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Savanna Gallegos

Ms. Woelke

Pre AP ELA 9

10 December 2019

A Distressed State of Mind

In the tale, ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, ​two desperate lovers are willing to do

anything to achieve a contented life together. Lord Capulet marries Juliet off to Paris, assuming

that he would cure Juliet’s grief of Tybalt’s death. However, Romeo’s banishment from Verona

is the truth behind Juliet’s depression. Juliet becomes desperate to see her love once more, as she

seeks hope from Friar Laurence to extricate her from the marriage. Friar Laurence offers her a

potion that should put her in a death-like coma for 42 hours, acting as an escape from the

wedding with Paris. Juliet begins to question her mortality and the outcomes of her decision, as

she becomes conflicted about her current situation. In the story, ​The Tragedy of Romeo and

Juliet​, William Shakespeare uses the tone of the play to accurately depict Juliet’s inner conflict

and logic.

Juliet’s concern about the vial the Friar has given her conveys an anxious tone as she

debates the potion's reliability. Friar Laurence advises Juliet to drink from the mixture before she

dozed into the night, moments before she sips the potion she has a “faint cold fear” that her

supposed unconsciousness will conclude before the proposed 42 hours, expending terror through

her as she expresses, “thrills through my veins,” (Shakespeare IV.iii.16). The scene encourages

an anxious tone with Shakespeare’s example of tactile imagery within the tale. Juliet’s frantic

fear causes her to become concerned about the outcomes of the upcoming morning, which she
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could not see. The Friar’s plan is Juliet’s last hope, she is determined to avoid the marriage of

Wednesday. Juliet’s distress prevents her from drinking the potion as she questions its reliability,

“What if this mixture do not work at all?” her horror filled logic drives Juliet’s mind to think of

the worst result of her situation, “Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?” (Shakespeare

IV.iii.22-3). Juliet’s repetitive questioning is an example of a literary device to demonstrate her

inner conflict to prevail the apprehensive tone of Juliet’s soliloquy. Juliet seeks comfort, but is

quick to deny herself from calling the Nurse. She is aware that this decision is one she must

decide by herself. She is desperate to convene with Romeo once more, the mixture is a major

component of her intention’s success. However, Juliet does not know if the vial will function as

it should, and rationally questions the possibility of awakening the next morning. Although,

should it work, Juliet reminds herself that she may never see her family once again, as her quest

is to run away with Romeo. All in all, an anxious tone is demonstrated using examples of

rational questioning and tactile imagery with Juliet’s concern about the outcome of her situation.

Juliet’s thoughts become frantic as she begins to question the possibility of death

communicating a cautious tone as she timidly decides to drink the potion. Juliet wonders if the

discovery of her previous marriage would harm the Friar’s wellbeing, “Lest in this marriage he

should be dishonour’d,” her thought process allows her to distrust Friar Laurence, “Because he

married me before to Romeo?” (Shakespeare IV.iii.27-8). Including the query to the tale allows

honest, rational thinking from Juliet influencing the uneasy tone set upon the story. Paris and

Juliet’s marriage will please the Capulets, discovering the marriage that Friar Laurence was a

part of could ruin his reputation. Juliet observes the possibility of Friar Laurence’s wellbeing and

becomes cautious of the Friar’s motives, the mixture could be poison to peacefully murder Juliet.
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She also considers suffocation, “whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathe in,” if she awoke

before Romeo’s arrival, she would die in the vault alone, “And there die strangled ere my Romeo

comes?” (Shakespeare IV.iii.35-6). Shakespeare incorporates olfactory imagery to suggest an

uneasy tone, as Juliet ponders the terrible results that could occur. Juliet is vigilant to drink the

potion, her anguished mind is preventing her to see a positive outlook. She has become terribly

anguished about her conflict that she can only see death by betrayal or suffocation in her future.

In conclusion, Shakespeare emphasizes a troubled tone with olfactory imagery and logical

examination of Juliet’s damaged state of mind as she faces her inner conflict.

Juliet begins to lose her sanity, decimating a reasonable state of mind which suggests the

hysterical tone in the play. Juliet’s mind wanders into irrelevant possibilities of mandrakes

seeking victims at night “shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth,” she begins to believe in

an immature myth, convinced “that living mortals, hearing them, run mad” (Shakespeare

IV.iii.48-9). The simile included in the statement advocates the neurotic tone of Shakespeare’s

play. The shrieks from the mandrakes are nonexistent, Juliet’s assumptions could be influenced

from a myth from when she was a young child. The adolescent’s fear of the vacant being is

caused by her damaged mind, excluding the rational possibilities of her future. Therefore, her

mind begins to query the impossible, as she believes to have identified her cousin’s lost soul,

“methinks I see my cousin’s ghost” but instead of silently observing she announces desperately

to Tybalt, “stay, Tybalt, stay!” (Shakespeare IV.iii.56-9). The auditory imagery Shakespeare

encompasses into Juliet’s frantic soliloquy demonstrates the paranoid theme of the tale. Juliet’s

mind downfalls as she is forced to decide of consuming the potion from the Friar. Her state of

mind grows out of control as she begins to hallucinate a ghost of her dear cousin, the adolescent
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cannot ask for assistance and struggles to consent to death. To conclude, Juliet becomes

desperate, her state of rationality is out of reach, announcing the tone of ​The Tradgedy of Romeo

and Juliet​ to be hysterical, supported by Shakespeare’s use of various examples of imagery and a

complex simile.

In summary, as Juliet struggles with her inner conflict, her mind begins to change

depicting the various tones throughout the play. Juliet decides she would do anything to relieve

herself from marrying Paris and desperately asks assistance from the Friar. The mixture seems to

torment Juliet as she does not know if it is reliable. She ponders if it will truly put her in the

designated coma, which suggests an anxious tone. She begins to lose hope when she questions

the Friar’s motives, her mind predicts the negative futures of death transitioning to an uneasy

tone. Finally, a paranoid tone occurs as Juliet becomes mad, her troubled decision of the mixture

is shifted into hallucinations and myths when she can no longer control her state of mind. In the

tale, ​The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet​ William Shakespeare uses examples of tone to

demonstrate Juliet’s state of mind as she experiences frantic predictions of her future.