Friday, December 6, 2013

Why has Juliet come to Friar Laurence’s cell? Who is also at the Friar’s cell, and why has he come there? What is Juliet saying in lines 85...

In Act IV, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet,Juliet has come to Friar Laurence's cell to seek advice. She has just been informed by her father that he has promised to marry her to Count Paris. Lord Capulet knows nothing about Romeo and she can't be married to two men. Paris is also at Friar Lawrence's cell informing the Friar of Capulet's plans. Paris says Capulet wants the marriage to be on Wednesday. Paris...

In Act IV, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet has come to Friar Laurence's cell to seek advice. She has just been informed by her father that he has promised to marry her to Count Paris. Lord Capulet knows nothing about Romeo and she can't be married to two men. Paris is also at Friar Lawrence's cell informing the Friar of Capulet's plans. Paris says Capulet wants the marriage to be on Wednesday. Paris is also anxious to marry Juliet:




My father Capulet will have it so,
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.



In lines 85-90, Juliet uses foreshadowing to indicate she would do anything, including lie with dead men in order to be reunited with Romeo:





Or bid me go into a new-made grave
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud
(Things that to hear them told have made me
tremble),
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.





These lines foreshadow the final scene of the play when Juliet awakens alone in the Capulet tomb after Romeo has poisoned himself. 



The Friar plans for Juliet to fake her death by drinking a potion that will make her appear dead for almost two days. She will be placed in the Capulet vault and he will send a message to Romeo to be there when she wakes up. He will then take her with him to Mantua. According to the Friar, they will live happily ever after:





Then, as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes uncovered on the bier
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come, and he and I
Will watch thy waking and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valor in the acting it.



 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre a feminist novel?

Feminism advocates that social, political, and all other rights should be equal between men and women. Bronte's Jane Eyre discusses many...