “O, look! Methinks I see my
cousin’s ghost / Seeking out
Romeo, that did spit his
body / Upon a rapier’s point.
Stay, Tybalt, stay!”
(lines 55–57)
Copyright
© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
THE TRAGEDY
OF
ROMEO
AND
JULIET, ACT IV, SCENE 3
183
Page 159
Connecting with the Text
Page 170
Dramatic Irony
Sample response: The sound of the alliteration makes
the phrase fun to say. The combination “sweet sorrow”
is surprising but realistically reflects how some kinds of
sorrow feel.
The reader knows that Juliet is already married to
Romeo.
Page 160
Graphic Organizer: Figures of Speech
Sample answer: Yes, sir, but though she thanks you, she
won’t do it. She is such a fool; I wish she were dead!
Sample answers:
1. Answer provided.
2. The beginning of their love is young and new, but
with time it will grow into a beautiful relationship.
3. Juliet’s ability to give has no boundaries, and her
love is as deep as the sea. The more she gives to
Romeo, the more she will have.
4. Romeo says that he is as sad to go away from Juliet
as it is for a schoolboy to go toward school.
Page 161
Vocabulary Development: Developing Vocabulary
Sample answers:
1. Jeannette has a perverse reaction that makes her
want to do the opposite of what anyone asks.
2. Everyone asked his plans, but Andre kept his own
counsel.
3. The philanthropist was known for his bounty to
local charities.
Page 171
Paraphrasing
Page 172
Vocabulary
Underline “a sled that transports criminals to be
executed.”
Paraphrasing
Sample answer: Dear father, I’m begging you to give me
a chance to talk.
Dramatic Irony
It shows dramatic irony because Juliet will soon be
dead and unable to look her father in the face.
Page 173
Vocabulary
Gravity means here “matter of importance.”
Page 174
Vocabulary
Page 165
Paraphrasing
Sample response: Go—the sun is rising. The more time
that passes, the worse our problems become.
Page 166
Paraphrasing
Sample response: Write to me often, for every minute
away from you seems like days. So it will seem like
years until I see you again.
Page 167
Dramatic Irony
We know that Juliet is weeping over Romeo’s
banishment.
Page 168
Vocabulary
Want means here “lack.”
Third Course
Monument means here “tomb.”
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act
III, Scene 5 Page 162
Paraphrasing
Sample answer: Don’t talk to me because I won’t
answer. Do whatever you want, I don’t care.
Page 175
Dramatic Irony
It is ironic because Romeo will soon be dead.
Page 176
Vocabulary
Circle “wicked” or “damnation.”
Page 177
Graphic Organizer: Paraphrasing
Sample answers:
1. Are you still crying over your cousin? Are you trying
to wash him out of his grave with tears?
2. Oh, how I hate to hear Romeo’s name mentioned
without being able to be with him.
3. Answer provided.
4. Oh, misery, that heaven should try to trick such a
weak person as me.
Dramatic Irony
Juliet is really talking about Romeo.
Page 169
Dramatic Irony
Juliet really means that she won’t be satisfied till she
sees Romeo. The word dead goes with the next line to
mean that her heart is dead toward her cousin.
Copyright
© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act
IV, Scene 3 Page 178
Page 180
Making Inferences
Juliet wants to be alone so she can drink the potion
Friar Laurence gave her.
ANSWER KEY
11
Page 181
Making Inferences
Romeo and Juliet in Bosnia
Page 184
Juliet means she will kill herself with the dagger if the
potion does not work.
Page 186
Making Connections
Soliloquy
Sample answer: Another similarity is that both pairs of
lovers have relatives opposed to their relationship.
Circle “What if it be poison.”
Page 182
Soliloquy
Possible response: Juliet is frightened and is getting
more and more upset and hysterical.
Vocabulary
Spit means here “spear.”
Page 183
Graphic Organizer: Soliloquy
Sample answers:
1. Answers provided.
2. Summary: What if I wake up in the tomb before
Romeo comes to get me? Juliet’s State of Mind:
Juliet is becoming scared.
3. Summary: Look! I think I see Tybalt’s ghost coming
after Romeo who killed him. Stop, Tybalt! Juliet’s
State of Mind: Juliet is becoming hysterical.
12 HOLT ADAPTED READER
Making Connections
The writer says that the basis of the conflict in this
story is the cause of all wars—ethnic or religious
reasons.
Page 187
Graphic Organizer: Making Connections
Sample answers:
1. Answer provided.
2. Connecting work: West Side Story Event: Two lovers
die in a gang fight.
3. Connecting work: “Lives in the Crossfire” Event:
People’s lives are disrupted by the conflict between
the Catholics and the Protestants in Northern
Ireland.
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© by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.