When Lady Capulet enters and finds Juliet crying she immediately assumes it is for Tybolt’s death when it is more for Romeo leaving. When Juliet is talking to her mother about killing Romeo Juliet uses double meanings, for example ‘Indeed I never shall be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him – dead. Is my moor hear so far a kinsman vexed. As an audience would know Romeo and Juliet have secretly got married so we read this as though she loves Romeo and wants to see him again she also doesn’t want to betray Romeo or her mother. Lady Capulet sees this, as she will not be happy until Romeo is dead. This is another example of dramatic irony. The ambiguous way that Juliet is talking adds tension to the scene. This is because the audience don’t know what meaning Lady Capulet will chose to hear.
When Lady Capulet tells Juliet about the marriage to Paris the scene quickly picks up pace. Lady Capulet doesn’t get the reaction that she expects. Lady Capulet expects Juliet to be pleased. In Elizabethan times children would have done exactly what adults said. When Juliet doesn’t her mother disowns her. When she is not pleased because she is already married to Romeo
She says ‘He shall not make me there a joyful bride’. Her mother then downs her ‘Do as thou wilt for I have done with thee’ and tells her she can tell her father herself that she will not marry Paris.
When Capulet enters the mood of the scene quickly changes, the pace of the scene becomes quicker and tenser. The tension mounts as Capulet starts shouting and being threatening towards Juliet. An example of this is when he says ‘I will drag thee on a hurdle thither’ and then ‘out you green sickness carrion out you baggage’. An Elizabethan audience would not have been as shocked at Capulet’s behaviour as a modern day audience. A historical audience would have agreed more with Capulet because children and women would have done as men had said. As modern day families tend to have more responsibility, independence and would not usually be put in this situation.
When Capulet says ‘my fingers itch’ this means that Capulet wants to hit Juliet. This would horrify and shock modern day audiences. It also makes the audience feel more sorry for Juliet because now both her parents have turned their backs on Juliet and now she can only turn to the nurse who she believes will side with her. She believes this because she stood up for Juliet when Capulet was abusive towards her. She says ‘You are to blame my Lord to rate her so’. Capulet replies to this by calling the nurse ‘and why my lady wisdom’. This is a sarcastic comment towards the nurse then he dismisses the nurse and called her ‘peace you mumbling fool’. This shows that he thinks all she does is gossip and that she is not very educated. The way he speaks to the nurse also adds tension to the scene because it shows Capulet has become abusive and potentially violent towards others as well as Juliet, this makes him unpredictable therefore adds tension to the scene. When Juliet turns to the nurse the nurse tells her to marry Paris because Romeo has gone. Juliet feels betrayed by the nurse, as earlier in the play the nurse had commented on how nice Romeo was and how she liked him. This shows how Juliet’s relationship with her mum and the nurse are different. Juliet has more of a relationship with the nurse as she told her about her marriage with Romeo. We get the impression that the nurse has brought Juliet up. Juliet’s mother quickly downs her when she refuses to marry Paris. As the nurse also turns her back on Juliet she has no choice but to turn to Friar Lawrence.
At the end of the scene Shakespeare leaves the audience with a final image of Juliet on her own because it shows how everyone has turned their back on her, first Romeo, then her father, then her mother and then the nurse. She has no-one left to turn to. This makes it a tense and effective ending because the audience don’t know what Juliet will do next. Will she kill herself because she has become so isolated? The audience may believe she will when she says ‘If all else fail, myself have power to die’. This shows that if Friar Lawrence’s poison doesn’t work she would rather be dead than marry Paris and stay part of her family. This leaves the audience on a ‘cliff hanger’ and eager to know how Romeo and Juliet will die and if they will meet again.
Jenny Holroyd 11E1
