This behaviour of Juliet would have been extremely accepted in the sixteenth century as they believed that it was a woman’s duty to serve the men of their community as they lived in a patriarchal society. In addition to the fact that Verona was a patriarchal society, a person in the sixteenth century audience would have been proud of Juliet’s respect for religious values as she followed the 4th commandant which is to ‘Honour thy mother and father’.
Juliet also showed her religious nature when she had met Romeo at her father’s party in their house. Before the two star-crossed lovers shared their passionate first kiss she had told him in a sweet and saintly way by saying;
“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.”
This quote shows how Juliet speaks politely to everyone and how religious terminology appears in her vocabulary as the book she is speaking of is the Bible and in the first quote she talks of pilgrims, saints and holy palmers.
Once Juliet had met the supposedly ‘love of her life’ Romeo, her behaviour had started to change. She started to argue with her parents, even though she had only done this once, it was still more than the times she had argued with them before as she had never argued or even had a slight disagreement with her parents and their wishes. Juliet also started to lie to her family, sneak Romeo in and out her room and started to cause disruption throughout everybody’s lives. Juliet was now a difficult teenager.
In Act 3 Scene 2, Juliet’s once extremely religious and respectful language turns to cruel and violent language when she finds out devastating news about her beloved cousin Tybalt and her newlywed husband, Romeo. Romeo was banished from Verona when he was found guilty of killing Tybalt after he had murdered his best friend Mercutio. Juliet felt disastrous about the news she had previously found out.
Act 3 Scene 5 is the scene where Juliet is told that she would be marrying Paris on the consecutive Thursday. As Juliet was married to Romeo, she had automatically refused to do as asked. Once her mother had told her father she had declined their request, he was livid. This is when the first argument between Juliet and her parents broke out. Juliet had never in her life had a slight disagreement with her parents so I would think that the original audience of this play would have taken this in as a shock. Most of the words being spoken by Juliet had double meanings, seeing as they could be interpreted as completely opposite things. In this scene although Juliet may have just seemed like a ranting and slightly confused teenager, she could be considered as maybe a child seeking freedom from rules and the chance to be heard rather than spoken over.
Juliet’s speech then turns to completely confused when she constantly asks herself rhetorical questions about the potion she is about to take in Act 4 Scene 3. In this scene she is talking to herself whilst saying everything on her mind therefore she is performing a soliloquy. In her soliloquy she uses quite violent language as she describes her fears of drinking the potion Friar Laurence had given to her, her troubles about Romeo and the troubles about how her life is working out for her now.
Act 5 Scene 3 is an example of a tragic ending as Romeo and Juliet both end up dead. Although they died together, neither of them suffered from a peaceful death. This scene shows that at the ending of this play Juliet has become nothing but a violent young adult as she kills herself with a dagger and talks nothing but violent words in this final scene. When she awakes to find Romeo dead beside her after he had drank all of the poison he had earlier purchased, she is angry and also upset as he had left her no poison to kill herself with.
Overall, during the course of this famous Shakespeare play, Juliet has gone from a 16th century good girl to a 21st century misunderstood teenager and all of this could be told by the change of her language and her perspective of everything happening around her..
