If the potion does not work, what does juliet plan to do?

ROMEO AND JULIET: ACT FOUR RESPONSE

1.    Friar Laurence comes up with a very elaborate and holy plan. He wants to give Juliet a remedy that will make her appear dead for about 48 hours. To take this remedy, she must keep the nurse out of her room. When she is placed in the tomb, he will send a letter to Romeo telling him about the plan. Romeo will then venture back to Verona, slips into the tomb when Juliet wakes up and Friar Laurence will help them run away.

There are MANY things that can go wrong with this plan. First of all, there is the issue of the potion. Knowledge of medication back then was extremely limited, and it could be very dangerous for Juliet to take the remedy. Maybe the potion won’t make her just look dead but actually KILL her.  The nurse could sense something fishy was up and adamantly refuse to leave. Her parents threatened to disown her if she didn’t marry Paris; so maybe they could have already disowned her, and god knows where she may end up. Maybe they could decide to bury her in the ground instead of putting her in the family tomb and she could end up suffocated. If Romeo did not get the letters due to extraordinary circumstances and gets the wrong idea, he could act irrationally or they could catch him in the tomb when people come to morn the loss of Juliet.  Then what would happen? If I were Juliet, I would not take such a risk. There’s a part of Friar Laurence’s speech that’s makes me not want to take the risk;

“‘Take thou this vial, being then in bed,

And this distilling liquor drink thou off.

When presently through all thy veins shall run

A cold and drowsy humor, for no pulse

Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.

No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest....’”  (IIII.i.94-99).

In this quote, the Friar is saying to take the potion. He is telling Juliet that the potion will make her appear as if she is dead. Right off the bat, if I was Juliet, I would be worried. Like I mentioned before, knowledge of medicine was terrible. The Friar didn’t make the potion himself; he bought it from someone. Friar Laurence could have given her poison without even knowing it. If I were Juliet, I would not take the potion, I’d just run away that night.

2.    I believe the mood in Act Four scene two is pretty happy and joyful. I believe this to be true because of the 360 degree change in Capulat’s mood. The last time we saw him, he was saying he was going to disown Juliet if she didn’t marry Paris. Now, he’s over the moon, because Juliet has just said she would marry Paris. There’s this one little phrase at the end of the scene that makes me think this is true;

“‘Tush, I will stir about,

And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.

Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.

I’ll not to bed tonight, let me alone.

I’ll play the housewife for this once -- What, ho! --

They are all forth. Well I will walk myself

To County Paris, to prepare him up

Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light    

 Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.’” (IIII.ii.40-48).

In this quote, Capulat is saying he’s going to stay up all night to plan for the wedding, telling his wife to go help Juliet. He’s saying he’s over the moon happy because Juliet has made the right choice and everything is the way it should. Thus, giving the scene a happy tone.

3.    Juliet is a very complex character and it shows in this scene. Earlier in Act Four, Juliet gets a potion from Friar Laurence. The potion will make her appear like she is dead, that way the family will put her in the family tomb. When she wakes up, Romeo will be there, having been informed of the plan. They will then run away and live happily ever after. That night, Juliet has sent the nurse and her mother out of her room. This is where we see the complexity of her character. What makes me think this is what Juliet says in the beginning of her soliloquy;

“‘I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins

That almost freezes up the heat of life.

I’ll call them back again to comfort me.

-- Nurse! -- What should she do here?

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

Come vial.

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.’” (IIII.iii.16-24).

In this quote, Juliet starts by saying how scared she is and wants to call the nurse back again. Then she decides not to call the nurse back and needs to do this alone. At one point she begins to have second thoughts again, but forces the thoughts out of her head. This shows her complexity because she keeps going back and forth between doing it or not. At the end of the quote, Juliet seems like she has finally decided to take the mixture; however, as the speech goes on Juliet once again begins to have second thoughts;

“‘What if it be a poison which the Friar 

Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured,

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not,

For he hath still be tried a holy man.’” (IIII.iii.25-29)

In this quote, Juliet is once again starting to have second thoughts about taking the potion. She’s afraid that Friar Laurence has given her poison to save his own skin. I believe this shows her complexity for two reasons. The first reason is that in Act Four scene one she completely trusts the Friar, and now she thinks that he’s going to kill her so he won’t get in trouble. This pattern seems to continue for a while as Juliet lists all the things that could go wrong with the plan even going as far to say that she will bash her skull in with the bones of her ancestors. However, at the very end of the scene, she decides to take the poison. Juliet is indeed a complex character.

4.    I think the purpose of this scene is for some comic relief. I believe this to be true because of the dramatic difference between the lines from the two acts. In Act Four scene three, the mood is pretty serious and depressing as shown by this line;

“‘Or, if I live, is it not very like

The horrible conceit of death and night,

Together with the terror of the place,

As in a vault, an ancient receptacle

Where for this many hundred years the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed,

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth....’” (IIII.iii.37-43)

In this quote, Juliet is describing the tomb Juliet would be in. It’s a very bleak and depressing place. It’s basically the whole mood of this scene where Juliet takes the potion.

In Act Four scene four, the mood is slightly goofy as shown by quote;

“‘Capulet: Now, fellow, what is there?

1 Servant: Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.

Capulet: Make haste, make haste.

(Exit first servant)

Sirrah, fetch drier logs.

Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.

2 Servant: I have a head, sir, that will find out logs

And never trouble Peter for the matter.

Capulet: Mass, and well said. A merry whoreson, ha.

Thou shalt be loggerhead.’” (IIII.iiii.15-23)

In this quote, Capulet is dealing with some bumbling, idiot servants. He tells one servant who can’t figure out what to give to the cook to hurry up and call the other one a blockhead. This scene provides comic relief between one dramatic scene and the one that is about to come. 

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How much do you know about Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet? This section takes you step by step through the play, helping you to identify key plot points.

In his cell, Friar Lawrence speaks with Paris about the latter’s impending marriage to Juliet. Paris says that Juliet’s grief about Tybalt’s death has made her unbalanced, and that Capulet, in his wisdom, has determined they should marry soon so that Juliet can stop crying and put an end to her period of mourning. The friar remarks to himself that he wishes he were unaware of the reason that Paris’s marriage to Juliet should be delayed.

Juliet enters, and Paris speaks to her lovingly, if somewhat arrogantly. Juliet responds indifferently, showing neither affection nor dislike. She remarks that she has not married him yet. On the pretense that he must hear Juliet’s confession, Friar Lawrence ushers Paris away, though not before Paris kisses Juliet once.

After Paris leaves, Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for help, brandishing a knife and saying that she will kill herself rather than marry Paris. The friar proposes a plan: Juliet must consent to marry Paris; then, on the night before the wedding, she must drink a sleeping potion that will make her appear to be dead. Juliet will be laid to rest in the Capulet tomb, and the friar will send word to Romeo in Mantua to help him retrieve her when she wakes up. She will then return to Mantua with Romeo, and be free to live with him away from their parents’ hatred. Juliet consents to the plan wholeheartedly. Friar Lawrence gives her the sleeping potion.

Read a translation of Act 4, scene 1 →

Summary: Act 4, scene 2

Juliet returns home, where she finds Capulet and Lady Capulet preparing for the wedding. She surprises her parents by repenting her disobedience and cheerfully agreeing to marry Paris. Capulet is so pleased that he insists on moving the marriage up a day, to Wednesday—tomorrow. Juliet heads to her chambers to, ostensibly, prepare for her wedding. Capulet heads off to tell Paris the news.

Read a translation of Act 4, scene 2 →

Analysis: Act 4, scenes 1–2

Friar Lawrence is the wiliest and most scheming character in Romeo and Juliet: he secretly marries the two lovers, spirits Romeo to Mantua, and stages Juliet’s death. The friar’s machinations seem also to be tools of fate. Yet despite the role Friar Lawrence plays in bringing about the lovers’ deaths, Shakespeare never presents him in a negative, or even ambiguous, light. He is always treated as a benign, wise presence. The tragic failure of his plans is treated as a disastrous accident for which Friar Lawrence bears no responsibility.

Read more about why the friar’s plan fails.

In contrast, it is a challenge to situate Paris along the play’s moral continuum. He is not exactly an adversary to Romeo and Juliet, since he never acts consciously to harm them or go against their wishes. Like almost everyone else, Paris knows nothing of their relationship. Paris’s feelings for Juliet are also a subject of some ambiguity, since the audience is never allowed access to his thoughts. Later textual evidence does indicate that Paris harbors a legitimate love for Juliet, and though he arrogantly assumes Juliet will want to marry him, Paris never treats her unkindly. Nevertheless, because she does not love him, marrying Paris represents a real and frightening possibility for Juliet.

Read more about love as a theme.