Act IV, Scene 3 contains Juliet's greatest soliloquy — a speech that reveals the full depth of her courage, her intelligence, and her terror. It is Shakespeare's most sustained exploration of fear in the entire play, and it cements Juliet as the tragedy's most psychologically complex character. The scene's opening is quietly devastating. Juliet dismisses the Nurse and her mother with calm, practical excuses — she needs to pray, the Nurse should help with preparations. Her farewell to Lady Capulet — "Good night" — carries double meaning that the mother cannot hear: Juliet believes this may be the last time they see each other. The line "My dismal scene I needs must act alone" is a moment of extraordinary self-awareness: Juliet knows she is performing a role in a tragedy, and she must do it without an audience. The soliloquy itself is structured as a cascade of escalating fears, each more vivid and terrifying than the last. First: what if the potion doesn't work? (She lays the dagger beside her as backup.) Second: what if it's real poison and the Friar is covering his tracks? Third — and this is where the speech becomes truly harrowing — what if she wakes too...
Scene Summary
Juliet dismisses the Nurse and Lady Capulet, insisting on being alone for the night. Once isolated, she delivers a terrifying soliloquy as she contemplates taking the potion. She imagines a cascade of fears: the potion might not work, it might be real poison, she might wake too early and go mad in the tomb surrounded by corpses and Tybalt's fresh body. Summoning her courage and invoking Romeo, she drinks the vial and collapses onto the bed.
"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again." — Juliet (her quiet, devastating goodbye to her mother and nurse)
"My dismal scene I needs must act alone." — Juliet (recognizing her role in the unfolding tragedy with piercing self-awareness)
"What if this mixture do not work at all? / Shall I be married then to-morrow morning? / No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there." — Juliet (laying down the dagger as her backup plan)
"Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, / Lies festering in his shroud" — Juliet (imagining the horror of the vault in vivid, Gothic detail)
"Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee." — Juliet (toasting love as she takes the potion — courage and devotion fused)