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Act 4, Scene 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Romeo and Juliet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Violence
Fate
Individuals vs. Society
Language and Wordplay
Family and Duty
Summary
Analysis
Very early the next morning, the Capulet manor is bustling as Capulet, Lady Capulet, Juliet’s nurse, and several servingmen rush about the house preparing food, lighting fires, and getting ready for the party. Capulet hasn’t slept all night, and the nurse warns him he’ll be sick on the day of his daughter’s wedding. He assures the nurse he’s spent nights awake for much less worthy reasons. As some music plays outside, Capulet realizes that Paris is approaching with his coterie. He urges the nurse to go wake Juliet up and get her ready for church—her groom has arrived.
Now that he believes Juliet has returned to being obedient to him, Capulet himself returns to putting on a more generous and kindly demeanor. But his generosity now is always tinged with the understanding that it is founded on his expectation of complete obedience from those beneath him in his family. Meanwhile, the entire scene drips with dramatic irony, as the audience knows that Capulet's excited preparations are not going to turn out the way he expects.
Themes
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