Later on in the text when Lord Capulet finds out that Juliet doesn’t want to marry Paris, (because lord Capulet doesn’t understand the reasoning behind her feelings), he becomes very angry. Shakespeare shows us this anger again through his use of exaggeration. As Lord Capulet gets angrier, his exaggeration gets more pronounced. “And we have a curse in having her!” Lord Capulet doesn’t actually mean that Juliet is a curse; he just says it in his anger.
To us, Lord Capulet does appear to get very angry for no good reason, but what we must remember is that in his time women were not thought of as equals to men but as lesser people, they had less rights and social status. Shakespeare’s audience would have understood exactly why Lord Capulet was so angry, the way he treated Juliet is the way most women in those days were treated. Shakespeare wrote his play aimed at that audience, he wrote the play to suit an Elizabethan audience.
Shakespeare mainly uses emotive language to develop his characters, and make them more personal.
In the beginning of this extract, and when Lady Capulet first discovers that Juliet does not wish to marry Paris she agrees with her husband and begins to insult Juliet. “I would the fool were married to the grave.” Lady Capulet is calling Juliet a fool and that if she had her way she would be, “married to the grave”. Lord Capulet then joins in and calls Juliet, “a minion”. These insults are used to make us feel sorry for Juliet, and see Lord and Lady Capulet in their true light, as very unpleasant people.
Juliet appears to say very little in her defence, all she does is kneels before her father and says, “Father I beseech you on my knees,” even though Juliet is begging on her knees before him Lord Capulet just breaks in and talks over what she is saying and ignores it. This is related to his broken relationship with his daughter.
As the play goes on Lord Capulet starts to get into a roll and makes himself even more angry, “An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets.” What Lord Capulet is saying is that if Juliet does not attend church on Thursday then for all he cares she can hang, beg, starve or even die in the streets. This is an extreme example of Shakespeare’s use of emotive language, and builds upon our impression of Lord Capulet as man angry and fierce man.
Again as Lord Capulet anger grows so does the power of Shakespeare’s emotive language, we grow more and more sorry for Juliet and we dislike Lord Capulet ever more; also Lord Capulet is breaking communication with Juliet which is symbolic of his broken life.
Shakespeare mainly uses varied punctuation to make certain words stand out, he emphasises important parts.
At the beginning of this extract the punctuation is varied and follows no certain pattern, just like it would be in a normal conversation. However later on in the extract, when
Lord Capulet starts becoming angry his varied punctuation becomes more pronounced, “Proud – and I thank you – and I thank you not – and yet not proud?” In this quote Shakespeare uses punctuation to split up each part of what Lord Capulet is saying so that we read what he is saying more carefully and pay more attention to it, this change in punctuation makes it stand out. Also the punctuation gives us the impression that Lord Capulet is angry, so angry in fact that he is having difficulty in getting his words out, the dash shows us that he is pausing to think of what he is going to say next. By splitting up each part of what Lord Capulet is saying we read it more carefully and we notice just what he is saying, Lord Capulet is using Juliet’s own words against her and is mocking what she is saying, trying to make her seem as if she is very foolish and young; Lord Capulet does not however realise that by doing this he is actually making himself look childish.
Towards the end of the extract Lord Capulet has got into a roll and the words just start spewing out, it is as if he is taking out all his pent up frustration on Juliet! The technique Shakespeare uses to show us this is enjamberment.
“To have her matched. And having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
of fair demesnes, youthful and nobily trained.”
The lack of full stops shows that the words came out in quick succession, without any pauses.
Shakespeare mainly uses repetition in this play to make see the characters true personality. On the surface Lord Capulet seems like a noble man, but behind closed doors and in the confines of his own home we se another totally different and much more cruel side. The repetition is used when Lord Capulet mimics what Juliet has just said, he 9s making fun of her, e.g. “Not proud you have, but thankful you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate, but thankful even for hate that is meant love.” Becomes, “Proud – and I thank you - and I thank you not- and yet not proud?” By doing this Shakespeare shows us how petty and pathetic Lord Capulet really is, this stirs our emotions and makes us feel sorry for Juliet.
Repetition also shows lord Capulet's anger, “hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what - get thee to church a’ Thursday.” Lord Capulet is directing this at Juliet and it means you, you, you this is another way that Shakespeare builds sympathy for Juliet.
For the actor/actress playing this scene there are some key point which I would suggest to them in order to keep this extract dramatic and tense.
When Lord Capulet is speaking to Juliet and starts to mimic her words lines 149-151, I would suggest that the actor playing Lord Capulet point his finger at Juliet each time he says, “thee”, this will make it clear to the watcher and would be symbolic that he is ‘poking’ fun at what Juliet is saying and will help the watcher to understand that Lord Capulet still thinks of Juliet as a little girl. The actor should also put on a mock voice to make it clear that Lord Capulet is repeating what Juliet has just said, as he approaches each ‘thee’ the actor should ‘sober up’ to remind the watcher just how angry he is!
On lines 156-157 when Lord Capulet calls Juliet “baggage” and says she looks like “green sickness carrion” Lord Capulet should pick up a porcelain or breakable object and smash it against a wall or floor in his anger. This breaking would be symbolic of the now broken relationship between him and Juliet.
When Juliet begs her father upon her knees, line 158-159, the actress playing Juliet should remain upon her knees and begin to sob whilst her father further insults her, lines 160-169. At the point when Lord Capulet calls Juliet a “curse” and Nurse steps in and says, “God in heaven bless her! You are to blame, my Lord, to rate her so,” the actress playing nurse should put her arm around Juliet in a ‘motherly’ way, this would show the watcher that when Juliet’s biological mother should have been there to help Juliet it was Nurse who stood by her, and became her ‘mother’. It would also show the watcher how much Nurse cares for Juliet.
In conclusion I would say that Shakespeare does indeed succeed in making Act3 Scene 5 lines 126-204 dramatic and tense. I believe that his use of emotive language is his most important technique in doing this as it both helps to give the characters depth, and makes us see the characters as Shakespeare wanted them to be seen, which is of great importance for the play to be interpreted correctly.
