Act 3 scene 5 is a key scene in Romeo and Juliet as it is the scene in which the audience feel most involved. Her emotions have an effect on the audience. The audience is an important part in this scene because they know about the secret of their marriage and there parents don’t, Lord and Lady Capulet & Lord and Lady Montague. In act three scene five Juliet’s emotions change dramatically from ecstatically happy to expressively sad. At the start of the scene Juliet’s emotions are confused because she is sad that Romeo has to leave but she is happy to be with him, to be married, she is happy but secretly sad.
The audience can sense she is worried as he will be leaving soon. She tries to convince him to stay. She is also disappointed because the time they have together has finished only too soon. The audience empathise with her as they feel connected to them as they share the secret of their marriage. In this scene Romeo and Juliet’s sentences rhyme this shows their closeness. Juliet opens the scene with a question, ‘wilt thou be gone? ’ This shows in depth her distress and frustration. Shakespeare uses a question to emphasise this. He also creates the extended metaphor of a ‘lark’ to show Juliet’s desperation.
The lark is a bird that is historically known as the bird sounds in the morning, a bird that has a beautiful song. However Shakespeare uses it as an alarm. That it has come to split them apart. Towards the end of the scene Juliet feels despondent because Romeo has to leave Shakespeare continues to use the ‘lark’ but represent something negative. Juliet remarks how it ‘sings so out of tune. ’ She feels dejected because she feels as if nature is against the both of them deliberately trying to separate them. Shakespeare uses nature and in particular daylight to show the irony of this scene.
It’s like the daylight has brought darkness upon them. Lady Capulet enters Juliet’s chamber just as Romeo leaves. Juliet is weeping at Romeo’s departure. However Lady Capulet jumps to the conclusion that Juliet is weeping over the death of her cousin, Tybalt. This begins a conversation in which Lady Capulet speaks of Tybalt but Juliet’s replies, unknown to her mother, are about Romeo. Juliet uses irony to show her true feelings, Shakespeare disguises this very cleverly. Lady Capulet asks, ‘Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
What wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? ’ These are only rhetorical questions because lady Capulet then goes on to voice her opinions. She says that even if Juliet’s tears could wash Tybalt out of his grave, she couldn’t bring him back to life. Therefore Juliet should stop crying. Juliet, thinking of Romeo who has just left, replies, ‘Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss”. Juliet is crying because she is feeling the loss of Romeo, but Lady Capulet again tells her that weeping will only make her ‘feel the loss, but not the friend which you weep for’.
This is true for both Tybalt and Romeo, and Juliet answers that she can’t help herself. Lady Capulet is more revengeful than sorrowful, and she assumes that her daughter feels the same way. Of course Juliet doesn’t and says to herself, ‘Villain and he be many miles asunder’. In this part of the scene the audience are confused but are sympathetic toward Juliet as she is to, she is letting out some of her anger about Romeo leaving. Juliet cunningly talking about Romeo makes the audience anxious because of what the consequences may be if she is founded out.
Then Lady Capulet, says, “But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl”. Her news is that Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, has arranged for her to be married to Paris, and Lady Capulet is confident that it will make Juliet happy. Lady Capulet is quite sure Juliet will like the surprise, but when she delivers the news, she gets a shock. Juliet asks what the day of joy is. Lady Capulet tells her it’s that early on Thursday Paris will make her a joyful bride at St. Peter’s Church, but Juliet exclaims, ‘Now, by Saint Peter’s Church and Peter too, He shall not make me there a joyful bride’.
She is dishonouring her faith by saying ‘and peter too’ in Shakespeare’s time it was considered very blasphemous. This shows the audience how strongly she felt about the idea of marriage. The audience feel connected to Juliet in some way because they know how Juliet must be feeling as they know about her already being married. She tells Juliet, ‘Here comes your father; tell him so yourself, and see how he will take it at your hands’. Lord Capulet enters Juliet’s chambers in a cheery mood but then suddenly realises she is in floods of tears ‘How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears? He calls her a ‘conduit’ because it is a pipe in which water passes through. This shows the reader how upset Juliet really is and how much Juliet opposes the idea of marrying Paris. He too assumes that Juliet is still grieving her cousin. But he soon comes to find that that’s not the case. Capulet asks Lady Capulet How now, wife! Have you deliver’d to her our decree? Lady Capulet replies in an aggressive way and says ‘I would the fool were married to her grave! ’ Lady Capulet is so angry about the way Juliet responded to their offer that she even goes as far as to wish Juliet dead.
The audience know that Juliet has refused their marriage proposal because she is secretly married to the family’s worst enemy. In Shakespeare’s time to be married to more than one person was unforgivable and the punishment for it was to go to hell. When Juliet tries to speak to her father she is timid and scared but she is also bold and brave. This shows that in Shakespeare’s time fathers would control their daughters and would have to marry whoever they chose this was to increase their reputation. They argue tirelessly but Juliet doesn’t get to voice her opinion.
Capulet calls her names and insults her many times ‘Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow-face! ’ but this has no effect on Juliet she still refuses to marry Paris. Juliet begs her father to hear her out ‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word. ’ But he is so livid that he speaks ill to the nurse who is trying to converse on Juliet’s behalf. ‘Peace, you mumbling fool! Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl; for here we need it not’. Capulet storms out after his long angry outburst.
Juliet Mother tells her not to speak to her, ‘Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word’. She then leaves leaving Juliet with the Nurse, her last hope. Juliet asks the nurse for her opinion, hoping for a solution to her problem, ‘what say’st thou? Hast thou not word of joy? Some comfort, nurse’. But she has none to offer. The nurse tries convincing Juliet to marry Paris. ‘I think it best you married the county’. She says that Paris is ‘a lovely gentleman’ and that ‘Romeo’s a dishclout’ compared to him. Juliet is angered and hurt by what the nurse thinks of Romeo.
However she asks the nurse if she speaks from the heart and the nurse replies ‘and from my soul’. She displays anger towards the nurse because she is hurt by the nurse’s comments. Juliet feels betrayed and disappointed because the nurse, she thought, was the only one that understood her. The audience may feel sympathy for the nurse at this point because she is only trying to help. However Juliet does not understand this at the time and is still fuming. She uses irony and tells the nurse that she has been of great comfort she says ‘Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much’. The nurse then leaves Juliet alone.
This reflects how Juliet must be feeling, alone. She feels betrayed by everyone, especially the nurse of whom she expected to be the most understanding. During the time by herself in her chambers she makes a decision; either she goes to Friar Lawrence and he has a plan or suicide. In act three scene 5 Juliet’s emotions are varied. At one point she is happy and at another she is distraught angry and disappointed. In this act the audience feel sympathy for her because they feel as though they are connected through the secret of marriage to Romeo. She goes through an emotional rollercoaster.
