After Romeo leaves, Lady Capulet enters. Shakespeare shows a distance in the relationship between Lady Capulet and Juliet, by the way that they speak to each other. Juliet says, “It is my lady mother.” This shows that they have a formal relationship, because Juliet calls her “lady mother.” Their relationship is also very complicated, because Lady Capulet hates Romeo for killing her nephew Tybalt, and says that she wants him dead. Juliet has to hear her mother talking about wanting her husband killed, and not show any of her true emotions. Later in the scene, when Capulet is arguing with Juliet about her arranged marriage with Paris, Lady Capulet does not do anything to defend Juliet. Lady Capulet just says, “Fie, fie, what, are you mad?” Mothers have a reputation of being soft and kind, so we expected Lady Capulet to act this way to Juliet, but she showed no sympathy towards her. However, it is important for Lady Capulet to act this way, otherwise Juliet would have had a shoulder to cry on and would not feel so alone. If Juliet felt this way, then she would not want to die.
Capulet initially approaches Juliet in a kind and joking way, trying to cheer her up by joking about her being a fountain from crying so much. When Capulet finds out that Juliet refuses to marry Paris, he is very angry. He reacts this way, because he has spent a lot of time and effort organising the wedding, and thinks that Juliet is ungrateful. Juliet feels that her father’s request is terrible, because she is already married to Romeo, who she loves, and she hates the idea of an arranged marriage. The way that Juliet behaved to her father would have been seen as rude, because in the Elizabethan period a father had complete control over the women in his family, and women were not allowed to express their opinion. Women also had to follow the orders of the men in their family. So when Juliet refused to do as her father told her, Capulet used insults and threatens against Juliet to show his annoyance.
The audience would have regarded Juliet’s refusal as rude and unbelievable. Capulet calls Juliet, “You green-sickness carrion, you baggage, you tallow-face.” When Capulet says this, he is saying that Juliet is not worth anything and is a waste of space. Capulet thinks that Juliet’s behaviour towards him is rude and ungrateful. The audience would feel that he was right to be angry towards Juliet, as he had spent a lot of time and effort to organise the wedding, and does not know that Juliet is already married, so he would not understand why Juliet is refusing to marry Paris.
Act 3:5 is a feature of the tragedy, because during the scene, Romeo is banished, Juliet argues with her father, receives no sympathy from her mother, and even the nurse who is like a best friend to her does not give her any sympathy. Juliet is left devastated by the end of the scene, and just wants to die. She can not believe that the nurse does not give her any sympathy, and basically says that Paris is a lot better than Romeo, and she should just get on with her life and marry Paris. At that point Juliet decides that she is going to kill herself.
The emotional pace has changed throughout the scene. At the beginning of the scene Romeo and Juliet were very happy because they had spent their first night together, but then they were upset as they knew that Romeo had to leave. After Romeo left, Juliet was crying hysterically. Lady Capulet thought that Juliet was grieving for her cousin Tybalt’s death and thought that telling her that she was going to marry Paris would cheer her up. Juliet refused to marry Paris, which was when she had a huge row with Capulet. Nobody defended Juliet, including the nurse who is her best friend. Juliet was left feeling devastated at the end of the scene, which is when she decided she was going to kill herself.
