Character of Juliet

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Analyse the character of Juliet, showing clearly whether she changes during the coarse of the play. – Hannah Fewings 10G

     In William Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet”, the character of Juliet changes constantly throughout the play. In some scenes she is a calm and calculated adult, in others she is seen as a somewhat immature child and sometimes she is observed as a glorious mix between the two.

     We first see Juliet when she is called for by her mother. Juliet is very curious towards her mother when she says ‘madam, I am here’. This shows her maturity and respect. She gives her mother what seems like very careful and measured answers. When she is asked what she thinks of marriage she replies that ‘it is an honour that I dream not of’. It’s as if she thought of who she was talking to and then thought of an appropriate answer for that person.

     Then later in the play, when she first speaks with Romeo, Juliet speaks with the excitement of a child but also with the maturity and understanding of an adult. In their shared sonnet, Juliet is quietly confident and responds appropriately. When Romeo uses the imagery of ‘two blushing pilgrims’ she immediately picks up o his language and echoes it and calls him ‘good pilgrim’. When Romeo kisses her for the first time she replies with ‘you kiss by th’book’. This shows her child-like excitement but also in her excitement we can see the emotional maturity of an adult.

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     After the party is over and Juliet has retired to the balcony we see a less rational side of her when she asks for Romeo to ‘deny thy father and refuse thy name’. She knows this can never happen yet still whimsically says it as though there is no feud. But when she realises that Romeo is in the garden she quickly becomes more practical and a bit anxious. She knows that the garden will be Romeo’s ‘place of death… if any of [her] kinsmen find [him]’. She later asks Romeo that if he ‘dost love, pronounce it ...

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