Juliet, at the start of the play is inexperienced and vulnerable. She is wrapped in cotton wool by the Nurse, smothered and not allowed her own insight on the world. She had never been in love before she met Romeo. She would have carried on with life, and married the first man her mother set her up with. This almost happens. Paris, a kinsman of the Prince, represents one of the social pressures breaking in on her intimate relationship with Romeo.
Juliet agrees to marry Paris, but not for the cause of love.
“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move;
But on more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.” Juliet would only be marrying Paris because it would please Lady Capulet. This further shows Juliet’s inability to make her own decisions, the lack of will to make her own decisions and the great influence her mother has on her life. This, is all of Juliet’s character at the start of the play, there is no other side to her. Juliet is not disobedient, she respects and loves her parents, and would marry anyone they deemed fit to marry their daughter. This shows naivety and a lack of independence on her part.
At the Capulet’s ball, where Juliet has been instructed to introduce herself to Paris, Romeo first sets his eyes on Juliet. Then, it’s as if he has come across a cure for his ‘love’ with Rosaline – suddenly, his words become far less contrived. Truth shows in his words’. Romeo has not thought about them, because this is true love. When he meets her, he states
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand,
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand,
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” This shows great change in Romeo’s attitude towards love. This statement does rhyme as before, but the difference is that the words are spoken to somebody, he is not complaining to himself about Rosaline this time.
When Romeo and Juliet kiss, all sorts of emotions are released from her. As if she were a caged bird, released. This is her very first sexual experience, and as is read later, she wants more of it.
“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.” These lines form part of a sonnet, and a sonnet is the most expressive form of writing for Shakespeare.
In Act 2, Scene 2 Romeo and Juliet progress further. Their love becomes an open expression, and they break down all the barriers that stand in their way. Romeo climbed over the Capulet mansion’s wall just to be closer to Juliet, he risked his life to be near her, as he would undoubtedly have been killed had Capulet’s men caught him.
In Tybalt and Mercutio’s battle, Romeo discourages them both from fighting. This shows that he is no longer a boy, who wishes to prove hi manliness by fighting. He is a man, who does not need to prove anything. But because Tybalt then killed Mercutio, Romeo felt the need to avenge his best friend. He kills Tybalt, and this shows a whole new side to him. He is violent and impulsive.
Juliet’s changes are prominent as well. She is now experienced from her love with Romeo and she is resourceful. By taking the poison and temporarily ‘killing’ herself, she in effect cancels her wedding with Paris, the man who she now does not want to marry, another change from the old, obedient Juliet. She is now independent, choosing who she wants to love and to live with. Also, ultimately, she kills herself when she finds Romeo, dead, lying next to her. An ironic tale, seeing as he killed himself thinking she were dead only for her to wake and do the same.