Come, civil night…act 3 scene 2

key ideas in this passage• Soliloquy• Dramatic irony• Transitions• Mood• Language• Allusion• Motif• Foreshadowing• Epithalamium

Main Ideas

As we explore this scene, we will use these questions to frame our discussion:

• How does Shakespeare make this scene dramatically effective?

OR

• How does Shakespeare make this scene so moving / touching?

These questions are the kind of questions that will appear for the O Level Examination for the Drama Passage-Based Question.

soliloquy• What’s a soliloquy?• Why does Shakespeare use soliloquies?

soliloquy• This soliloquy offers Shakespeare

the chance to present to us, the audience, a moving expression of Juliet’s love and longing for Romeo. In Juliet, Shakespeare has created one of the finest portrayals of a pure, unbridled love expressed by a woman, and in this scene, Juliet moves us with a personal, passionate speech where she reveals her innocence and desire at the same time.

• The fact that she is revealing her innermost thoughts and feelings, which ironically should be ‘untalked of and unseen’, has a powerful effect on the audience. We are moved to empathise with her and rejoice with her for the beauty of her love, yet we grieve for her knowing her serenity and joy will be shortlived. It is perhaps even uncomfortable for us to watch her in such a ‘raw’ or ‘naked’ state, unencumbered by the knowledge that she is being watched.

dramatic irony• What is dramatic irony?• What effect does it have?

dramatic

irony• It is painful for us to watch Juliet deliver her lines here,

knowing that her unrestrained joy at the thought of consummating her marriage with Romeo will be shattered soon by tragic news. Her ironic allusion to Phaeton and her unintended prophetic statement on Romeo’s death have greater poignancy for us the audience, knowing that she is blissfully unaware of their later significance.

transitions• What are transitions?• How does a director use transitions? What effects could

transitions have?

transitions• The previous scene, with the provocative confrontations

between Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo, and the later violent duels and deaths, is chaotic, compared to the romantic mood of this scene, with Juliet blissfully fantasizing about her wedding night. The contrast is a bit unnerving and although Juliet may be calm and contented, for now at least, we the audience would still be agitated, and filled with foreboding knowing what just transpired, and the consequences that will follow.

mood• What is mood?• How is mood different from tone?• Does it matter?

mood

• The romantic, blissful mood created by Juliet’s impatient longing and wistful dreams seems out of place given the violent and deadly events of the scene before. The dramatic irony creates tension here for the audience, as we anticipate what happens next, in particular Juliet’s reaction to the news of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment.

language• How does Shakespeare use language effectively in his plays?

language• Juliet’s use of words like ‘gallop’, ‘whip’, ‘bring…immediately’

and ‘leap’ highlight the urgency of her desire, and typify the impatience and impetuosity of young love. Her impatience also suggests the strong passion of her love for Romeo, and her intense longing for him, and her eagerness to consummate their marriage.

language• Her use of metaphor and analogy to describe her situation as

that of having bought a mansion of a love and not possessed it, and of being sold and not yet enjoyed, speaks of her impatience and the heady, giddy longing of young lovers and their frustration at being apart. There is a sense of frustration at being ‘incomplete’ without the other or before committing the act that joins them further as one. Ironically, she compares her feelings to that of an impatient child that ‘hath new robes and may not wear them’ , not realizing perhaps that her behaviour, may, in a way, be construed as childish, in its impatience and restiveness.

language• The repetition of ‘Come’ in her beckoning of night and Romeo

also helps to build the sense of anticipation and frustration she feels. Her joy and excitement is palpable though, and she calls night ‘civil’ and ‘gentle’, ‘loving’, grateful for its ‘close curtain’.

• Consider how the day or sun was described earlier by Benvolio and Lord Montague in Act 1: the ‘worshipp’d sun’ and the ‘all-cheering sun’, creating a ‘golden window’, yet now, Juliet describes the sun as ‘garish’, and it is the night, made beautiful by Romeo’s ‘little stars’, that people will fall in love with.

allusion• What is an allusion?• How do they work?

allusion• to Phaeton:• There is an ironic parallel between Phaeton’s story and that of

the lovers. Phaeton was a rash, impetuous youth who drove his father’s chariot too fast and lost control. He suffered a fatal punishment for his recklessness, willfulness and disobedience. Can you see the link between his story and that of our young lovers?

• The fact that Juliet is unaware of the ironic echo of her reference and the fact that she is unknowingly tempting Providence/Fate adds to the poignancy (why it is moving) of the scene.

falconry

allusion• to birds and falconry:• Juliet describes herself as an unmanned falcon, that is trained

by covering its head with a hood. The fluttering of the falcon’s wings was called baiting.

• The imagery here emphasises Juliet’s innocence. Juliet is unmanned in the sense that she is a virgin, and she is blushing (the blushes are fluttering in her cheeks like the bating of a falcon’s wings), calling on the night to hide her shyness with its ‘black mantle’. Shakespeare paints us a moving portrait of an innocent girl on the verge of becoming a woman, embracing her natural sensuality and waiting for the means to express her love and longing for her husband.

motif

• What is a motif?• How can they contribute to theme and mood?

motif• Juliet’s speech contains several contrasting images of light and

darkness. This motif suggests the lovers are a source of light and hope for each other, and their love itself a shining light against the darkness of their situation, set against the backdrop of violence and hatred between the two families.

•

motif• There is also irony as although their love is a source of

illumination for each other and in a way, the world of the play, the lovers also shun the light, and find solace in darkness. Is this Shakespeare suggesting that the hatred of the families forces the young lovers to find comfort in secrecy and deception, rather than in the light of wisdom and understanding from their elders?

motif• Link to this question: Juliet’s embrace of the night, recognizing

that love ‘best agrees with night’ and that night will ‘spread thy close curtain’ over the lovers, shows her modesty and shyness, as well as her longing and desire, as ‘love-performing night’ gives them the opportunity to make ‘strange love grow bold’ and ‘think true love acted simple modesty’, to give legitimacy to their union. It is moving to see Juliet express so vividly her innocence and modesty, as well as her passion and natural sensuality.

motif

• We are also touched by Juliet referring to Romeo as her ‘day in night’, as if he illuminates her life, despite all the trouble and uncertainty she is facing.

foreshadowing• What is foreshadowing?• How does this contribute to plot and mood?

foreshadowing• Link to this question: When Juliet says “Give me my Romeo,

and when he shall die…”, this turns out to be a grimly prophetic line. Romeo does indeed die not too long after this utterance, and it is all the more poignant that Juliet makes an unintended causal link between her possession (Give me my Romeo) and his death. The use of the word ‘shall’ here adds to the sense of tragic inevitability, and we may feel frustration and pity as we witness the lovers hurtle further towards their tragic fate.

epithalamium• What is an epithalamium?

epithalamium• Juliet’s speech here is a sort of epithalamium. She delivers her

soliloquy just before her wedding night, and the physical consummation of her marriage with Romeo.

epithalamium• Link to this question: The association of her speech with this

formal convention should evoke an atmosphere of happiness and cheer. However, because we know that her joy will be short-lived, this makes her joy all the more painful for us to watch.

Possible Follow-up Questions• How does Shakespeare make Juliet’s conversation with the

Nurse immediately after this just as dramatically effective?

OR

• How does Shakespeare evoke the audience’s sympathy for Juliet immediately after this?

OR

• How does Shakespeare evoke the audience’s sympathy and admiration for Juliet in the rest of this scene?

Close reading

• Let’s look closely at the events that transpire here, focusing on:

i) the Nurse’s behavior, the way she breaks the news to Juliet

ii) Juliet’s reaction

What is Juliet’s emotional state here?• ‘Ay me, what news? Why doth thou wring thy hands?’

• ‘…he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!’

• ‘Can heaven be so envious?’

• ‘What devil art thou that does torment me thus?’

• ‘O break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once!’

• ‘What storm is this that blows so contrary?’

• ‘Is Romeo slaughtered? And is Tybalt dead?My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?’

What is her response when she realizes the truth?• ‘O God, did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?’

• ‘O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face!…Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical…Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb,…A damned saint, an honourable villain!…Was ever book containing such vile matterSo fairly bound? O that deceit should dwellIn such a gorgeous palace!’

What is the effect of Juliet’s use of oxymorons here?

But as truth and realization sink in, what happens to Juliet’s attitude?• ‘Blistered be thy tongue

For such a wish. He was not born to shame. Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;…O what a beast was I to chide at him!’

• Nurse: Will you speak well of him that killed your husband?Juliet: Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

• ‘Ah poor my lord. What tongue shall smooth thy nameWhen I thy three-hours wife have mangled it?But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?That villain cousin would have killed my husband…

Shakespeare’s mastery of meter and verse…• Nurse:

These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.Shame come to Romeo!

• Juliet: Blistered be thy tongueFor such a wish. He was not born to shame.

What is the effect of having the iambic pentameter ‘spread’ across two lines?Can you spot when else this is used in this scene?

Being able to comment on the playwright’s/poet’s/writer’s use of language by identifying the creative use and analyzing its effect and significance is key to a detailed response.

Juliet in despair…distraught yet rational…then…?

• ‘Back foolish tears, back to your native spring,Your tributary drops belong to woe,Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.All this is comfort, wherefore weep I then?’

• ‘That ‘banished’, that one word ‘banished’,Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts……‘Romeo is banished’ – to speak that wordIs father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,All slain, all dead…’

• ‘Come cords, come Nurse, I’ll to my wedding-bed,And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead.’

Death…Romeo’s real rival?• ‘And death, not Romeo,

take my maidenhead.’

When else is Death mentioned, or rather, personified, as a suitor for Juliet?

A brief respite…?• Why do you think the Nurse has a sudden change of heart,

and decides to bring Romeo to comfort Juliet?

• How do you think Juliet feels about getting to meet Romeo again?

Stepping back…• What do we learn about Juliet in this scene?

• How might we respond to what she goes through in this scene?

• What are our feelings towards the Nurse in this scene, considering how she behaves?

• What significance does this scene have in the whole play? How does this moment affect the pace of the play, or how does it affect the atmosphere and mood?

Passage-Based Questions• How does Shakespeare make this scene dramatically effective?

OR• How does Shakespeare make this scene so moving / touching?• AND• How does Shakespeare make Juliet’s conversation with the

Nurse immediately after this just as dramatically effective?OR

• How does Shakespeare evoke the audience’s sympathy for Juliet immediately after this?OR

• How does Shakespeare evoke the audience’s sympathy and admiration for Juliet in the rest of this scene?

Approaching the Passage-based Question

• Read the passage carefully• Analyse the questions thoroughly, explore the possible scope of

the question• Locate the scene – Context and Significance• Formulate and Plan responses for both questions – relevant and

focused response, with insightful points and convincing evidence• Write your response, calmly and confidently• Be clear, coherent and convincing