“And she agreed, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.”
He tells Paris that he will accept whoever she chooses so he trusts his daughter’s judgment.
The audience had not met Juliet yet but the audience does get a good impression of her. We know she is young as Capulet thinks so but, as Paris points out, “younger than she are happy mothers made”. Capulet talks about the party he is holding and he tells Paris about the “earth-treading stars” that would be there. He then goes on to say that
“Which on more view of many, mine being one,
May stand in numbers, though in reck’ning none.”
This gives the audience the impression that she is more beautiful than the “earth-treading stars”.
At this point in the play, an audience might think that Capulet is a loving father who cares about his daughter and who she is to marry. He seems protective over her and he doesn’t want her to marry anyone she doesn’t want to. However, he is still giving Paris a chance to woo her so he isn’t closing him as an option, just in case Juliet didn’t find a good suitor. However, Lady Capulet has different ideas for her daughter.
In Act 1 Scene 3, Lady Capulet urges Juliet to marry Paris. She thinks that it is a good match and that she is not too young to get married, a view that contrasts with her husband’s. She says to Juliet,
“…By my count,
I was your mother much upon these years
That you are now a maid.”
The fact that her view differs from that of her husband and that she does not know that he refused Paris’ proposal show that the relationship between them is tense.
Lady Capulet tells Juliet and the Nurse about Paris’ proposal. She describes Paris for Juliet with the help of the Nurse. Lady Capulet uses the extended metaphor of an expensive book to describe Paris.
“Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;”
Lady Capulet uses words related to books to describe Paris’ character and face. She says,
“This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover.”
Juliet is described as the cover, the wife, which makes a man great. What Lady Capulet is saying to Juliet is that Paris is a good man who needs a wife like Juliet to make him better.
Lady Capulet and Juliet’s relationship is only mother and daughter; they are not close. The scene begins with Lady Capulet calling for her daughter, yet she asks the Nurse to call for her. When Juliet arrives she says, “Madam, I am here, what is your will?” Juliet’s language is very civil and is not the kind of language you would expect a daughter to use to her mother. The fact that Juliet calls her mother “Madam” shows how distant they are. Lady Capulet, likewise, uses formal language when talking to her daughter and her tone is reserved. Lady Capulet addresses her daughter as “daughter Juliet”. She doesn’t know her daughter’s birthday but the Nurse knows it to the day. Juliet also doesn’t say much to her mother, only a line or two and Lady Capulet doesn’t ask if Juliet would like to marry Paris or if she wants to be married at all only, “Can you like of Paris’ love?”
In this scene the audience meets the Nurse who is Juliet’s only friend. She has been with Juliet since the beginning and knows her better than anyone in the play. The audience is given the impression that she likes talking because of her long speech that lasts almost forty-one lines. She is a lower class than Lady Capulet and Juliet and you can tell this by her language. Her language is less formal than that of Lady Capulet but her tone is friendlier and she talks of things that Lady Capulet wouldn’t dream of mentioning. She talks openly about her “dug” and she says “No less! nay, bigger women grow by men.” Lady Capulet tries to tell the Nurse to be quiet but she continues to talk about Juliet as a young child, a memory perhaps that Lady Capulet is not involved with.
Between Act 1 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 5, we can see that the character of Juliet changes. In Act 1 Scene 3, she has no ideas on love or marriage and is happy for her mother to choose a husband. However, she changes her attitude after falling in love with Romeo. She talks of love and even proposes marriage. Then, when Tybalt is dead and Romeo banished, Juliet is forced to make the decision between her cousin and her husband. Romeo’s love has forced her to make the decision and it has also forced her to grow up. Her love for Romeo makes her deceive her parents.
Act 3 Scene 5 begins with Romeo having to leave Juliet or else be killed. After a hurried warning by the Nurse, Lady Capulet enters Juliet’s bedroom. Juliet has to pretend that she is still upset about Tybalt’s death when she is really upset about Romeo’s banishment. When Lady Capulet criticizes Romeo, Juliet has to bite her tongue and agree with her. Her language is very structured and civil, as it was in Act 1 Scene 3 but the change in tone gives the audience the sense that Juliet is finding it hard to lie about Romeo. Juliet says,
[Aside] “Villain and he be many miles asunder.-
God pardon him, I do with all my heart:
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
Juliet is trying to mislead her mother from the feelings that she is really feeling and you can tell this because of the sentence that Juliet says to herself. When Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she is to be married to Paris, Juliet’s reply comes sharply. There is punctuation which gives the impression that it is sudden and with passion. For example, she says,
“I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.”
She says this as one long sentence and the punctuation indicates that she hasn’t thought about what she’s saying. We can see that her character has changed since the beginning of the play. In Act 1 Scene 3 she doesn’t say much and she has no ideas on love or marriage but in this scene, she says more to her mother and she refuses to marry Paris. Her love for Romeo seems to have given her more courage to stand up to her mother, although it was disrespectful to do so. When Capulet finds out that she will not marry Paris he gets very angry. He says to Juliet,
“Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
…get thee to church a’Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.”
This maybe because he is hurt that Juliet has refused his choice of husband for her but it is probably because Juliet is disobeying him. Women were supposed to respect and do whatever their father told them to do and by refusing to marry Paris, Juliet was disobeying her father. Capulet’s character has changed since Act 1 Scene 2 perhaps because of two reasons. He agrees to Paris marrying Juliet to cement the family’s future. Juliet is his only daughter so she has to marry well to keep the Capulet name good. Paris is a good match and by marrying Paris, Juliet will cement the Capulet’s future. Also, by marrying Paris, Juliet will be off Capulet’s hands. The second reason is to cheer Juliet up. Ever since Tybalt was murdered, she had crying for what seems for Tybalt but really for Romeo. Capulet is a bit irritated by Juliet’s constant crying and he says, “How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?”. He isn’t very supportive in Juliet’s grief because he feels that everyone is grieving but not as much as she is.
The Nurse tries to stand up for Juliet but she can’t really say anything because of her lower status and therefore if she agrees with Juliet, she will lose her job. Lady Capulet can’t stand up for Juliet because her role of a wife is to agree with her husband. She has to show Juliet an example of a good wife. She says to Juliet,
“Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.”
She feels that if Juliet cannot be a good daughter and follow her mother’s example then she can’t do anything for Juliet.
The reaction of Juliet and that of the other characters is significant at this point in the play because everything has run up to this point and the events after this speed the play up and bring the inevitable ending.
The characters of Juliet, the Nurse and the Capulets all have different attitudes to love and marriage and the characters of Juliet and Capulet changed through the play. This is because of the events that have occurred in the play which have changed their opinions. Therefore my findings are that those characters that share a close relationship have the same attitudes to love and marriage – the Nurse and Juliet – whereas those that have distant relationships – Capulet, Lady Capulet and Juliet – have different attitudes and views. I think that Shakespeare did this to cause tension between the characters and to keep alive the expectation of what is to come.