Juliet, one of the main characters in Shakespeare's play, is of
the House of Capulet. She is still a young girl when the play begins,
not yet fourteen, as we learn in Act I, Scene iii, by the Nurse:
"Even or odd, of all days in the year,/ Come Lammas Eve at night shall
she be fourteen"(18-19). The Nurse knows this date very well, because she
had a daughter that same day, which was killed at birth; therefore, she
raised Juliet perhaps as she would have raised her own child. Juliet
sees the Nurse as a friend, confidant, and in some ways a mother.
Throughout the play, Juliet relies on and trusts the Nurse in most of her
endeavors. Each time Juliet needs to get in touch with Romeo the Nurse
is there, helping her in any way she can. Lady Capulet, Juliet's
biological mother only tells her what to do, and has never been personally
close with Juliet. When Juliet comes of age to get married, Lady
Capulet wants her to marry Paris, and does not care how Juliet feels about
it. Juliet tries to talk to her mother about it, and tell her that
she does not want to marry Paris, but Lord Capulet walks in and angrily
tells her that she will go and marry Paris even if he has to drag her there.
Juliet again pleads with her mother to delay the marrige even for a week,
but Lady Capulet only responds with, "Talk not to me, for I'll not speak
a word./ Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee"(3.5.214-215).
Juliet's relationship with Romeo, is far different than any other
she has ever had. When Juliet sees Romeo at the Capulets's party,
she instantly falls in love with him.(Act I, Scene v). Within a matter
of hours, Romeo becomes the single most important person in her life.
She decides that she wants to marry Romeo, but she knows that he is a Montague,
and Montagues are hated among the Capulets. She knows that a relationship
between a Montague and a Capulet could never realistically work out, but
her immediate infactuation for him far exceeds any line of logical thinking.
Therefore, thinking with her heart, not her mind, she decides to meet Romeo
at Friar Laurance's cell, and subsequently marries Romeo. Upon marrying
Romeo, Juliet is quite joyous and believes her troubles are over; however,
her hasty decision actually becomes the beginning of many troubles to come.
Juliet is completely devoted to Romeo the entire play in many
ways. First, she says that if did not lose his name as a Montague,
than she would give up her own. Also, when her parents tell her she
has to marry Paris, she vows that she would rather die than be apart from
Romeo: I'll to the Friar to know his remedy./ If all else fail, myself
have power to die"(3.5.255-256). The only moment in the entire play
that Juliet feels against Romeo is when finding out about Romeo killing
Tybalt, her cousin. She says, "O serpent heart hid with a flow'ring
face!/Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?"(3.2.80). But this is
felt only momentarily before she realizes that she is on Romeo's side throughout
anything, as long as they are together. She says, "My husband lives,
that Tybalt would have slain,/ And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain
my/ husband./ All this is comfort"(115-118). Juliet realizes that
she would rather have her husband Romeo alive, if she had to choose between
the two.
About half way through the play, Juliet is starts to become an
independent women. An example of this is when she finally gets the
confidence to stand up against her parents, when they tell her that she
will be marrying Paris. Juliet tells her mother, "I will not marry
yet, and when I do I swear/ It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,/ Rather
than Paris. These are news indeed!"(3.5.126-128). A couple
days prior to this, Juliet would not have had the confidence and maturity
to speak up against her parent's wishes. Then, when the Nurse tells
her to marry Paris, Juliet becomes totally independent by losing faith
in the Nurse and turning away from her.
At the end of the play, young Juliet wakes up from her deep sleep
and finds her only love, Romeo, dead beside her. She then follows
through with her suicide that she has been foreshadowing the entire play,
by stabbing herself to death to avoid living without her new husband Romeo.
To Romeo
To Nurse
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