In Act III, Scene 2, Juliet is at first confused by the Nurse's report of the events which take place in the preceding scene. For a time, Juliet believes that maybe Romeo is dead but soon learns the truth. Tybalt is dead and Romeo banished. Obviously her feelings are mixed. She was apparently close to Tybalt and takes out her anger in a series of contradictory insults against Romeo. In lines 75-84, she uses several...
In Act III, Scene 2, Juliet is at first confused by the Nurse's report of the events which take place in the preceding scene. For a time, Juliet believes that maybe Romeo is dead but soon learns the truth. Tybalt is dead and Romeo banished. Obviously her feelings are mixed. She was apparently close to Tybalt and takes out her anger in a series of contradictory insults against Romeo. In lines 75-84, she uses several oxymorons to describe Romeo. She refers to him as "Beautiful tyrant!," "Fiend angelical!," "Dove-feathered raven!," "Wolfish-ravening lamb!," "damned saint" and "honorable villain!" These descriptions display the polarity of her mind. She cannot fathom that her beloved Romeo would have actually killed a member of her family. She considers him perfect and cannot wed her conception of him with the violence he is apparently guilty of.
A little later in the scene, she again labels him a villain, but also begins to reconcile herself with the fact that it was either Romeo or Tybalt who would have turned up dead. She says,
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
By the end of the scene, she has retained her loyalty to Romeo and sends the Nurse to retrieve him from Friar Lawrence's cell so that they can consummate their marriage.
No comments:
Post a Comment