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Soliloquy
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:
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.
Though Juliet's soliloquy may seem like a simple ode to the pleasures of nighttime revelry, she is in fact obliquely referencing the impending loss of both her and Romeo's virginities, which she refers to as "a pair of stainless maidenhoods." (The term "maidenhood," though typically used to refer to a woman's virginity, could also indicate a man's virginity.) By urging Romeo to "come" to her ("Come, night / Come, Romeo"), Juliet is using clear sexual innuendo to express her excitement about having sex. It is not just marriage that she has been eagerly anticipating, but the consummation of that marriage, too.
Later in the soliloquy, Juliet refers to sex as an act that will allow her to "possess" her own love for Romeo, while simultaneously allowing Romeo to "enjoy" her:
Oh, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possessed it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed.
Juliet is describing herself as both a sexual object (something "sold" to Romeo that he can "enjoy") and an autonomous, liberated individual who can "possess" love herself (by buying "the mansion of a love"). Therefore, she seems aware of her own circumscribed position in society, yet capable of defying that position by articulating her own desires. Though women in Verona are expected to remain chaste and uninterested in sex—like Rosaline, Romeo's original love—Juliet is openly rebelling against that mandate.
Up until this point in the play, only male characters have expressed sexual excitement, using cunning wordplay to mask their true intentions and feelings. Here, though, Juliet seizes this supposedly masculine power for herself. She, too, is able to express sexual excitement with euphemisms and seek out pleasure on her own terms.
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