Romeo and Juliet, Act 4 Scene 3 — Summary & Analysis

What happens

Juliet sends the Nurse and her mother away, saying she would rather be alone for the night. Holding the vial, she nearly loses her courage. What if the potion does not work, and she is married to Paris in the morning? She keeps a knife beside her in case. What if the Friar has actually poisoned her to hide his part in the marriage? What if she wakes too early, alone in the tomb, choking on foul air among her ancestors' bones and Tybalt's fresh body, and goes mad with terror? She works herself almost to panic — then sees Romeo in her mind, cries "I come," and drinks.

Why it matters

The soliloquy is one of the great solo terrors in Shakespeare. Juliet talks herself through every way the plan could kill or break her, and chooses it anyway. The scene refuses to let the potion be a neat trick; it makes you feel the grave she is climbing into while still alive.

Her fear that the Friar may have poisoned her is a flash of real clarity. For one second she sees how completely she is trusting a man whose plan could just as easily be protecting himself. She drinks despite the doubt, which is either love or desperation — the play will not separate the two.

"Romeo, I come! This do I drink to thee." She turns the act into a toast to her husband, making a horror into a kind of wedding. It is the last thing she does as herself for two days, and by the time she wakes, the toast will have gone fatally wrong.