Act IV

A Wedding Becomes a Funeral

Act IV: A Wedding Becomes a Funeral

Dramatic Irony
A contradiction between what a
character thinks and what the reader or
audience knows to be true
For example: Act III, scene 4: Lord
Capulet announces that Juliet will wed
Paris on Thursday, unaware that she
married Romeo on Monday.

Dramatic Irony
For example: In Act III, scene 1, Romeo
will not duel Tybalt because the two are
now kinsmen through marriage. However,
Tybalt is unaware of Romeo and Juliets
secret marriage.
Purpose:

create suspense & tension

draw the audience into the action of the
story

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Paris confides to Friar Lawrence that

Lord Capulet has hastened the wedding
date to cheer Juliet, who continues to
mourn Tybalts death.
(dramatic irony: Why does Juliet weep?)

In an aside, Friar says, I would I knew

not why it should be slowed (4.1.16).

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Juliet arrives at Friars to make her confession.

She and Paris exchange polite but guarded words.
He promises to wake her Thursday morning, then
leaves.

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Juliet pleads with Friar
for a way out of
Thursdays wedding to
Paris. Her desperate
plea is laced with
threats of suicide:
If in thy wisdom thou
canst give no help, do
thou but call my
resolution wise and with
this knife Ill help it
presently (4.1.52-54).

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

. . . Out of thy longexperienced time, give
me some present
counsel: or, twixt my
extremes and me this
bloody knife shall play
the umpire . . . (4.1.6063).
Be not so long to
speak. I long to die . . .
(4.1.66).

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Juliets desperate plea leads to a risky plan:
Friar Lawrence proposes,

If rather than to marry County Paris,

thou hast the strength of will to slay
thyself, then it is likely thou wilt
undertake a thing like death to chide
away shame . . . (4.1.71-74).

(Do you recall the potion Friar made from the

flower in Act II, scene 3?)

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Juliet replies morbidly,

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

from off the battlements of any tower . . .
Or bid me go into a new-made grave and
hide me with a dead man in his shroud
(4.1.77-87).
Juliet has no fear. Shell do whatever it takes
to prevent the arranged marriage to Paris.

Act IV, scene 1: Tuesday

Friar Lawrences Plan:
1) Juliet returns home & happily consents to wed Paris.
2) Wednesday evening she drinks the potion, which
causes her to appear lifeless.
3) Paris will arrive Thursday morning to find her dead.
4) Her body will be taken to the Capulet vault.
5) Meanwhile Friar will send word of the plan to Romeo in
Mantua.
6) Friar & Romeo will meet in the vault and await Juliets
waking.
7) Rome & Juliet will escape to Mantua.

 Juliet returns home,

apologizes to her father and
happily agrees to marry Paris.
She tells her father that Friar
Lawrence has set her straight.
Capulet praises Friar
Lawrence for his sage advise
and moves the wedding to
Wednesday.
(dramatic irony: Friar has advised
Juliet to avoid, not enter into, a
marriage with Paris.)

Act IV, scene 2:

Tuesday

Act IV, scene 3: Tuesday

Juliet asks for privacy from her mother and Nurse

on the eve of her wedding night to atone for her
disrespectful behavior.
Lady Capulet and Nurse exit.

Act IV, scene 3: Tuesday

Juliets soliloquy:
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again. I
have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins that
almost freezes up the heat of life (4.3.15-16).
She fears that the potion may be poison.
She fears that shell wake before Romeo arrives and
suffocate from the stench of Tybalts rotting corpse.
She imagines she sees Tybalts corpse pursuing
Romeo.

Act IV, scene 3: Tuesday

Frantic with
fear, Juliet
drinks the
potion.

 Capulet household
cheerfully
bustles with wedding
Act IV, scene
4: Wednesday
preparations
Paris arrives to wake his soon-to-be bride.
(dramatic irony: happy household has no idea Juliet is dead)

Act IV, scene 4

Act IV, scene 5: Wednesday

Nurse discovers Juliets
corpse.
Lady Capulets reaction:
. . . My child, my only
life, revive, look up, or I
will die with thee
(4.5.20-21).
Lord Capulets reaction:
Death lies on her like
an untimely frost upon
the sweetest flower of all
the field (4.5.29-30).

Act IV, scene 5: Wednesday

Capulet tells Paris of
Juliets death:
O son, the night
before thy wedding
day hath death lain
with thy wife. There
she lies flower as
she was, deflowered
by him (4.5.37-38).
(dramatic irony:
Romeo, not Death,
deflowered Juliet)

Act IV, scene 5: Wednesday

Capulet laments that the wedding celebration
has turned into a funeral feast.
Friar Lawrence blames the Capulets for the
death of their daughter:

The heavens do lowr upon you for some

ill; move them no more by crossing their
high will (4.5.95-96).