Class+10+English

COMMENTARY: Juliet's Soliloquy: Commentary Writing on lines 24-25 "What if it be a poison, which the friar Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead," Analyze- In the first line, Juliet uses the words "what if" and "poison". It is clear that Shakespeare intended for the actress to express doubt or distrust. She feels the Friar will, or wants to, betray her, and she re-enforced this with the word "Subtly". By saying this, the literal meaning is in a sneaky, mysterious, and faint way. Perhaps she was wondering to herself of the Friar's loyalty, and that something seemed wrong… or hidden. It could also be foreshadowing, giving us hints on what will happen in the future, which is both Romeo's and her death.x
 * Ben Haim, Gal ||
 * Chen, Sze An ||
 * Do, Elizabeth Teresa ||
 * Herrera Restrepo, Juan Luis ||
 * Iyer, Sasha ||
 * Jeon, Sun Ha ||
 * Kwon, Shu Ji ||
 * Lim, Zelda Su Er ||
 * Luong Nguyen, Duy Anh ||
 * Ly, Cissy Nhien ||
 * Lydall, James Henry Zacrary ||
 * Nguyen, Minh Tam ||
 * Nguyen, Trung Nghia ||
 * Park, Joo Yeon ||
 * Sandhu, Harpratap Singh ||
 * Shahid, Takmila Tahiat ||
 * Vickers, Alex James ||
 * 1) Identify the passage- This passage is from Act 4, Scene 2, of Romeo and Juliet by W.S.
 * 2) Summarize- In this passage Juliet prepares herself for the false death, through which she hopes to reunite herself with her lover Romeo.
 * 3) Contextualize-
 * Before this passage Juliet has concocted a plan with Friar Lawrence to re-unite her with Romeo. Immediately before she reassures her mother and nurse that all is well, and that they should leave her alone to prepare for her marriage to Paris the next day.
 * After this passage, Juliet's family discovers her body and thinks she is dead as planned. Unfortunately the success of her plan leads to the suicide of her lover Romeo.
 * 1) Outline- analyzing this passage line by line demonstrating how Shakespeare's use of language communicates…
 * 2) Analyze- Word by word- The soliloquy begins with the exclamation "Farewell!". It is clear that Shakespeare intended for the actress to deliver this line with a tone of sorrow and regret, for she will never see her mother or nurse again. This is confirmed by the rest of the line in which Juliet acknowledges that only "God knows" when she will see them in the next life. The following lines include the words "cold" and "freeze". The most obvious association the audience will have with these words is death because of the circumstances. This is followed by a second exclamation calling the nurse to return. However, this exclamation is not one of sorrow, but of Fear.
 * 3) Conclude

(32-33) Juliet questions herself, and is having doubts, and is thinking of the consequences of what would happen if the potion does not work. There is a question mark to show that she is questioning herself, and the exclamation mark shows that she is seriously worried about the reliability of this potion. She also shows her fear by saying "fearful point".

//(lines 35 - 36)// "To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangl'd ere my Romeo comes?" "Foul" and "die" are negative words, this shows that the she is afraid, this sets the mood. When she states "Romeo", she uses his name to suggest that why she did this act in the first place. Also suggesting that will she "die" before Romeo comes.

Juliet says "if I live" which helps convey that she is worried and in doubt about the vial working or killing her. "It is not very like" is said directly after this which shows that she's worried because she thinks that she would most likely die if Romeo comes too late. In the following line she mentions that these thoughts are produced by "death and night"; both these words are usually associated with darkness and death which most people are afraid of. This suggests that her thoughts have come from the previous tragic scenarios. This can help convey that she's afraid of being with the dead whilst in the darkness of the tomb. //(lines 36 - 37)//

(Lines 38 and 39)The use of the word "terror" implies to the fear that Juliet has for awaking in the tomb alone after her false death. This fear is further expressed through "vault" and "receptacle", words that further emphasize her fear of being locked and trapped inside the tomb, never to reunite with her lover, Romeo.

Lines 40 & 41: This line is depressing because Juliet is thinking about real death. She is afraid of the possibilities of the plan failing and she would be put in the tomb with her ancestors. Therefore, she might die eventually because of the fear that she will face in the tomb. The famous phrase 'til' death do us part' depicts her fear for death too. Her love for Romeo will die when she dies. Therefore, death will do them part. 'Bury' is used to describe Juliet's ancestors, which also describes her love for Romeo which she has to hide or cover.

(line 42-44) "Bloody, spirits resort, shroud" bring out the fear that she has."Festering" adds to the mood, and is a very negative kind of word that brings out the fear within her."Green" is a weird one, because normally green is normally used for the opposite, for life and something new. But here it means that the body is so fresh, and is of someone whom she was very close to.

lines 45 and 46: The use of the words "alack, alack" associates Juliet's fear and doubt towards drinking the poison. This is confirmed by the next line in which Juliet mentions that incase she wakes up before the correct time, she will find her self within the "loathsome smells" of the bodies which will be fearful.

Lines 47 and 48: The two lines convey the madness and the fear that Juliet feels, imagining the possible tragic outcomes. The "shrieks" like "mandrakes" described indicate Juliet's fear of losing her mind, as popular superstition at the time said that mandrakes screamed when they were pulled out of the earth, making the "mortals, hearing them, run mad". This shows that Juliet is afraid of going mad, as she is the only "living mortal" lying in the midst of the tombs of her kinsmen. Perhaps this implies that, not only is Juliet scared of the dead bodies, but also of the people of her family that she is surrounded by, which could be interpreted as her fear of her living family as well.

(Line 49 and 50) The word "distraught" was used which has the meaning of distressed, panic and hysterical together with the phrase "shall I not" to indicates Juliet's hope that she would not be wakened still being inside the tomb, if not she would go mad for being overwhelmed by her fears. The phrase "environed" with these "hideous fears" further explains and stresses out her "fears", thinking that she would either suffocate in the tomb or encounter with the ghosts and spirits of her dead ancestors and recently killed Tybalt.

Lines 51, 52 and 53: Words [from line 51-53] such as madly, pluck and mangled represents the word “angry” and “mad”.

Also words forefather, Tybalt, kinsman’s bones represents the word “ghosts-death” The combination of these three sentences represents a symbolic meaning. It shows that Juliet is scared that she will go mad when she is captured in a tomb with her forefathers (ghosts). However what Juliet is thinking (herself becoming mad when she sees her dead family members) is in fact true even before she mentions it. Before Juliet prepares herself for the false death she has gone mad due to her family. Poisoning herself and pretending that she is dead in order to reunite herself with her lover Romeo, isn’t this a mad thing to do?

Lines 54 and 55: The use of the question mark shows her confusion. The question mark is used to ask herself what she is thinking. More evidence of her confusion is supported with the words "dash out my desperate brains?" meaning she is lots of thoughts are in her head. "O look!" is used to continue the thoughts in her head. She has moved on from fear to confusion of her thoughts for Tybalt. Juliet is in the peak of her confusion and turning almost mad when she thinks 'I see my cousin's ghost'.

Please use this space to share arguments with our class team for the debate: Minh Tam, Anh and Alex


 * Society makes rules for us to hide our evil sides. For example in Lord of the Flies, Jack is the first to evidently break a rule (the rule that one of his hunters should always keep the fire going) and therefore it is Jack who is the first to reveal his evil.
 * Evidence from reality that we are all evil: the Heroes commercial on TV also says "in every hero there could be a villain" and that means that even Heroes who are seen to be good have an inner evil but they have the choice to be a villain who are considered evil. And if we're all good? then why would we choose to be evil?
 * Sam and Eric betrayed Ralph to be with Jack's tribe for their survival. Us, humans would do anything for survival, even harm others-this is evil, we are not thinking of others but ourself (being selfish) for our own good, - we will reveal our evil in certain situation
 * those we trust, like policeman commit crimes and bribery,- if those who we believe to be justice, right and reduce evil actually do evil, who is good? -no one, everyone is inherently evil
 * We are all selfish. For now we share, becuase we can afford to spare. Piggy, who held on to the conch, is it really for democracy and rules, or is it becuase he knows he won't have much say in the group of boys if there wasn't rules?
 * The want for money makes us evil. For example, those milk producers in China have contaminated milk powder with melamine. They knew very well that it was wrong, but they still did it anyways. They just wanted a quick buck by tricking food testers that the product is high in protein. Those people are downright evil