Hassler 1

Covin Hassler

Woelke Abigail

English pre-ap 9

11 December 2019

Funny and Creative Romeo and Juliet Title

The play ​Romeo and Juliet​ by Wiliam Shakespear is a story about two lovers of

quarreling families that find themselves in a love affair in which their families disapprove.

Juliet's family in turn arranges a wedding for her to get married to the princes son Pairs which

Juliet despises. Then the friar Lawrence gives her a potion that has the power to put her in a

death like coma to wait out the wedding and to get rescued by her love Romeo. While in bed the

night before the wedding, Juliet contemplates the effects and risks of the potion, where she

explains her feelings and emotions to the audience.​ ​During this soliloquy Shakespear expresses

Juliet’s inner conflict through literary devices to show her anxious, doubtful, and terrorized state

of mind.

Juliet’s state of mind and inner conflict is furthered by her anxious questions and the

imagery Shakespeare uses. Once she is alone in the room she feels “a faint cold fear thrills

through” her “veins” which makes her “freeze up”(Shakespeare 4.3.16-7). This reveals Juliet's

mixed mindset and her contemplations on the true effects of her actions. This is relevant because

this is when Juliet realizes that she has to make a choice, to drink or not to drink, and this leads

to her feeling anxiety and self struggle. Juliet continues to ask herself “What if this mixture do
 Hassler 2

not work at all?”(Shakespeare 4.3.22). This demonstrates the nervous mood by Juliet questioning

the friar and his potion. Juliet doesn't know what will happen next and that creates her unstable

state of mind. Ultimately Juliet is very anxious and nervous while deciding on whether to drink

the potion or go on with the marriage.

Juliet's mental sanity deteriorates the longer she ponders and doubts the real risks of

taking the potion. Juliet continues on questioning the friar saying “What if it be a poison, which

the friar / Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead”(Shakespeare 4.3.25-6). This illustrates the

mental strain that Juliet is going through to escape this bad situation. This is critical to the doubt

that grows in Juliet because for all she knows the friar might have given her poison. She

expresses even more doubt when she says what if “I wake before the time that Romeo / Come to

redeem me?”(Shakespeare 4.3.32-3). This indicates that she believes that the worst will come

and that everything will go wrong when Romeo doesn't come to save her. This further solidifies

her doubt and faith in others which creates more of a conflict in herself. In summary Juliet's

doubt in others leads her to mental instability and fear.

Juliet's inner conflict and turmoil sprout into pure terror at the fact that the worst outcome

might arise. As Juliet imagines what it would look like in the grave she says “Where bloody

Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies festering in his shroud”(Shakespeare 4.3.43-4). This indicates

that Juliet has gone mad with the stress of choice and the destiny of marriage. This impacts Juliet

because she is imagining her cousin as a rotting corpse which can only lead to worsening mental

damage. Towards the very end of the scene Juliet says “O, look! methinks I see my cousin's

ghost”(Shakespeare 4.3.56). This shows that not only is Juliet confused but she is becoming
 Hassler 3

crazy. This is because she can't decide if the friar is truthful with his word and if the potion is

safe. This all terrorizes Juliet and brings her to the brink of insanity almost causing her to not

follow through with her plan.

Through literary devices Shakespeare shows Juliet's conflict with her anxious, doubtful,

and terrorized state of mind. These tones and moods were all ways that Shakespeare could relate

literary devices into the characters and actions. This all adds up to Juliet's difficult inner conflict

and fearful state of mind.