Act IV Notes

Literary Elements

Scene 3

148. Soliloquy: A4, S3, L15-55

Scene 5

155. Theme: A4, S5, L46

Act IV Outline

I. Scene I

A. Paris goes to Fr. Laurence

1. and tells him that he is to marry Juliet on Thursday.

2. Fr. Laurence tries to postpone it. 141

B. Juliet arrives

1. says that she doesn’t want to marry; but,

2. she has to make confession before anything happens. 142.

C. After Paris leaves, Juliet

1. tells Fr. Laurence that he must help her avoid this marriage

2. or she’ll kill herself. 143.

D. Fr Laurence has a plan.

1.Juliet must pretend to die. 144

2.Juliet is to go home,

3. agree to marry Paris.

4. On Wednesday night she is to drink a sleeping potion.

5. She will sleep for 42 hours. 145A.

6. Juliet’s family will think she is dead.

7. They bury her in the Capulet tomb.

8. Fr. Laurence will send a letter to Mantua telling Romeo to return to Verona

9. So that Romeo will be there when she wakes up.

10. Romeo and Fr. Laurence will get her out of the tomb.

11.She will leave town with Romeo. 145B.

II. Scene II

A. Juliet returns home and agrees to marry Paris.

B. Her family happily prepares for the wedding.

C. Her father moves the wedding up one day to Wednesday.146

III. Scene IIIA. Juliet goes to bed and tells the

Nurse to leave her alone. 147

B. Juliet worries that the potion won’t work right.

1. She is afraid that might wake up to soon

2. and be trapped inside the tomb.

3.She thinks she’ll see Tybalt’s ghost. 149

C. Juliet drinks the potion anyway. 150

IV. Scene IV.

A. On Wednesday morning, wedding preparations continue happily. 151

B. The Nurse is sent to wake Juliet up. 152

V. Scene V.

A. The Nurse finds Juliet “dead”. 153

B. Juliet’s parents, Paris, and Fr. Laurence arrive and mourn her death. 154

C. Fr. Laurence blames Juliet’s parents for her death because they pushed to marry Paris. 156

D. They leave and take Juliet to be buried in the Capulet’s tomb.157