Romeo and Juliet Group

Question:

geo444
geo444
Teacher
Community / Jr. College

In "Romeo and Juliet", explain three doubts that worry Juliet before she drinks Friar Lawrence’s potion.

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Posted by geo444 on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 10:54 AM and tagged with characters, juliet, potion, romeo and juliet, worry.

Answers:


  1. troutmiller Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Her first worry is, "What if this mixture do not work at all?" Will she have to marry Paris in the morning?  Looking at the dagger, she knows that she will kill herself if it comes to that.

    Her second worry is "What if it be a poison, which the friar
    Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead?" which could be because he can't marry her to Paris--it would dishonor him. He already married her to Romeo just days before.

    Her third worry is

    "How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
    I wake before the time that Romeo
    Come to redeem me? "

    She worries that she'll awaken before Romeo gets there, and surrounded by death, she'll go mad and end up killing herself out of madness.  This last scares her most, so she quickly takes the potion.

    Sources:
    http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/romeo_juliet.4.3....
    http://www.enotes.com/romeo/act-iv-scenes-1-3-summary-ana...

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    Posted by troutmiller on Thursday March 19, 2009 at 1:38 PM