Act 4 — Teaching Companion

This chapter's big question

Juliet survives Act IV by counterfeiting, her two-sided answers to Paris, her repentance before her father, and finally death itself, while her family mourns a death that has not happened: where does the act place its truth, in performances that are false to the facts but faithful to her purpose, or in a grief that is wrong about the facts but may be true in feeling?

The tension Every counterfeit in the act, Juliet's double-tongued answers, her staged repentance, her borrowed death, and the Friar's consolation spoken over a woman he knows is alive, is set beside a household whose mourning fills the stage and whose facts are wrong, and the audience, which alone knows everything, must decide where the act's truth lies.

Today's focus

Follow who knows what: Juliet, the Friar and the household, and what the audience knows that the people on stage do not.

The shape at a glance

Paris presses the wedding at the Friar's cell, and Juliet answers him in lines he hears one way and she means another. Alone with the Friar she shows a knife, and he gives her the vial and a plan. At home she begs her father's pardon, and he moves the wedding to tomorrow. Alone in her chamber she lists her fears and drinks. The household prepares through the night, the Nurse finds her, the family and Paris lament, the Friar consoles them, and Peter argues with the musicians.

A way in

Start with Juliet's "I will confess to you that I love him" and ask what Paris hears and what she means.

Lesson plan

Retell The student retells the act in order, saying at each step who is on stage and who knows about the vial.

Imitate the author After copying Capulet's speech, the student writes four lines in the same pattern, turning a happy thing into a sad one in each line.

Debate One reader argues that Juliet's words to Paris are honest and another that they hide the truth. Each uses one line from the Paris scene.

Purpose Close by asking what the audience knows that the characters do not, and what that changes about how each speech sounds.

Three levels

Easier Read Juliet's scenes with Paris and with her father aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 2 only.

On level Talk through all six discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking thesis with two quotes, an objection and a revision.

Harder Ask the student to write a second thesis on another critical-thinking question, and say which of the two the act supports better.

Discussion

1. Juliet tells Paris, “I will confess to you that I love him,” and he answers, “So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.” Was she being honest with him, or hiding from him?Inference

What it asks Whether Juliet's answers to Paris are honest or hidden, judged by what she means and by what Paris takes away.

A strong answer Paris asks Juliet not to deny to the Friar that she loves him, and she answers, "I will confess to you that I love him." By her own meaning each word is true, and she says of her face, "it is not mine own." But Paris hears agreement: he is sure she will say it, tells her to "keep this holy kiss," and names Thursday. Once he is gone she is "past hope, past cure, past help." A strong answer keeps what she says and what Paris hears side by side, and says which counts for more in this scene.

2. Juliet begs her father's pardon: “Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you.” He answers, “I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.” Was she wise, wrong, or both to say it?Moral reasoning

What it asks Whether Juliet's show of obedience to her father was wise or wrong, weighed by what it wins and what it costs her in his house.

A strong answer Juliet says she has learned to repent her "disobedient opposition" and will be ruled by her father from now on. He lifts her up, is glad, and says his heart is "wondrous light." Her words buy his trust. But he at once moves the wedding to "tomorrow morning," so the trust she wins shortens the time she has. A strong answer says whether she was wise, wrong, or both, and gives reasons from the lines: what her words do for her, what they do to her father, and what they cost her.

3. Alone with the vial, Juliet says, “My dismal scene I needs must act alone,” then lists everything that could go wrong. Does she sound like someone making a plan, someone in a panic, or both?Character

What it asks What kind of mind the soliloquy shows: one that reasons through its fears, one that is run away with by them, or one that does both.

A strong answer The speech is built in steps. Juliet fears the mixture will not work and lays down her dagger as the answer. She fears the Friar has poisoned her, and sets that aside because he has "still been tried a holy man." Then she pictures waking in the vault before Romeo comes. Those steps look like planning. But the answers stop, the vault fills with bones and a ghost, and she drinks with Romeo's name on her lips. A strong answer says where the reasoning gives way to fear, and what "My dismal scene I needs must act alone" adds, without settling for only one word, plan or panic.

4. The Nurse jokes at Juliet's bedside, “What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now,” and a few lines later cries that she is dead. Why might Shakespeare give her the joke first?Author's choice

What it asks What the Nurse's jokes do to the discovery that follows, for an audience that has watched Juliet drink the vial.

A strong answer For most of her speech the Nurse thinks Juliet is sleeping: she calls her "lamb" and "sweetheart," teases her as a "slug-abed," and jokes about the County. The audience has watched Juliet drink, so every joke lands against what we know, and the cry "My lady’s dead!" comes out of a warm, ordinary morning. A strong answer says what that placing does, whether it sharpens the shock, shows her love, or both, and stays with what the Nurse actually says.

5. Capulet first says, “She’s cold,” and later, “Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir.” Which sounds more like grief to you? Why might Shakespeare give him both?Theme

What it asks How to hear Capulet's two ways of grieving, plain lines and patterned ones, and what Shakespeare gains from giving one mourner both.

A strong answer Capulet's first lines are short and broken: "She’s cold," and death "Ties up my tongue." They sound like a man struck silent. Later he speaks in neat pairs, "Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir," and a list of five words, and those sound composed. The audience knows Juliet is alive, so the plain lines are pitiable and the patterned ones show as pattern. A strong answer does not simply grade him true or false; it says what it means that one man has both voices in one scene, and whether feeling and form work against each other in his speeches or together.

6. After the laments, Peter begs the musicians for “Heart’s ease,” then quarrels with them about why music has a “silver sound.” What does this scene do to the grief you have just watched?Tone

What it asks What the comic ending does to the laments before it: whether it cheapens them or deepens them.

A strong answer The scene is a quarrel about music and money set right after the laments. One way to hear it is as a cheapening: the musicians say it is no time to play, say they "sound for silver," and decide to "tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner." Another way is that Peter's heart is full and he wants a song, and the ballad he quotes promises "speedy help" that no one in the house will get. A strong answer says what the scene does to the tone after the laments and to the act's last line, and gives its reasons from the lines.

Critical thinking

1. Paris tells the Friar, “Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,” and says her father hastes the marriage “To stop the inundation of her tears.” Write a thesis on how well Paris understands Juliet's grief. Use two of his lines, answer one objection, and revise.

What it asks How well Paris reads Juliet's grief, judged from what he says to the Friar and what the audience hears Juliet say once he is gone.

A strong answer Paris sees that Juliet weeps, and says he has said little of love because "Venus smiles not in a house of tears." He gives a cause, "Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death," and a cure, a marriage to stop "the inundation of her tears." Once he is gone, Juliet tells the Friar her grief is "past hope, past cure, past help" and that God joined her heart and Romeo's. A thesis can say Paris reads the tears and misreads the cause, or that he claims to know more than he can. An objection is his gentleness; a revision says what he understands and what he cannot, using his lines and hers.

2. Juliet shows the Friar a knife and says, “this shall slay them both.” Write a thesis on whether this is a plea for help or a demand that forces his answer. Use her lines and his reply, answer one objection, and revise.

What it asks Whether Juliet's knife is a plea to the Friar or a demand on him, judged by her words and by the plan he answers with.

A strong answer Juliet asks how she may prevent the marriage, and says that if the Friar has no help she will use the knife. The Friar answers at once, "I do spy a kind of hope," and says it needs as desperate an execution as the danger it prevents. A plea thesis takes her need seriously and hears his answer as care; its objection is the bloody knife, held up before someone who must reply. A demand thesis sees the threat setting the scale of the remedy; its objection is that she asks for counsel before she mentions the knife. A revision says how a plea can also press on the one who hears it.

3. Over a Juliet he knows is alive, the Friar says “now heaven hath all” and “she’s best married that dies married young.” Write a thesis on what this speech does for the family. Use two of his lines, answer one objection, and revise.

What it asks What the Friar's words do for the mourners, and what they do for him, when he knows that what he says about Juliet is false.

A strong answer The Friar says heaven and the family each had a part in Juliet and that "now heaven hath all," then tells them to dry their tears and prepare the burial. Spoken over a dead girl this would be plain Christian comfort; here Juliet is alive and he knows it, so "now heaven hath all" is false of her. A thesis can argue that the old promise of heaven still steadies a grieving house, while a thesis of cruelty can point to his scolding them for weeping and warning them not to cross heaven's will. Each meets the other as its strongest objection. A revision says what the speech does for the family and what it does for the Friar, and does not judge the Friar from outside the act.

Vocabulary definitions