Act Four, Scenes One - Three

Engulfed with superlative emotion and distraught over the banishment of her beloved Romeo, Juliet at first refuses the coerced marriage arrangement formulated by her parents. Juliet does not love Paris, and therefore he denotes a real and tragic potential for Juliet. Accordingly, she emulates with notion of proceeding to alternative means, like suicide, in order to escape this undesired future. Juliet has thus transfigured from the initial character of a naïve, obedient, and immature girl into a woman of strength, tenacity, and poise.

Despite contriving numerous reasons why the sleeping potion might procure her harm, physical and psychological, she chooses to drink it anyway. In doing so, she not only aspires to evade the forces that impede her relationship with Romeo, she embraces full responsibility for herself. Drinking the potion therefore commissions an action in which Juliet willingly secures her life into her own hands, as when she claims "And I will do it without fear or doubt / To live an unsustained wife to my sweet love" (4.1.89-90). In addition, Juliet proceeds against the conventional expectations and endowment of women; she initiates the course of action, much like her aggressive character beside Romeo.

Juliet competently produces a genuine decision that her fidelity and love for Romeo must be her dictating priorities. She essentially disconnects herself from her prior social foundation, particularly her parents and social status in Verona, in order to coalesce with Romeo. Yet, Shakespeare seemingly calls to question the reality and merit of love as the commanding precedence....