Hello and welcome to "Read it and (Don't) Weep," the podcast that will help you breeze through your high school literature classes. Are you tired of struggling to understand the themes and characters in classic works of literature? Well, I’ve got you covered! I am your host, Jackey Taggart, and I taught high school English for almost 20 years. 

Join me each episode as I dive into the world of high school literature and break down the essential elements of each work. From Shakespeare to Steinbeck, I'll cover it all. My goal is to give you valuable insights and analysis on some of the most popular high school literary texts, as well as tips and tricks for acing your tests and essays.  Let’s start reading!

Welcome back! Well, Shakespeare didn’t waste any time getting to the climax of the play in Act 3, Scene 1, and Juliet’s emotional reaction in Act 3, Scene 2 is heartbreaking!  Unfortunately for Romeo and Juliet, the plot only gets more complicated as Act 3 continues. If you have not yet read up to this point in the play, it would be a good idea to get caught up with your reading and listen to my other episodes before continuing.

Act 3, Scene 3

In this scene, Romeo is hiding out in Friar Lawrence's cell. When he hears he's been banished from Verona, he freaks out, saying he'd rather die than be away from Juliet. He says, “Flies may do this but I from this must fly; / They are freemen, but I am banished, / And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?” Romeo uses a pun using the double meaning of the word, “fly.” An insect can stay in Verona, but he must flee, showing his feelings of powerlessness and frustration.  He feels that his banishment is as cruel as death, and he uses the comparison to flies to emphasize the irony and injustice of his situation.

Friar Lawrence, being the wise guy he is, tells Romeo to chill out and count his blessings,  “Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word. “He reminds Romeo that he's lucky he's not dead, Juliet's still alive, and Prince Escalus is being incredibly kind-hearted by just banishing him instead of executing him.

At this point, the Nurse's enters to bring word from Juliet.  When Romeo sees the Nurse, he immediately asks about her showing his deep concern for her. The Nurse describes Juliet's grief, which Romeo initially believes is due to Tybalt's death; however, the Nurse clarifies that Juliet's sorrow is primarily because of Romeo's banishment. Being overly dramatic, Romeo grabs a dagger as if to kill himself. The Nurse grabs the dagger and Friar Lawrence yells at Romeo in a long monologue, “Hold thy desperate hand. / Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art; / Thy tears are womanish;” Essentially, Stop being so impulsive! You appear to be a man, but you are crying and whining like a woman.  Insulting on serval levels during  our current time, but he gets his point across. Friar Lawrence continues, saying Romeo has the “unreasonable fury of a beast:”  and Romeo has also “amazed me: by my holy order, / I thought thy disposition better tempered.” Basically, Friar Lawrence is telling Romeo he is acting like a wild animal, which shocks Friar Lawrence as he thought Romeo was better than that at controlling his emotions. He continues, reminding Romeo he has already killed Tybalt and now want to take his own life, condemning himself to eternal damnation further hurting Juliet.  

Friar Lawrence goes on and on trying to make Romeo see that he's not thinking clearly and that he's acting impulsively, which will bring harm to himself and Juliet. Friar Lawrence uses strong imagery and comparisons to drive home his point and get Romeo to snap out of his despair.

Then, Friar Lawrence comes up with a plan. He tells Romeo to sneak into Juliet's room that night, and then leave Verona before sunrise, heading to a nearby town called Mantua. While Romeo's away, Friar Lawrence will try to fix things between the feuding families. Once everything has settled down, he'll let Romeo know, so he can come back and be with Juliet.

The Nurse leaves to go tell Juliet the plan, and Romeo, a little calmer now, agrees to the plan and they all exit. 

Act 3, Scene 4

Act 3, Scene 4 is very short, but adds another layer of complication to the plot.  

Lord and Lady Capulet meet with Paris, remember him from Act 1? He wanted to marry Juliet.  Well, Lord Capulet decides that now is the perfect time for Paris to marry Juliet as she is overwhelmingly sad about the death of her cousin Tybalt and Romeo’s banishment.  What better way to make her happy again than to have her get married?  It’s only been a few hours.  At first, Lady Capulet is worried that this is too soon, and that Juliet might not be ready, especially since she's so upset. But Lord Capulet insists. 

They decide to tell Juliet about this marriage plan in the morning, Today is Monday, but Wednesday is too soon, so let’s make it Thursday.  Talk about your short engagement! Paris is pretty happy about this decision and leaves the Capulet house in a good mood.

What the three don’t know is that Juliet's already married to Romeo, so being told she has to marry Paris is not going to go over very well. 

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Act 3, Scene 5

Act 3, Scene 5, we are getting there!  This is the last scene in Act 3, and the tension continues to build.   The scene begins just after dawn, following Romeo and Juliet's wedding night, which takes place off-stage. Sorry to disappoint anyone, but Shakespeare doesn’t include these details in his play.  Somethings are better left to the imagination.  As the sun rises Romeo must leave Juliet's side and head for Mantua to avoid being caught. They exchange some sappy words of love, sadness, and frustration before the Nurse runs in telling Juliet her mother is coming to see her, and Romeo makes his escape out the window.

When Lady Capulet enters Juliet's room, Juliet cleverly uses double talk to hide her true feelings. While discussing her grief, Juliet says, "Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss," making her mother believe she mourns Tybalt's death. However, both Juliet and the audience understand she's actually lamenting Romeo's banishment. Shakespeare also includes a new dramatic element, the aside.  An aside is when a character talks directly to the audience while other characters are on stage, but only the audience hears what the character is saying.  The other characters act as if they have not heard these lines. This is a form of dramatic irony.  Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something important that a character in a story or play doesn't know. In this scene, the audience know Juliet is upset about Romeo’s banishment, but Lady Capulet thinks Juliet’s sadness is due to Tybalt’s death.  We will come back to this later in the play, but I wanted to introduce the term now.

The drama intensifies when Juliet learns of her impending marriage to Paris. Shocked, she exclaims, "Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too, He shall not make me there a joyful bride!" indicating that she does not agree to marrying Paris. She even goes as far as to say she'd prefer to marry Romeo, whom she pretends to "hate," rather than Paris. Why would Juliet basically out herself and her relationship to her mother at this point? First, Lady Capulet would never believe Juliet was telling the truth, even though she is telling the truth – If I ever marry, it will be to Romeo, not Paris. Again, dramatic irony, the audience knows she is already married to Romeo.  

Lady Capulet, taken aback by Juliet's reaction, coldly responds, "Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee." Essentially, do what you want, I am done talking to you.  If you don’t want to marry Paris, you go tell your father and see how he reacts. 

However, when Juliet does so, Lord Capulet's is furious. He threatens, "An you be mine; I'll give you to my friend; An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets," Basically, do as I say, and you will still be my daughter, but defy me and I’ll put you out to suffer, beg, and die in the streets.  Wow!  Just a little hard, don’t you think?

In a panic, Juliet turns to the Nurse for guidance, who surprisingly tells Juliet, "I think it best you married with the County." She is saying that Juliet should forget Romeo, considering him dead since he's banished from Verona, and accept Paris, who's a decent match, leaving Juliet isolated with no one to turn to for help. Juliet decides to reach out to Friar Lawrence to see if he can help her find a solution to her problems. 

And that concludes Act 3 in Romeo and Juliet.  What will happen next? Will Friar Lawrence be able to help Juliet? Or will Juliet be forced to marry Paris and forget her vows to Romeo? How will Romeo react when he hears this news? Take a few minutes to jot your ideas down in your reading journal.  You may want to include specific details from the text to support your response.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Read it and (Don’t) Weep. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you will be notified when new episodes are released. If you liked today’s show, please leave a review so others can discover my show.  If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, drop me an email at readitanddontweep@gmail.com, or reach out to me on social media. I would love to hear from you. The links are in the show notes.  

Thank you for listening.  I am Jackey Taggart and remember to Read It and Don’t Weep. 

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