Act IV, Scene 2 is a brief scene of devastating dramatic irony. Every line is saturated with meanings that the characters cannot see. Juliet's performance of obedience — "Henceforward I am ever ruled by you" — is a masterpiece of deception, and the audience watches her father celebrate a submission that is actually the opening move of a plan that will end in the family tomb. Capulet's reaction reveals how completely patriarchal authority depends on the appearance of compliance. Just one scene ago, he was threatening to disown Juliet; now he is effusive, grateful, and praising the Friar who, unbeknownst to him, is orchestrating the very defiance Capulet believes he has crushed. His line — "my heart is wondrous light, / Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd" — is among the play's most painful ironies: his heart is light because his daughter is preparing to simulate death. Crucially, Capulet moves the wedding from Thursday to Wednesday morning — one day sooner. This seemingly minor change will prove catastrophic. Every element of the Friar's plan depended on Thursday's timing; the acceleration shrinks the window for the letter to reach Romeo. Shakespeare embeds the mechanism of the tragedy in an act of...
Scene Summary
Juliet returns from Friar Lawrence's cell and pretends to repent her disobedience, telling her father she will marry Paris. Overjoyed, Capulet moves the wedding forward from Thursday to Wednesday — the very next morning. He busies himself with preparations while Juliet and the Nurse go to select her wedding clothes. Capulet, in high spirits, decides to stay up all night preparing.
"Henceforward I am ever ruled by you." — Juliet (her feigned obedience, a masterpiece of deception)
"I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning." — Capulet (moving the wedding a day earlier — the decision that dooms the plan)
"My heart is wondrous light, / Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd." — Capulet (celebrating what is actually the beginning of the end)