After Paris’ departure, Juliet lets out her true emotions. Like Romeo, Juliet is passionate and desperate about their situation. She tells the Friar that she is “past hope, past cure, past help” (45). She does not believe that anything or anyone can help her out of the difficulty that she is facing. In fact, Juliet is so desperate that she even pulls out a knife (at line 53) and threatens to kill herself unless Friar Laurence can offer some solution to the predicament in which she and Romeo are caught up.
Friar Laurence does have a possible solution, but it is a dangerous one. However, since he realizes that Juliet is sincere when she tells him that she is willing to take her own life, he informs her that he does have a “remedy” for their problem (at line 76). The Friar, though, also tells her that this remedy is hazardous.
Juliet quickly responds that she is ready to face any dangers, including thieves, snakes, and bears. She also adds that she would be willing to be placed in a “charnel house” (81) or a “tomb” (85) if such an activity would provide a solution to her problem. The words foreshadow the conclusion of the play, for Friar Laurence’s plan will require Juliet to do exactly that.
The Friar explains that he has discovered a potion (from the fluids of one his herbs or plants) that will cause a simulated death. A person who drinks the potion will enter a deep sleep, her face will turn pale, her pulse will appear to have stopped, and her breathing will cease. She will look as if she is dead, and she will remain in that likeness for forty-two hours. According to the custom of Verona, dead bodies are then placed in a tomb or crypt (a burial structure) on tables (not in coffins: lines 109-12). Thus, Juliet will be placed in the tomb of the Capulets when they believe that she is dead.
Friar Laurence tells Juliet to take this potion on Wednesday night, the night before her wedding day. When she awakens in the tomb, the Friar assures her, Romeo will be standing by waiting for her; and the two of them can then travel to the city of Mantua without being bothered by any of Juliet’s relatives.
Despite whatever fears she might have about being locked in a tomb, Juliet readily agrees to the Friar’s plan. She takes the vial containing the potion and assures the Friar that she will bravely do as he bids.
The imagery of the charnel house or tomb is a reminder of death, a memento mori (a Latin phrase). Literally, the Latin words mean “remember that you will die.” Such reminders or symbols often appear in art and literature, and Shakespeare uses the imagery to foreshadow the conclusion of the play. The lovers are star-crossed.
They cannot escape fate. Their death is inevitable.
Capulet and his wife are busy making preparations for the wedding day. A few short lines of humor are injected when Capulet asks one of his servants to hire twenty excellent cooks to prepare the wedding feast. The comic servant responds that he will test the cooks by making sure that they can lick their fingers: “Marry, sir, ‘tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers” (6-7). Literally, the servant is implying that a cook who cannot enjoy the taste of his own food cannot be very good. A few critics, though, suggest that the servant’s lines actually symbolize criticism of Capulet. Juliet’s father is a “cook” who is dishing up a wedding for his daughter, but it is a dish that he himself will not have to eat.
Both the father and mother are pleasantly surprised when Juliet returns home and no longer stubbornly refuses to marry Paris. Juliet even kneels down before her parents and pledges to be an obedient daughter.
After Juliet exits, Capulet and his wife return to planning the wedding. Capulet’s emotions are now happy and joyous, and the scene ends with him exclaiming the following:
My heart is wondrous light,
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.
(46-47)
Capulet’s line even contains a pun: the word reclaimed means both (1) reformed or improved and (2) claimed in marriage. Capulet is happy for two reasons: (1) his daughter is now obedient and bends her will to his own, and (2) his family will soon be united with that of Paris and the Prince of Verona.