Romeo and Juliet - ACT IV - Summary and Analysis

This is a summary and analysis of Act IV from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. After the climactic events in Act 3, we are going to witness the fall out and the characters’ faulty attempts at turning an awful situation around. Hi everyone, I’m BuffEnglish, and I’m here to buff up your English skills by giving you all the details you need to know about some of the world’s best literature. Today we’re discussing ACT FOUR from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Act IV begins with an awkward conversation between Paris and the Friar, as Paris is trying to explain to the Friar why all of the sudden there’s a rush to marry Juliet. As we’ve mentioned earlier, the plot increasingly revolves around dramatic irony, and this Act opens with another moment of one character - and the audience - knowing a lot more than other characters. The Friar, of course, knows that Juliet can’t get married on Thursday because she’s already secretly married to Romeo, and we see him awkwardly try to suggest that Paris slow things down. Juliet herself then enters, and we can imagine the cringy confrontation between her and Paris. She wants nothing to do with him, and makes that apparent through her dialogue. But what is Paris’s posture towards Juliet? We can imagine him as a hopeful romantic, trying to be sweet and doting, or we might also imagine him as a more rude, forceful you’re-getting-married-to-me-and-there’s-nothing-you-can-do-about-it kind of guy. Once he finally leaves, Juliet does something rather Romeo-like. She grabs a dagger and tells Laurence that she’s more than happy to kill herself to get out of her circumstance. We literally just witnessed Romeo threatening the same thing in the last act. If earlier we thought of Juliet as a the more practical and innocent of the two, she shows that she’s picked up on Romeo’s extreme reactions here. But Friar Laurence calms her down by coming up with…get this…another secret plan! Because the first secret plan of getting Romeo and Juliet married went off so well, why not try a second? The Friar tells Juliet that if she’s so willing to kill herself, then maybe she wouldn’t mind almost killing herself. If she would just drink this potion, her body will look like she’s dead, and her family will carry her to their family vault. And there, after literally faking her death, she’ll wake up to find Romeo and Friar Laurence waiting for her to carry her away happily ever after. Of course, no part of the plan discusses when the lovers will eventually come clean to their families. But anyhow, Juliet eagerly takes the potion home and agrees to the plan without a thought. And even though she seems extremely rash and desperate by this point, you can’t help but put the blame on Friar Laurence. I mean, he’s the adult in this situation, encouraging and providing the means for these children to lie to their families. He’s already made their situation worse, and it doesn’t seem likely that going so far as to fake Juliet’s death is going to help two young, irrational, and unpredictable teens resolve their complex circumstances. What is he thinking? So now at the Friar’s bidding, Juliet goes home and basically lies her head off her to her parents. They had their doubts about Juliet, but now that she’s compliant and apparently even happy about things, they are incredibly relieved. Her father reports “My heart is wondrous light / Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.” And, of course, the Friar is the one who gets the Capulet’s praise since Juliet attributes her improved attitude towards his “wise” words. Oh the irony. Juliet’s ruse plays out perfectly, and once she’s left alone in her chamber, she knows the next step is to drink the potion the Friar gave her that will make her appear as though dead. It’s perhaps somewhat relieving to hear Juliet’s practical nature return, as she rightfully questions the validity of their plan. She casts several “what if” statements - what if the Friar’s potion kills me? What if it doesn’t work at all? What if no one rescues me from the tomb when I wake up? She never resolves these questions, but comforts herself by nobly chanting the name of Romeo, and with his name on her lips, she drinks the potion... Music by: bensound.com License code: KZ0GSMOYCW0GFUT5