Come, civil night…
act 3 scene 2 passage-based question
Approaching the Passage-based Question
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Read the passage carefully
Analyse the questions thoroughly
Locate the scene
Formulate and Plan responses for both questions – relevant and
focused response, with insightful points and convincing evidence
• Write your response, calmly and confidently
• Be clear, coherent and convincing
key ideas in this passage
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Soliloquy
Dramatic irony
Transitions
Mood
Language
Allusion
Motif
Foreshadowing
Epithalamium
soliloquy
• What’s a soliloquy?
• Why does Shakespeare use soliloquies?
soliloquy
• This soliloquy offers Shakespeare
the chance to present to us, the
audience, a moving expression of
Juliet’s love and longing for Romeo.
In Juliet, Shakespeare has created
one of the finest portrayals of a
pure, unbridled love expressed by a
woman, and in this scene, Juliet
moves us with a personal,
passionate speech where she
reveals her innocence and desire at
the same time.
• The fact that she is revealing her innermost thoughts and
feelings, which ironically should be ‘untalked of and unseen’,
has a powerful effect on the audience. We are moved to
empathise with her and rejoice with her for the beauty of her
love, yet we grieve for her knowing her serenity and joy will
be shortlived. It is perhaps even uncomfortable for us to
watch her in such a ‘raw’ or ‘naked’ state, unencumbered by
the knowledge that she is being watched.
dramatic irony
• What is dramatic irony?
• What effect does it have?
dramatic
irony
• It is painful for us to watch Juliet deliver her lines here,
knowing that her unrestrained joy at the thought of
consummating her marriage with Romeo will be shattered
soon by tragic news. Her ironic allusion to Phaeton and her
unintended prophetic statement on Romeo’s death have
greater poignancy for us the audience, knowing that she is
blissfully unaware of their later significance.
transitions
• What are transitions?
• How does a director use transitions? What effects could
transitions have?
transitions
• The previous scene, with the provocative confrontations
between Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo, and the later violent
duels and deaths, is chaotic, compared to the romantic mood
of this scene, with Juliet blissfully fantasizing about her
wedding night. The contrast is a bit unnerving and although
Juliet may be calm and contented, for now at least, we the
audience would still be agitated, and filled with foreboding
knowing what just transpired, and the consequences that will
follow.
mood
• What is mood?
• How is mood different from tone?
• Does it matter? 
mood
• The romantic, blissful mood
created by Juliet’s impatient
longing and wistful dreams
seems out of place given the
violent and deadly events of
the scene before. The
dramatic irony creates tension
here for the audience, as we
anticipate what happens next,
in particular Juliet’s reaction
to the news of Tybalt’s death
and Romeo’s banishment.
language
• How does Shakespeare use language effectively in his plays?
language
• Juliet’s use of words like ‘gallop’, ‘whip’, ‘bring…immediately’
and ‘leap’ highlight the urgency of her desire, and typify the
impatience and impetuosity of young love. Her impatience
also suggests the strong passion of her love for Romeo, and
her intense longing for him, and her eagerness to
consummate their marriage.
language
• Her use of metaphor and analogy to describe her situation as
that of having bought a mansion of a love and not possessed
it, and of being sold and not yet enjoyed, speaks of her
impatience and the heady, giddy longing of young lovers and
their frustration at being apart. There is a sense of frustration
at being ‘incomplete’ without the other or before committing
the act that joins them further as one. Ironically, she
compares her feelings to that of an impatient child that ‘hath
new robes and may not wear them’ , not realizing perhaps
that her behaviour, may, in a way, be construed as childish, in
its impatience and restiveness.
language
• The repetition of ‘Come’ in her beckoning of night and Romeo
also helps to build the sense of anticipation and frustration
she feels. Her joy and excitement is palpable though, and she
calls night ‘civil’ and ‘gentle’, ‘loving’, grateful for its ‘close
curtain’.
• Consider how the day or sun was described earlier by Benvolio
and Lord Montague in Act 1: the ‘worshipp’d sun’ and the ‘allcheering sun’, creating a ‘golden window’, yet now, Juliet
describes the sun as ‘garish’, and it is the night, made
beautiful by Romeo’s ‘little stars’, that people will fall in love
with.
allusion
• What is an allusion?
• How do they work?
allusion
• to Phaeton:
• There is an ironic parallel between Phaeton’s story and that of
the lovers. Phaeton was a rash, impetuous youth who drove
his father’s chariot too fast and lost control. He suffered a fatal
punishment for his recklessness, willfulness and disobedience.
Can you see the link between his story and that of our young
lovers?
• The fact that Juliet is unaware of the ironic echo of her
reference and the fact that she is unknowingly tempting
Providence/Fate adds to the poignancy (why it is moving) of
the scene.
falconry
allusion
• to birds and falconry:
• Juliet describes herself as an unmanned falcon, that is trained
by covering its head with a hood. The fluttering of the falcon’s
wings was called baiting.
• The imagery here emphasises Juliet’s innocence. Juliet is
unmanned in the sense that she is a virgin, and she is blushing
(the blushes are fluttering in her cheeks like the bating of a
falcon’s wings), calling on the night to hide her shyness with its
‘black mantle’. Shakespeare paints us a moving portrait of an
innocent girl on the verge of becoming a woman, embracing
her natural sensuality and waiting for the means to express
her love and longing for her husband.
motif
• What is a motif?
• How can they contribute to theme and mood?
motif
• Juliet’s speech contains several contrasting images of light and
darkness. This motif suggests the lovers are a source of light
and hope for each other, and their love itself a shining light
against the darkness of their situation, set against the
backdrop of violence and hatred between the two families.
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motif
• There is also irony as although their love is a source of
illumination for each other and in a way, the world of the play,
the lovers also shun the light, and find solace in darkness. Is
this Shakespeare suggesting that the hatred of the families
forces the young lovers to find comfort in secrecy and
deception, rather than in the light of wisdom and
understanding from their elders?
motif
• Link to this question: Juliet’s embrace of the night, recognizing
that love ‘best agrees with night’ and that night will ‘spread
thy close curtain’ over the lovers, shows her modesty and
shyness, as well as her longing and desire, as ‘love-performing
night’ gives them the opportunity to make ‘strange love grow
bold’ and ‘think true love acted simple modesty’, to give
legitimacy to their union. It is moving to see Juliet express so
vividly her innocence and modesty, as well as her passion and
natural sensuality.
motif
• We are also touched by Juliet referring to Romeo as her ‘day in
night’, as if he illuminates her life, despite all the trouble and
uncertainty she is facing.
foreshadowing
• What is foreshadowing?
• How does this contribute to plot and mood?
foreshadowing
• Link to this question: When Juliet says “Give me my Romeo,
and when he shall die…”, this turns out to be a grimly
prophetic line. Romeo does indeed die not too long after this
utterance, and it is all the more poignant that Juliet makes an
unintended causal link between her possession (Give me my
Romeo) and his death. The use of the word ‘shall’ here adds
to the sense of tragic inevitability, and we may feel
frustration and pity as we witness the lovers hurtle further
towards their tragic fate.
epithalamium
• What is an epithalamium?
epithalamium
• Juliet’s speech here is a sort of epithalamium. She delivers her
soliloquy just before her wedding night, and the physical
consummation of her marriage with Romeo.
epithalamium
• Link to this question: The association of her speech with this
formal convention should evoke an atmosphere of happiness
and cheer. However, because we know that her joy will be
short-lived, this makes her joy all the more painful for us to
watch.