Thursday, August 13, 2015

Who in the play, Romeo and Juliet, says "I should have acted more distant"?

Although you initially asked about a line, "I should have acted more distant," the exact line (spoken by Juliet in line 102 of Act 2, Scene 2) is actually, "I should have acted more strange."  The meaning of "strange" in Shakespeare's time was closer to our modern definition of "distant"; hence the potential confusion.


As she utters the line, Juliet is wishing she had been a bit more distant or that she had been a bit standoffish.  Romeo has just caught her on her balcony, confessing her love for Romeo aloud.  She was doing so with no expectation that anyone could hear her; she was merely voicing internal thoughts out loud.


When she is, indeed, overheard, Romeo hears of her feelings about their earlier meeting.  She is embarrassed that he has heard so much. In the end, Romeo doesn't seem to mind, and her honest confession of feelings prompts him to make a similar disclosure to her.  In the beginning, however, all she can do is wish that she had been a bit more "distant."

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