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Situational Irony
Definition of Soliloquy
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost thoughts and feelings as if... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself, relating his or her innermost... read full definition
A soliloquy is a literary device, most often found in dramas, in which a character speaks to him or herself... read full definition
Act 2, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Juliet's Balcony Speech:
In Act 2, Scene 2, Juliet reflects on her encounter with Romeo at the ball—and her confusion at having fallen in love with her supposed enemy—in a wistful soliloquy:
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face.
O, be some other name
Belonging to a man.
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
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Explanation and Analysis—Juliet as the Sun :
In Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo spies Juliet at her balcony after encountering her at the Capulets' ball. In one of the play's most well-known soliloquies, he uses both metaphor and personification to praise her beauty:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
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Act 2, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Friar Laurence's Entrance:
Friar Laurence—a friendly friar who is close to Romeo and ends up marrying him to Juliet—first appears in Act 2, Scene 3. As he walks onto the stage, carrying the weeds and flowers he uses to make potions, he muses on the subject of nature in a soliloquy that features a paradox:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I must upfill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juicèd flowers.
The Earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb;
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Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Juliet's Desires:
In Act 3, Scene 2, Juliet dreamily reflects on her next meeting with Romeo, when they will consummate their marriage, in a soliloquy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Come, night. Come, Romeo.
Come, thou day in night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
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Explanation and Analysis—Juliet and the Night:
In Act 3, Scene 2, Juliet invokes the night, which she is looking forward to as the time when she can consummate her marriage to Romeo. This soliloquy serves as another instance of foreshadowing, while also personifying the night as a "sober-suited matron all in black":
Unlock with LitCharts A+Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle till strange love grow bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty.
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Act 5, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Romeo's Dreams:
In Act 5, Scene 1, Romeo, who is now in exile in Mantua, awakes from a dream in which a tragic event—his own death—is miraculously resolved. This foreshadows the circumstances surrounding his eventual death in real life:
Unlock with LitCharts A+If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne,
And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead
(Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!)
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor.
Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed
When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!
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