“She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” (Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 2: 9-11)
Paris tries to tempt Capulet into letting her marry him by saying “Younger than she are happy mothers made.” (Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 2: 12)
Paris says that younger wives are happier and make better mothers. He also says that girls younger than Juliet are happy when married and are happy as mothers.
Act 1 Scene 2 is all about Juliet, although she does not appear in this scene. At the beginning she is the subject that Capulet and Paris are talking about, and if she should get married to Paris or if she should wait for another two years.
Capulet also says that Juliet is his only daughter when he says, “Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she.” (Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 2: 14)
He is tying to say that all his other children have left or died and so Juliet is very precious to him. This puts a question into the mind of the reader is Capulet the loving father who cannot let his child free, it seems that she is his pride and joy and he wants his daughter to be with him for another two years.
We are introduced to Juliet at first and begin to wonder who Juliet is. The reader is given an insight into the relationship of Capulet and his daughter. However, as all good stories develop, the reader is given the chance to speculate on what will happen to Juliet. The dramatic importance is that we begin to wonder how Juliet will be and how her relationship with Romeo develops. Shakespeare is setting the scene for Juliet’s emergence in the story.
Capulet tells Paris to try to win her heart by pleasing her, to be gentle and to get to her heart. When Capulet says this it seems that he might change his mind about letting her get married. Capulet also says that if Juliet agrees to marry Paris, he will let her but in retrospect Capulet does not keep his promise and forces Juliet into marrying Paris.
Capulet invites Paris to the feast at his house that night and tells him that there are plenty more women out there, he also says he may even see other girls who might make him think twice about Juliet. This echoes Benvolio’s advice to Romeo in Scene 1.
It shows us how Capulet is a fake. He allows Paris to seek other girls- is this because he does not want Paris to marry Juliet or is it because of other aspects. We do know in retrospect that he forces Juliet to marry but this is only because Romeo is unthinkable in his eyes even more unthinkable than Paris.
The second part of Act 1 Scene 2 is when the servant is told by Capulet to give out invitations to everyone except the Montagues, and as the servant is illiterate he wonders as to what to do with the invitations. We can tell that the servant is illiterate from the extract, in which the servant says,
“Find them out whose names are written here! It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and that tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil and the painter with his nets; but I an sent to find those persons whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to be learned. In good time!” (Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 2: 32-43)
The servant complicates himself when he says that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor with his last. As he talks he muddles up the workers and their tools (a shoemaker uses a last, a tailor with a yard, and so on). The servant sees Romeo as an intelligent young man who has been taught well and he asks Romeo to read the invitations, who kindly reads it out. As the servant cannot read, he gives Romeo and Benvolio invitations but warns them that they can only come if they are not from the house of Montague. This has a dramatic impact in the story as a whole.
If Romeo had not met the illiterate Capulet servant Romeo would not have met Juliet and the story would have ended with Juliet with Paris and Romeo with Rosaline. We know that Romeo didn’t really love Rosaline because as time went on he felt detached from her.
The dramatic importance was when Romeo and Benvolio are invited to the party, the readers are allowed to wonder if in fact Romeo and Benvolio would go to the party, most readers would come to the conclusion that they would and hence the next progressive step would be for them to wonder what would happen should they come to the party.
“Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine.” (Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 2: 79-81)
The third part of Act 1 Scene 2 is when Romeo and Benvolio are talking about Romeo’s love to Rosaline. When Romeo finds out that Rosaline is going to the party he reacts by asking at whose house the feast will be. Benvolio tells Romeo to go to the party and to compare Rosaline to the girls that he will show him. When Benvolio says this Romeo reacts by saying that his “tears will turn to fire”. Romeo continues to protest that his love for Rosaline will never change. He even says that if he did see someone more beautiful than Rosaline, his eyes would burn out because they were liars, unfaithful to the true belief of Rosaline’s beauty. This really happens when Romeo falls in love with Juliet, marries, leaves her, comes back and sees her ‘dead’ and kills himself. His eyes were unfaithful because Juliet was very much alive.
Benvolio gives advice to Romeo and says that the cure for love is to look at other girls. In this scene he says this in five different ways. Benvolio calls it pain, giddy, grief, infection and fire.
Act 1 Scene 2 fits into the story as a whole because this is the turning point of the story. The story changes in different ways because of this scene, which affects the way the events unfold in the rest of the play. In retrospect we know that Romeo goes to the party and falls in love with Juliet. This happens because the servant gives him an invitation to the party.
Throughout the whole play, conflict is at the heart of the drama, conflict is always happening between the Capulets and the Montagues.
The impression that we get from this scene is that Juliet is too young to marry. You ask the question, is Juliet really old enough to make decisions that she is making? Capulet talks about the difference between age and youth. Capulet suggests that old men are better able to keep peace and it is the young men who get involved in the stupid fights on the streets. Throughout the whole story Romeo and Juliet’s parents don’t come up as reasonable people, especially Juliet’s parents who are more concerned about making their social life successful, with a prestigious marriage for their daughter, than making her happy.
In the beginning of Act 1 Scene 2 Capulet talks about Juliet’s age and why she should not marry. He also tells Paris that his agreement will only be part of the decision for Paris to marry Juliet and that Juliet will have to agree as well, however this is not what happens.
So in conclusion, Act 1 Scene 2 is very important because of the events which happen in this scene affects the story very much and it changes how the story unfolds and how the characters are affected in the scene and elsewhere in the play including those who do not appear in this scene. In Act 1 Scene 2 Romeo went to the party and met Juliet otherwise he would have stayed with Rosaline to whom his love was not very deep. Romeo actually went to the party to meet his so called love of his life, Rosaline. This scene is the turning point in the story; Romeo and Juliet would never have met if the servant did not make the mistake of giving them the invitation. It is because of the servant’s mistake the whole story changes.
