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!

We have made it to Act 4 in Romeo and Juliet. As Act 3 ended, Mercutio and Tybalt were dead, Romeo was banished from Verona, and Juliet was being forced to marry Paris.  Based on the structure of the play which I discussed at the beginning of the series, In Act 4, the audience will see the results of the protagonists turn of fortune play out.  How can Romeo and Juliet be together if Romeo is banished, and Juliet is marrying Paris?  Well, let’s find out!  If you have not yet read Acts 1, 2, and 3, it would be a good idea to get caught up with your reading and listen to my other episodes before continuing.

Act 4, Scene 1

Act 4, Scene 1 opens with Friar Lawrence and Paris discussing Paris's upcoming wedding to Juliet, which is being planned for Thursday; it is currently Tuesday. Paris is eager and excited, but Friar Lawrence is more reserved, knowing Juliet's true feelings and her secret marriage to Romeo.  Friar Lawrence asks Paris, “You say you do not know the lady’s mind. / Uneven is the course, I like it not.” Essentially asking Pairs, has Juliet agreed to marry you? Does she want to marry you?  I’m uncomfortable marrying you if this has not been considered. Paris tells Friar Lawrence that Juliet is too sad over Tybalt’s death to think of her feelings for him. But Lord Capulet thinks it will help her overcome her grief.  

Friar Lawrence and the audience know details that Paris does not, which makes Friar Lawrence’s concerns even more important.  We know that Juliet is already married to Romeo, and her grief is due to his banishment, not Tybalt’s death.  This is dramatic irony, when the audience knows information the characters do not, making the plans for Paris and Juliet’s wedding even more problematic. 

Juliet arrives, and Paris tries to woo her with affectionate words, “Happily met, my lady and my wife!” He speaks to her as if they are already married, calling her his wife and expressing his excitement about their impending wedding. Juliet, however, skillfully deflects his advances and speaks in double meanings, “That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. “She’s not directly acknowledging or accepting his claim on her. Instead, she's suggesting that she might be his wife in the future, but she isn't yet. Their conversation continues and the audience knows the double meaning of her words to Paris's declarations of love allowing him to believe she's speaking of him when she's actually referring to Romeo.

After Paris leaves, Juliet, in a state of desperation, says to Friar Lawrence, “O shut the door, and when thou hast done so, / Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.” Juliet  is feeling isolated in her grief and is begging Friar Lawrence for help. She feels that her situation is beyond hope, beyond any solution, and beyond any support. Juliet's desperation leads her to consider extreme measures, including threatening to kill herself if Friar Lawrence can't help her escape the marriage to Paris. She's holding a knife and is determined to avoid the marriage, which would be immoral, illegal, and disloyal since she's already married to Romeo.

Moved by her distress, Friar Lawrence tells Juliet that if she's desperate enough to consider taking her own life, he has another plan for her. It will require the same amount of strength as it would to kill herself. She'll need to pretend to be dead, and if she's brave enough, he'll tell her his plan. Juliet says she would rather leap from a tower, become a thief, live with serpents, be chained among bears, lie in a charnel house, or be buried alive with corpses than marry Paris. She might be just a little overdramatic here, but she definitely gets her point across. She's willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid marriage.

Friar Lawrence gives Juliet a potion that will make her appear dead for 42 hours. She should go home, tell her father she'll marry Paris, and then take the potion alone in her room. The idea is that she will be laid to rest in the Capulet tomb. Friar Lawrence will write to Romeo, and they'll both be there when she awakens. Then Romeo and Juliet will escape to Mantua.

Juliet, seeing no other way out of her situation, gratefully accepts the potion and the plan. The scene ends with Juliet returning home, where she pretends to be cheerful and compliant, agreeing to marry Paris, much to her parents' delight.

This scene is crucial as it sets in motion the tragic misunderstandings and events that will lead to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.

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Act 4, Scene 2

The audience has had to suffer through a lot of tense scenes, all of Act 3 and scene 1 of Act 4.  Shakespeare finally decides that the audience needs a brief break from all of the tension in Act 4, scene 2. 

As the scene opens at Capulet’s house, the servants are bustling around, joking with each other that the cook stinks and can’t really cook, while they are preparing for Juliet’s upcoming wedding. 

Juliet enters and tells her father that she went to confession with Friar Lawrence. After speaking with the friar, she is sorry for her disobedience, and will marry Paris, making her father happy. So happy, in fact, that Lord Capulet decides the wedding cannot wait until Thursday.  Juliet and Paris shall be married tomorrow, Wednesday!  Seriously? What’s the rush? But Lord Capulet decides he will stay up all night making sure everything is ready for his daughter’s wedding.  

Only the audience knows the true story, that Juliet has a potion in her pocket that will make her appear dead.  She will not be marrying Paris, and her parents will soon be preparing for her funeral, not her wedding. The suspense is building. Will Friar Lawrence’s plan go as he intended? What do you think?  Take a few minutes to jot your ideas down in your reading journal.  Will Friar Lawrence’s potion work? Will Juliet appear to be dead to her family? Will she wake up to escape Matuna with Romeo? Will Romeo be there when she wakes up? What could possibly go wrong? Or will everything work out in the end? Based on what we already know, everything will not work out in the end, but it’s important to make some predictions on what will happen to bring about Romeo and Juliet’s  tragic end. 

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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