Romeo And Juliet Quotes Analysis

The Conflicted Heart

Juliet reveals that she is guilty about Tybalt’s death yet more devastated about Romeo’s banishment, evidentially taking Romeo’s side. Juliet’s husband, Romeo, kills her cousin, Tybalt. This act results in the banishment of Romeo which makes it impossible for him to come and see her. After hearing the dreadful news, Juliet begins to ponder whose side to take in this situation, her husband’s or her family’s. Midway through her dialog, she convinces herself that she should not cry because Tybalt would have killed her husband. She fights off the tears as she says, “Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring. / Your tributary drops belong to woe, / Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. / My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, / And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my/

Juliet is convincing herself to not cry any tears of sadness but to cry tears of joy because Romeo is alive. She goes about justifying this through realizing that Tybalt wanted to kill Romeo. This quote reveals that she is torn between the two choices of family and love. She is clearly trying to persuade herself to side with her husband and is attempting to rationalize his actions in order to be okay with the killing. She calls her tears “foolish,” which proves she is ashamed of the guilt she is feeling for her cousin’s death. Juliet is sad about the killing but wants to take her husband’s side, ergo she does not want to sense the pain that comes along with betraying her own family. In order to justify the betrayal to her family, she assures herself that Tybalt would have inevitably killed her one true love, Romeo. Favoring Romeo over her own cousin gives her guilt yet she is relieved that Romeo is safe and the man that wanted her