Scene 1

• Paris tells Friar Lawrence that he wants Juliet to stop mourning over Tybalt, which is why Capulet decided for them to marry sooner
• Juliet enters and Paris talks to her lovingly which she does not respond to since they are not married yet
• Paris leaves since Juliet wants to make a confession and kisses her goodbye
• Juliet tells Friar Lawrence that she would rather kill herself than marry Paris
• Friar Lawrence‘s plan: Juliet agrees on marrying Paris, but she will drink a sleeping potion before their wedding day, letting her appear to be dead. Then, she will be laid in the Capulet tomb where Romeo will wait for her to wake up and they will flee to Mantua and live there happily-ever-after
• Juliet consents to the plan and receives the sleeping potion

Function

• portrayal of Friar Lawrence as a scheming and cunning character
  
  • secretly marries the star-crossed lovers
  • helps Romeo fleeing to Mantua
  • stages Juliet‘s death
  • still, Friar Lawrence is portrayed in a positive manner and is considered wise

Scene 2

• Juliet tells her parents that she will marry Paris
• she claims that she is sorry about her former disobedience towards this issue
• Capulet moves the marriage up a day to the very next day

Scene 3

• Juliet wants to spend the night before her wedding with Paris alone
• has ambivalent thoughts when looking at the vial of sleeping potion
  
  • the Friar might have lied to her and she will die, thus covering his role in having married her and Romeo
  • she will wake in the tomb without Romeo by her side, going mad
  • she sees Tybalt‘s ghost looking for Romeo, asking him to quit
• she toasts to Romeo and drinks the potion

Function

• display of Juliet‘s mental strength
  
  • even though she comes up with many reasons that drinking the potion entails, she consumes it anyways
  • she is well aware that she might also die or go mad
  • she finally has control over herself by choosing to drink the potion
• foreshadowing of future events by mentioning Tybalt‘s ghost looking for Romeo

Scene 4

• the Nurse finds Juliet dead
• Lady Capulet and Capulet join the Nurse in her mourning as well as Paris
• Friar Lawrence consoles them by claiming that Juliet is at a better place now and urges them to get ready for the funeral

Function

• the Capulets as loving, mourning parents
• Paris‘ love for Juliet shows - it is not just grief over his wife, it is grief over the loss of his beloved Juliet

Scene 5

• musicians pack their things
• servant Peter asks them to play a happy song
• musicians refuse the request out of inappropriateness, Peter gets mad at them and insults them

Function

• scene as some kind of comic relief
• musicians do not really care about the tragedy of Juliet‘s death, they care more about having lost a job and missing a free lunch