In act one scene one, Shakespeare introduces the audience to Lord Capulet as a petty character, Illustrating little importance. He won’t allow anyone power over himself or his authority. The scene of the street brawl between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s Demonstrate how interchangeable Capulet can be. “My sword I say old Montague is come and nourish his blade in spite of me” This establishes Capulet is willing to fight for his power. He can’t bare being the underdog, knowing the Montague’s are armed and the Capulet’s stand defenseless. He evidently cares what people consider of him. I judge he is eager to join in or make a stop to the brawl, as he is hasty for Lady Capulet to fetch his sword. “What noise is this? Give me my long sword”
In act one scene two we are introduced to Paris, who requests Juliet’s hand in marriage. He tries to flatter, (sweet talk) Lord Capulet to persuade him to agree with the marriage. But Capulet is very intelligent; he uses nature imagery within his archaic language to display his strong feelings for his only daughter. Within his speech about Juliet “my child is yet a stranger in the world she has not seen the change of fourteen years” he believes she is still very young and is not ready to become a women nether a wife at this time. But in this time women were married much younger, generally in their early teens, due to the fact that life expectancy was much lower than today. It was normal for fathers to choose their daughters husband and so for girls to have arranged marriages. This shows Capulet is being considerate towards Juliet. “Let two more summers wither in their pride, ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” This is an example of the theme time. He is very protective over Juliet, Capulet wishes only the best for his daughter, and is terrified of losing her. “The earth has swallow’d all my hopes but she” this suggests he had other children but they died young, making Juliet his world, his only care and thinks very highly of her. Capulet uses a variety of rhyming couplets within his speech about Juliet and is very poetic associating his love for her. I propose he calculated and thought it through prior talking to Paris, as it comes out spontaneously. Lord Capulet compares his daughter to a flower, “among fresh female buds shall you this night.” Showing that Juliet has not full flowered yet, she is still young. He won’t make her marry Paris unless she willingly accepts to. Capulet is very attentive, he tests Paris’s affections, by complementing other ladies to see if Paris diverses and sees if he truly loves his daughter. If so, he will allow Paris to try and win Juliet’s heart over; if he succeeds he will give his consent. Shakespeare exploits Capulet to introduce the character of Juliet to the audience, presenting her as meek, mild and pure.
Within the scene where Capulet is crossed by Tybalt at his masked ball, Capulet differs again. His mood suddenly changes from being humorous and charming to being hot headed and flying of the handle. I believe he is short tempered and is unable to control it; he becomes very angry towards Tybalt. “Why, how now, kinsman! Wherefore storm you so?” This demonstrates to the audience how infuriating he can be. I speculate the audiences learn that Capulet is a changeable character, as he is logical and caring but he becomes deadly serious when someone tries to challenge him. He assumes people should respect his authority.
In act three, Lord Capulet informs his wife about the proposal. Lady Capulet deems Juliet will be overjoyed with the news “hath sorted out a sudden day of joy that thou expect’st not nor I look’d not for” she has a positive view to marriage and feels all she needs is a man. She reveals the news to Juliet. At first Juliet considers the proposal as good news. But she then says she would rather marry her enemy than marry Paris. This is amusing because she has previously married her enemy, Romeo, in secret. “I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear, I shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris” This shows Juliet is intensely in love with Romeo. Lady Capulet says “here comes your father; tell him yourself.” I imagine she wouldn’t tell him, Presuming Capulet will go insane. As he evidently did so, “I will drag thee on a hurdle thither, out, you green- sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow –face!” This demonstrates how contrasting his thoughts really are, he can not believe she is being so ungrateful. Previously He was praising her up, saying how dearly he loves her and how divine she is. But now he states she is worthless that Juliet is like a curse and wishes she was no longer here. In addition he told Paris that it was Juliet’s decision if she’d like to marry him. He went back on his word and gave Juliet no choice of the matter, using his authority to over rule her, this is proof he was contradicting himself. In this time women were owned by their fathers until their time of marriage when they became property of their husbands. Capulet’s goal was to find a suitable match for his darling daughter, having so Juliet refused and Capulet became immoral, he bellowed wicked things to Juliet, which today no father would dare say. I presuppose Capulet thinks he has the right to speak to his daughter in such a way because she is his ‘property’ I don’t think this is right, nobody should be spoken to in that manner. I sense Juliet was distressed because of this. “I’ll to the friar, to know his remedy if all else fail, myself have power to die” Lord Capulet is an over powering man, he demands and receives what he wishes, no matter if he hurts someone’s feelings, especially his own flesh and bloods.
Overall I have discussed that Lord Capulet has two completely opposite sides to him. He can be kind, loving, and charming, e.g. scene one, but he can soon flip to becoming unmistakably hot- headed, controlling and malicious preparing us for his actions in scene five.