Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Rhiannon Jamieson‐Williams, Lauren Brooks
Romeo And Juliet Act IV
“Love Give Me Strength”
Act Outline
Scene I: Paris and Juliet meet in the Friar’s cell. Paris is arranging her marriage to Juliet with Friar
Laurence, and Juliet is there to get the Friar’s help in avoiding the marriage. Paris and Juliet have a
misunderstood conversation; Paris thinks she is talking of his love for him but really she is talking about
Romeo. Friar Laurence comes up with a plan to prevent the marriage and reunite Romeo and Juliet. He
gives Juliet a potion to drink which will make it appear as though she is dead.
Scene II: Capulet makes preparations for the upcoming wedding. Juliet tells her father that she has had a
change of heart and agrees to marry Paris after all, and Capulet is ecstatic. However this is all just a part
of Friar Laurence’s plan. At the end of the scene Juliet asks Nurse to help her select clothing and
jewellery for her wedding day.
Scene III: Juliet asks to be left alone; Nurse and Lady Capulet wish her good night. Juliet has misgivings
and second thoughts about taking the potion the Friar gave her. She is worried about what the effects of
taking the potion a day early will be. After much inner conflict she finally decides to drink the potion,
thinking only of her beloved Romeo.
Scene IV: Capulet is directing the organization for the wedding feast, supervising the proceedings. He
tells Nurse to go wake up Juliet and start getting her ready. He announced to everyone that Paris has
arrived already so they must hurry with the final preparations.
Scene V: After trying unsuccessfully to wake up Juliet, Nurse realizes she must be dead and cries out for
Capulet and Lady Capulet. Her parents are devastated and shocked. Friar Laurence and Paris arrive to
perform and recite the wedding vows, and Paris is also shocked by Juliet’s sudden ‘death’. However,
Friar Laurence is not as surprised as the rest are since he knew what was coming. He tries to console
them, saying that she died pure and happy, will be eternally peaceful in Heaven. Capulet recovers the
quickest and orders the wedding decorations to be changed to something more appropriate for a
funeral.
Dramatic Importance
This act is when the story’s events really begin to take a turn for the worse in regards to the
plotline. In the first scene it seems as though the plan Friar Laurence conceived may just succeed, but as
it turns out there were too many variables ignored, and very quickly everything that possibly could go
wrong, does. We also see a lot of dramatic irony, one example being when Paris and Juliet have a brief
conversation at Friar Laurence’s cell. Paris believes she is speaking about how much she loves him, but
really she is indirectly and subtly conveying her love for Romeo.
Character Development
Friar Laurence: In this act we see that Friar Laurence is not exactly as honest as most people would
believe him to be, being a religious man. We have already seen that in prior acts, for example when he
married Romeo and Juliet behind the backs and against the wishes of two of the most prominent
families in Verona. In this act we see that he is willing to lie to Paris and the Capulets, saying he will
marry Paris and Juliet although he knows she’s already married. He also assists Juliet in faking her death,
and agrees to take part in a fraudulent wedding which turns in to a false funeral after she is discovered
‘dead’.
Juliet: In this act Juliet becomes much more independent, distancing herself from Nurse, who she has
relied on for help in making decisions for her entire life. We also see that she is willing to go to great
lengths to avoid marrying Paris and disobey her father, even if it means facing some of her worst fears
and feigning her own death.
Capulet: For one of the first times throughout the entire play we see Capulet finally express some love
towards his daughter. Previously it seemed he merely saw her as his girl, an object to be married off
even if she didn’t want to be married. When he believes she is dead we see that he is genuinely
remorseful, and actually loved her very much, as expressed in the lines “Death, that hath ta’en her
hence to make me wail, ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.”
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V, 31‐32)
Condensed Script
When condensing the scenes of Act IV into one hundred lines, our group selected those that we felt best
portrayed the important aspects of each scene. We wanted to eliminate the less important dialogue
while still maintaining a flow in on‐stage conversation. Some of the important events we included are
Paris and Juliet’s conversation in the Friar’s cell, Friar Laurence’s plan to help Juliet, Juliet’s soliloquy
before drinking the potion, and the discovery of her death.
SCENE 1
[Enter Friar Laurence and Paris]
Friar Laurence: On Thursday sir? The time is very short.
Paris: My father Capulet will have it so
Friar Laurence: Uneven is the course, I like it not.
Paris: Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage.
[Enter Juliet]
Paris: Happily met my lady and my wife!
Juliet: That may be sir when I may be a wife
Paris: That man be must be, love, on Thursday next.
Juliet: What must be shall be.
Paris: Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye;
Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.
[Exit Paris]
Juliet: O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me, past hope, past cur, past help!
Friar Laurence: Ah, Juliet I already know thy grief;
Juliet: O, rather than marry Paris,
Bid me go into a new‐made grave
And hide me with a dead‐man in his shroud ‐
And I will do it without fear or doubt.
Friar Laurence: Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is to‐morrow.
To‐morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour;
To play ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of Capulets lie.
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift
And hither shall he come.
Juliet: Love, give me strength!
[Exeunt]
SCENE 2
[Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse and Servant]
Capulet: Sirrah, go hire me twenty cooks.
Servant: You shall have none ill, sir;
[Exit Servant]
Capulet: What is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence
Nurse: Ay, forsooth.
See where she comes from shrift with merry look
Capulet: How now, my headstrong! where now have you been
gadding?
[Enter Juliet]
Juliet: Where I have learn’d me to repent the sin
To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.
Capulet: Send for the County; go tell him of this:
I’ll have this knot knit up to‐morrow morning.
Juliet: Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me for to‐morrow?
[Exeunt Juliet and Nurse]
Capulet: Well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare him up
Against to‐morrow. My heart is wondrous light,
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d
[Exeunt Capulet and Lady Capulet]
SCENE 3
[Enter Lady Capulet, Juliet and Nurse]
Juliet: I pray thee, leave me to myself to‐night;
Lady Capulet: Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
[Exit Lady Capulet and Nurse]
Juliet: 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 to‐morrow morning?
No,no; this shall forbid it. Lie thou there. [puts down dagger]
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come redeem me? There’s a fearful point!
O, look! methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! This I do drink to thee. [falls on bed and “dies”]
SCENE 4
[Enter Capulet and Nurse]
Capulet: Come, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow’d!
Nurse! go waken Juliet, go and trim her up;
[Exit Nurse]
[Re‐enter Nurse]
Make haste; the bridegroom he is come already!
[Exeunt Nurse and Capulet]
SCENE 5
[Enter Nurse]
Nurse: Why, lamb! why, lady! fie, you slug‐a‐bed!
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little.
Alas, alas! Help, help! my lady’s dead!
[Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet]
Lady Capulet: what is the matter?
Capulet: For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come.
Nurse: She’s dead, deceased, she’s dead; alack the day!
Capulet: Ha! let me see her. Out, alas! she’s cold;
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
[Enter Friar Laurence and Paris]
Friar Laurence: Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Capulet: Ready to go, but never to return.
O son! the night before thy wedding‐day
Hath Death lain with thy wife. See, there she lies,
Death is my son‐in‐law, death is my heir.
Paris: Most detestable death, by thee beguiled,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!
O love! O life! not life, but love in death.
Friar Laurence: Peace, ho, for shame!
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For ‘twas your heaven she should be advanced.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse; and, as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church.
Capulet: All things that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral.
[Exeunt all]
Discussion Questions
1. What are the similarities and differences between marriage in Elizabethan times and marriage
today? Do you believe it has changed for the better or for the worse?
2. Does it bother you that Capulet only seems to love Juliet when she agrees to do what he wants,
and then when she dies? It seems as though he is taking advantage of the opportunity to marry
his daughter to a well‐known family in order to increase his own social status.
3. Would you die in order to save the life of someone you love? For example, maybe Paris would
have taken his own life if he knew it may save Juliet’s.
4. This whole play is a series of tragic events that occurred because of misunderstandings. Do you
think the deaths of so many characters were avoidable, and what do you think the catalyst was
that caused this ‘chain reaction’?