This pdf document contains summaries for every individual scene in Acts 4 and 5 of Romeo and Juliet. Unlike Sparknotes, the scenes aren’t grouped together, so you’ll be sure to get detail for every scene while still significantly cutting down on reading time as compared to reading the full Acts...
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Acts 4-5 Scene Summaries 2024
ACT 4
Act 4, Scene 1:
The scene opens with Friar Lawrence and Paris in Friar Lawrence’s cell. Paris tells Friar
Lawrence that Lord Capulet has decided to have Juliet and Paris married on Thursday. Friar
Lawrence is taken aback by the haste. He tries to stall by expressing his concern that Paris
doesn’t even know how Juliet truly feels about the marriage. Paris responds by saying that Lord
Capulet wants to distract Juliet from her grief for Tybalt through a joyous wedding. Just then
Juliet enters Friar Lawrence’s cell. Paris tries to flirt with Juliet, but she repeatedly evades his
flattery. Eventually, Friar Lawrence asks Paris to leave him and Juliet alone, and Juliet starts to
weep and panic. She demands that Friar Lawrence give her a solution to her predicament, or else
she will kill herself. Friar Lawrence says that he has a plan, but it is a desperate measure.
However, he thinks that if she is willing to kill herself before marrying Paris, She may be
desperate enough to commit to it. He tells her to go home, make up with her father, and agree to
marry Paris. He then gives her a vial and tells her to go to bed alone and drink the liquid before
going to bed. It will make her appear to be dead the next morning, preventing her marriage to
Paris. She will be buried in the Capulet tomb, awake with Romeo waiting for her inside, and they
will run away to Mantua together. Juliet is comforted by this and takes the vial without
hesitation. She then leaves to enact the first part of the plan.
Act 4, Scene 2:
The scene opens with Lord and Lady Capulet, the Nurse, and a few servingmen preparing
for the wedding on Thursday. Juliet enters and kneels in front of her father, begging forgiveness
for her disobedience. Lord Capulet asks for Paris to be informed of Juliet’s newfound agreement.
Juliet tells him she has already seen Paris and told him she loves him. Capulet is extremely
pleased by this and praises Friar Lawrence for allowing Juliet to repent and become agreeable.
This is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows that if Lord Capulet knew that
Friar Lawrence married Juliet to Romeo and enabled her to run away with him, he wouldn’t be
praising him. In his excitement, Capulet decides to change the wedding date to Wednesday
instead of Thursday.
Act 4, Scene 3:
The scene opens with Juliet and the Nurse in Juliet’s room discussing Juliet’s attire for
the wedding. The Nurse is under the impression that Juliet is going to go along with the wedding,
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