By the end of the Act five Scene three Juliet is totally alone,let down by the adults whom she should have been able to rely upon.How far do you blame these adults for Juliet's tragedy?And what factors need to be considered?
Michaela Ho 11G Ms Gowing
‘If all else fails, myself have power to die’
By the end of the Act five Scene three Juliet is totally alone,
let down by the adults whom she should have been able to rely upon.
How far do you blame these adults for Juliet’s tragedy?
And what factors need to be considered?
Juliet, at the beginning of the play, is loved and nurtured by the Nurse as a mother figure instead of Lady Capulet who is her actual biological mother. This is shown through the formality of Juliet and Lady Capulet’s speaking which, contrasts sharply to the Nurse and Juliet. The Nurse states, ‘Faith I can tell her age unto an hour,’ whereas her mother is not sure how old Juliet is. Juliet turns to the Nurse to confide in. However by the end of Act five Scene three Juliet is devastated and she is completely isolated and alone from the world that she was brought into at the beginning of the play. Juliet’s tragedy is a result from the irresponsibility of the adults in the play as well as other factors such as; her youthful impetuosity and the infatuation her and Romeo had as a couple. Juliet has no one to turn to by the end of the play including; her parents (Lady Capulet and Capulet), Friar Lawrence, Nurse and Romeo. However although she could not turn to Romeo for help, the reason for this is different to that of the other adults.
As introduced in the opening paragraph the Nurse is like a mother to Juliet and we get the feeling that the Nurse does take joy in looking after Juliet and that they are quite close. Lady Capulet however is quite distant from Juliet and the conversations that exist between them are very formal, ‘Madam I am here. What is your will?’ Juliet, at the beginning of the play can already not rely on her mother as a source of friendship or advice and not only this, but by the end of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ lady Capulet is restricted to giving help to Juliet. This is due to the restraint of being a woman at that time period of when the play was set. In Act three Scene five Juliet is pleading for the marriage between her and Paris to be cancelled or at least delayed, ‘Fie, fie, what, are you mad?’ The punctuation in this quote from Lady Capulet shows that she is hesitant and she is showing signs of nervousness and terror of Capulet by the repetition of the word ‘fie’. She is also not entitled to an opinion as a woman, ‘Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.’ So the restraint of Lady Capulet is also due to the role of women in the sixteenth century. The factor that suppresses the Nurse from protecting Juliet in the same situation is not that of Lady Capulet’s, but it is her status as a lower class citizen. She is merely viewed as a worker for the Capulets by lady Capulet and Capulet, therefore theoretically she has no right to say anything to defend Juliet in this argument, as not only does her status stop her from standing up for Juliet (and distancing their relationship) but also the fact that she has a lot to lose if she were to be sacked from her job due to expression of her opinion, which could be avoided. She would lose the money that she gets paid to support her own family and that could end in starvation and death. However, despite this we still see the Nurse express her love and care for Juliet, ‘You are to blame my lord to rate her so.’ She quoted in argument to Capulet. However because of her status she quickly withdraws from the argument and therefore has disappointed Juliet and distanced them further apart. At this point Juliet is almost totally isolated and she then turns to Friar Lawrence for help as her last hope.
