Based on Act 3 scene 5, what is your opinion of Juliet's relationship with her parents? How responsible do you think they are for her tragic death? Who else do you hold responsible?

Olawale Fagbemi

10 ALH

English Coursework

Based on Act 3 scene 5, what is your opinion of Juliet’s relationship with her parents? How responsible do you think they are for her tragic death? Who else do you hold responsible?

In my essay, I am going to give my opinion of Juliet’s relationship with her parents, how responsible they are for her tragic death and also who else that could be hold responsible.

William Shakespeare uses imagery in his plays to make his audience understand his story by giving a window into his character’s minds, this lets the audience hear what they are thinking. For example in his plays he uses metaphors and similes like the moon, stars and sun. This produces pictures in the minds of people reading or watching his plays. William Shakespeare also uses poetry and language in his plays. This is to create dramatic effect. An example of this could be When Romeo sees Juliet he speaks about her, using metaphor: “She doth teach the torches to burn bright”. This tells us that Juliet's beauty is much brighter than that of the torches - so she is very beautiful. She is so much brighter that she teaches the torches how to shine - a poetic exaggeration, since torches can't really be taught.

At the beginning of Act3 Scene5, the atmosphere was calm, quiet and the birds were singing beautifully. In the play Juliet said;

“Yond light is not day light I know it I: it is some meteor that the sun exhales”.

This is telling how the morning was. Romeo and Juliet had just spent the night together in Juliet’s bedroom. Afterwards Romeo wanted to go or he will get arrested and will be prosecuted because Romeo had been banished from Verona for murdering Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. He later changed his mind by not wanting to go; he wanted to stay with Juliet. He said;

‘‘Let me be arrested. Let me be put to death! That’s all right with me if it’s what you want’’.

This show how deeply in love Romeo is, for him to be willing to risk his life just to be with Juliet.

Juliet doesn’t want Romeo to leave because she won’t be seeing him again. Romeo had been banished to Mantua by prince Escalus. Juliet said;

‘‘Must you go? It’s not nearly day’’.

This shows that how Juliet doesn’t want Romeo to leave yet. But later she changed her mind and realised the danger for Romeo by saying;

‘‘Go now! Be gone! Go!”

This shows how much she cares about him and doesn’t want Romeo to get in trouble.

Lady Capulet’s relationship with Juliet was not good at all, it was as if she didn’t give birth to Juliet she was always thinking about herself. This shows she is a cold woman.

Lady Capulet talks to Juliet in away a mother wouldn’t talk to her child it shows she doesn’t know how to handle her. She said;

“Ho, daughter are you up?”

This shows she doesn’t spend enough time with Juliet because she is always busy with herself. The nurse’s relationship with Juliet is very good. She treats Juliet as a daughter she never had. The nurse breast fed Juliet when she was born because in Shakespeare time most rich families had nurses to look after their children. This is one of the reasons why Juliet and the nurse are so ...

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Lady Capulet talks to Juliet in away a mother wouldn’t talk to her child it shows she doesn’t know how to handle her. She said;

“Ho, daughter are you up?”

This shows she doesn’t spend enough time with Juliet because she is always busy with herself. The nurse’s relationship with Juliet is very good. She treats Juliet as a daughter she never had. The nurse breast fed Juliet when she was born because in Shakespeare time most rich families had nurses to look after their children. This is one of the reasons why Juliet and the nurse are so close. Juliet tells the nurse almost everything even some secrets, she trusts the nurse more than she does to her own mother. Lady Capulet’s relationship with Juliet compare to the nurse’s relationship with Juliet is worthless because she doesn’t understand her and respect her decision. I know this because of the way Lady Capulet doesn’t seem to care about Juliet she tends to leave everything to the nurse. For example when Juliet needed Lady Capulet’s support, she said;

“Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou will, for I have done with thee”.

This shows how she doesn’t care about Juliet or she just doesn’t know how to react, she is leaving Juliet to face her own problems on her own.

Lady Capulet entered Juliet’s room and found out that Juliet was crying, she thought Juliet was crying because of Tybalt’s death not knowing she was crying because she won’t see Romeo again. This shows how they don’t talk to each other that often and it

also shows that they are not close to each other like a mother and daughter should be. This also shows how Juliet cleverly let Lady Capulet think she was crying because of Tybalt’s death.

Lady Capulet tells Juliet about her getting married to Paris on Thursday because Lord and Lady Capulet were thinking of more wealth Paris was going to bring to their family as they would be moving in the class system, from a middle class to an upper class. Juliet disagrees and shouted at her that she is definitely not getting married to Paris because she was already married to Romeo and also in love with him. She said;

“I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris”.

This shows Juliet and her mother Lady Capulet were never agreed on anything. Lady Capulet went mad and told Juliet to tell her father herself because she knew Lord Capulet would be very cross and Juliet would be in trouble with her father because in Shakespeare time children always obeyed and did whatever their parents told them to do.

Lady Capulet thought Lord Capulet was right to tell Juliet to marry Paris. After all they have been through to give the best Juliet wanted because in those days parents made decisions for their children and the children would not question their parents and also because of wealth. Lady Capulet said;

“Ay sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks. I would the fool were married to her grave”.

This shows how Lady Capulet is trying to make Lord Capulet calm down and make sure that he knows she is on his side. I think Lady Capulet was in one way or the other responsible for Juliet’s death. She should have paid more attention to Juliet’s wishes, listened to her opinions and maybe given advice on dealing with Romeo being banished to Mantua. Lady Capulet didn’t know about Juliet and Romeo love for another because Juliet was sacred of telling her about it.

Lord Capulet is a proud, short tempered man. He is a middle class rich man; he is the lord, head of his household. Lord Capulet was glad and happy about Juliet getting married, He wanted Juliet to marry Paris because he wanted to be popular, important and also have more wealth. He wants to be in a high rank position.

Lord Capulet reacted badly when he heard Juliet had refused to marry Paris. He was very angry and started to question Juliet why she refused to marry Paris. This changed the mood of the scene. Lord Capulet said;

“Doth she gives us thanks? Doth she not count her blest, unworthy as she is”

This shows how upset and mad lord Capulet is because he has made a lot of arrangements for the engagement and also because of the status. This made Juliet feel alone, she feels like she has just been betrayed by her mother, father and even the nurse because they didn’t respect her decision.

I think Lord Capulet was also in a way or other responsible for Juliet’s death. He should have paid more attention to his only daughter Juliet and listen to her opinions on not wanting to marry Paris and also her wishes. Lord Capulet was also too hard on her when she refused to marry Paris. This made Juliet feel she had nothing to hope for after she marry the person she doesn’t even love. Lord Capulet was thinking more of his status, leadership and higher place he will be if Juliet marries Paris instead of trying to get to know her daughter like he should.

Throughout the play, I think everyone is in some way responsible for the death of Romeo and Juliet as they all could have stopped it but no one did because of the feud going on between the Capulets and the Monatgues. For example, Friar Lawrence should never have married Romeo and Juliet in secret but I suppose he had done this to stop the feud between the two families. He should have made sure that both parents knew about the marriage. Maybe that would have stopped the feud. Friar Lawrence also gave Juliet the potion which made everything even worse than it was. The Prince was also to be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s death. He should have worked out some decent solutions to the feud between the Montague and Capulet which caused Romeo being banished to Mantua.

I think Lord and Lady Montague were also responsible in some ways for Romeo and Juliet’s death. If they had listened to Romeo, they would have understood him more and he wouldn’t have kept secret s away from them. The secret they should have known was Romeo getting married to Juliet. Lord and Lady Montague should have shared Romeo’s thoughts with him. They had the authority and power to stop the quarrelling between the two families but they chose not to, neither did the Capulets.

The nurse was also to be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s death as she made Juliet feel she was being betrayed by telling Juliet she had no choice but to marry Paris after she was already involved when Juliet married Romeo secretly. The nurse should have let the

Capulets know what was going on instead of just keeping quiet about it. Romeo also contributed to their death he acted too quickly, he shouldn’t have asked Juliet to marry him when he knew both families were having a quarrel. Juliet was also the cause of their death; she shouldn’t have deceived and disobeyed her parents even though she had no choice. Juliet was too hasty in rushing in to marriage; she should have had a long thought about getting married with her family’s enemy. Also Tybalt could be blamed for Romeo and Juliet’s death because he started the fight that resulted to Romeo being banished to Mantua. This made the families hate each other more.

The problem was not the fault of anyone basically it occurred because of bad luck. It was fate and in Shakespeare’s times people believed in fate. Meaning it was destiny that Romeo and Juliet met and fell in love with each other despite their families were having a disagreement between each other. It didn’t just happened and plus Juliet had foretell their deaths when she was on the balcony of her bedroom. She said;

“O God! I have an ill-divining soul:

Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb”

This shows how she feels if Romeo and her are to be caught. The letter Friar Lawrence sent to Romeo in Mantua could have saved their lives but instead the letter didn’t reach Romeo in time. This shows unlucky they are.

At the beginning of Act3 scene5 the atmosphere was magical. As soon as Romeo and Juliet had woken up and looked at each other’s eyes they knew they felt right together, they knew they made the right decision of getting married the night before. The mood changed from blissful to miserable when Lady Capulet enters the scene and Romeo exits. Lady Capulet brought a negative atmosphere by telling Juliet what she didn’t want to hear. As this scene went on the audience would probably be thinking, why does Lady Capulet had to come in, She ruined the calm and peacefulness of the scene. The audience know that everything is going to turn out badly for Romeo and Juliet and the feud between the two families wouldn’t resolve unless something miraculous happens. The effect would be emotional because they didn’t want Romeo to die and all they want is happy ending. The audience also knew if Juliet was to marry Paris they wouldn’t have a happy life as Juliet would be in love with Romeo which means Juliet would be in distressed mood all the time because she didn’t marry Romeo instead. This would get the audience involved because they know if Juliet was to marry Paris it wouldn’t be for love it would be for money.

As a member of the audience I would feel sad and sorry for Romeo and Juliet because their life hasn’t been the type of life they wanted or the life anyone deserves. Everything was destroyed by the feud between the two families, they are always quarrelling and fighting which leads to deaths. I think in those days young children should have been allowed to make their own decisions, this is what Juliet’s parent should have done, allow her to make her own decisions and also discuss with her whether she wanted to get married to Paris or not. They should have been really close to her and also listen to what she says and what she wanted which was to marry Romeo.

My advice for Juliet would be not to marry someone secretly especially when children obeyed and listen to what their parents tells them to do at the Victorian times, parents arranged marriages so that they will be more wealthy meaning they get their children to marry someone high up in social class.

I guess after the death of Romeo and Juliet, both families have come together to discuss why things went wrong.

Romeo and Juliet’s death ended the feud between the two families.