A hall in Capulet's house — Juliet "consents"
Juliet returns from the Friar all smiles. Capulet, overjoyed, moves the wedding up a day.
Summary
A hall in Capulet's house, late Tuesday afternoon. The household is in motion. Capulet has servants running for cooks, for almonds, for partridges; he is supervising every detail. Juliet enters, having walked back from the Friar's cell with the vial hidden in her clothes. She kneels at her father's feet and begs his pardon. She has been "chid" by Friar Laurence, she says, and is enjoined to fall prostrate before her father. Henceforward she will be ruled by him.
Capulet is transformed. The rage of yesterday is gone. He sends a servant immediately to bring Paris; he wants to thank the young Count. In his joy he announces, abruptly, that he is moving the wedding up a day. There is no need to wait until Thursday. Tomorrow — Wednesday morning — they will be married at Saint Peter's Church. Lady Capulet, alarmed, protests gently: there is too little time, the larders are not stocked. Capulet brushes it aside. He will sit up all night supervising. Juliet does not have the leisure to argue without arousing suspicion. She agrees and goes upstairs with the Nurse to choose her wedding clothes.
What the scene shows, with quiet ruthlessness, is that Friar Laurence's plan has just lost a day. The vial Juliet was to drink on Wednesday night must now be drunk tonight, Tuesday. The Friar's letter to Romeo will go out tomorrow instead of the day after; the burial will happen Wednesday morning instead of Thursday; Romeo's arrival at the vault will, similarly, slip. The slack on which everything depended has been removed by a father's enthusiasm. Capulet, alone with his wife, declares he will be merry "all night long." The audience watches him celebrate the death he is unknowingly accelerating.
- Scene 1The Chorus opens the play with a single sonnet — fourteen lines — that lays out the entire story in advance. Two households alike...
- Scene 2A public place in Verona, Sunday morning. Two Capulet servants pick a fight with two Montagues to be picking a fight. Benvolio...
- Scene 3A young nobleman named Count Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand. Capulet says she is too young at thirteen — let two more...
- Scene 4A room in Capulet's house. Lady Capulet calls her thirteen-year-old daughter in and asks how she feels about marriage. The Nurse...
- Scene 5Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio walk in masks through the Verona night toward the Capulet feast. Romeo, reluctant, confesses a...
- Scene 6The Capulet ball, the dance floor full. Romeo sees Juliet across the room and forgets Rosaline within a single line: "for I ne'er...
- Scene 7Outside the Capulet wall, late after the feast. Mercutio and Benvolio have lost Romeo on the way home and call for him through the...
- Scene 8The Capulet orchard. Romeo, hidden, sees Juliet on her balcony speaking aloud of his name and what it costs them. He answers; she...
- Scene 9Dawn at Friar Laurence's cell. The Friar enters with a basket of herbs and reads moral lessons in their double properties — within...
- Scene 10Late morning, a street in Verona. Mercutio and Benvolio discuss Tybalt's challenge and worry that Romeo, in his current state...
- Scene 11Noon at Capulet's garden. Juliet, alone, paces and counts the minutes — the Nurse left at nine; it is past twelve; love's heralds...
- Scene 12Romeo at the Friar's cell, waiting. The Friar warns him again: "these violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph...
- Scene 13The pivot of the play. A hot afternoon in the public square. Tybalt arrives looking for Romeo and forces a duel; Romeo, freshly...
- Scene 14Juliet's chamber, the same afternoon. Alone, she calls on the night to come quickly: "gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds." It...
- Scene 15Romeo, on the floor of the Friar's cell, hears his sentence. Banishment is worse than death, he insists — and at the Nurse's news...
- Scene 16Late Monday night, a room in Capulet's house. Paris is at the door, paying his respects after Tybalt's death and on the point of...
- Scene 17The longest scene of Act 3. Romeo and Juliet stand at the window at dawn — "it was the nightingale, and not the lark" — and part....
- Scene 18Juliet at Friar Laurence's cell. Paris is there finalizing the wedding order; she answers his courtship with the precise minimum...
- Scene 19Tuesday afternoon, the Capulet house. The household is in motion preparing for Thursday's wedding. Juliet returns from the Friar...
- Scene 20Late Tuesday night, Juliet's chamber. The wedding is at dawn. Alone, with Romeo's dagger laid on the table in case the vial fails...
- Scene 21A short, brisk scene of preparation, set just before dawn on Wednesday. The household has been up all night finishing the wedding...
- Scene 22The Nurse climbs the stairs, pulls back the bed-curtain, and finds Juliet cold. The wedding music outside is still playing. Lady...
- Scene 23Mantua, Thursday morning. Romeo, who has had no word from the Friar yet, is unusually cheerful — he has dreamed Juliet found him...
- Scene 24Late Thursday afternoon, the Friar's cell. Friar John returns from his errand to Mantua with the letter still in his hand. He...
- Scene 25The end at the vault. Paris arrives first to mourn Juliet; Romeo arrives with a crowbar; Paris challenges him; Romeo kills him and...