Question

What is dismal about the events Juliet imagines before she drinks the potion in Act IV, Scene iii, of The Tragedy Of Romeo and Juliet?

Answer 1

What is dismal about the hypothetical happenings Juliet imagines in Act IV, Scene III, is that they are all quite morbidly pessimistic.  She imagines that the potion could be poison.   She wonders if she’ll suffocate in the tomb before she awakens and before Romeo comes for her.  She wonders what it would be like to awaken in the tomb before Romeo comes to her and where Tybalt is decomposing and wonders if there will be ghosts.  And, the last hypothetical situation she ponders is whether or not she’ll go crazy in the tomb, pull Tybalt’s corpse out of the burial garb and beat her brains out with a relative’s bone.  In addition to being pessimistic, this is all quite dismal.