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   pickle21

   Both scenes begin with an anxious soliloquy from Juliet. She is eager to hear news of her lover Romeo from the Nurse and laments not being able to see him. In Act 2 Scene 5 Juliet is waiting from the Nurse to see if she can marry Romeo, and in Act 3 Scene 2 she waits to meet Romeo in her bedroom the night following their marriage.

   The structure of the two soliloquies are very similar. Both are spoken by Juliet, both take place at the beginning of their scene, and both have Juliet waiting for news of Romeo to arrive through the Nurse. In 2.5, Juliet wishes her middle-aged Nurse to carry the message back to her with more speed, like "windswift cupid wings." In 3.2 Juliet is also impatient for the Nurse to arrive and tell her if Romeo will be able to meet her. When she spies the nurse, Juliet impatiently cries out, "Nurse, what news?" in both scenes.

   There are some important differences, though, in the soliloquies. In 2.5, the setting is high noon, and Juliet has been waiting three hours for the Nurse. The imagery is of a bright warm day, "the sun upon the high most hill" and Juliet wishes her messenger the Nurse to glide as fast as the "sun's beams." She worries that the day is slipping away too fast without any updates on her lover.

   3.2, however, takes place as the sun is setting, and the "wings of night" bring in darkness. Juliet is eager for the day to end in this scene because it will mean alone time with Romeo. 3.2 foreshadows the upcoming fulfillment or consummation of Romeo and Juliet's marriage. The second soliloquy is filled with sexual undertones. Juliet wants it to be night already ("spread thy close curtain, love-performing night") so Romeo can come and consummate their marriage. Juliet says, "I have bought the mansion of a love and yet not enjoyed it," meaning she has married Romeo but not yet slept with him and fulfilled the proper roles as wife and husband.

   Juliet repeats the word "black" several times in 3.2, which makes sense because she is speaking about the night, but it might also foreshadow the coming darkness and death of the play. 3.2 is definitely a darker, sadder scene that 2.5, and Shakespeare could be showing this through the darker imagery. 2.5 ends with the Nurse giving Juliet happy news: that she will in fact be able to marry Romeo. 3.2, however, has the Nurse bringing in tragic news: Tybalt (Juliet's kin) has died and Romeo has been banished as a result. The shift from good to bad in the two scenes foreshadows the even greater tragedy waiting to hit Romeo and Juliet later in the play.

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   Posted by pickle21 on Thursday May 21, 2009 at 2:32 AM