Another character that we have seen change in this scene is Capulet. In previous scenes Capulet has been calm and has been a good, understanding father to Juliet. In this scene Capulet loses his temper. “To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither”. I do not disagree with Capulet for losing his temper but I think that he gets too angry too quickly and he does not listen to Juliet like he has done before in the play. Capulet did not like Juliet disagreeing with him because if everybody else in Verona heard that he could not even control his own daughter his reputation would be damaged and people would think of him as a push over.
Lady Capulet also stands up for herself in this scene in the play, which is different to how we have seen her before. Before Lady Capulet seemed as if she was scared of Capulet and you got the impression that she would never stand up to him. In this scene Lady Capulet stands up to Capulet because Nurse gives her the courage. “You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so”. Here Nurse says that all of this mess is Capulet’s fault, and after this Lady Capulet also says “You are too hot”. Telling Capulet to calm down is not much for most couples but it is for Lady Capulet and it really took a lot of courage to say this to him.
Relationships have also been pivotal from this scene onwards because Juliet’s relationships with Capulet and Nurse have changed in this scene. Her relationship with her father has changed the most because Capulet says to her “get thee to church a‘Thursday, or never after look me in the face”. Before in the play Capulet gave the impression that he would not get angry and that her would listen to Juliet but here he says that if she does not marry Paris he will disown her and she will no longer be a daughter to him.
Juliet’s relationship changes with Nurse in this scene because Juliet goes to Nurse for support when she is told that she must marry Paris but Nurse does not give her the advise that she hoped that she would. “I think it best you married with the County”. Here Nurse tells Juliet to forget about Romeo and to marry Paris. Juliet thought that she could go to Nurse for support and that Nurse would always want what Juliet wanted, whereas here Juliet feels that Nurse has betrayed her.
Another factor that has made this scene in the pivotal is that the mood has changed from optimistic to pessimistic. Before this scene the play has been optimistic because Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other has given this play optimism through all of the bad things that have happened to different characters. Romeo and Juliet give the play optimism because the audience know that their love is strong, but after they leave each other at the beginning of this scene the play becomes pessimistic because of the dramatic irony. This is when the audience know what is coming next in the play and in this case the audience know that Romeo and Juliet will never see each other alive again. Also the scene is pivotal for Juliet because at the beginning of the scene Juliet is feeling in love with Romeo and she is happy that she is with him, but as the scene progresses Juliet starts to feel worse because she realises that she either has to marry a man that she does not love, or be thrown out of her own home and not acknowledged by her family.
At the beginning of Act 3 Scene 5 there should be birdsong that the audience can hear. This is because the beginning of the scene is set in the morning so you should have birds singing to let the audience know this. Also Romeo and Juliet talk about the birds singing. “It was the nightingale, and not the lark”. This line in the play would make no sense if there were no noise because the actors would be talking about something that was not there. Also something else that would let the audience know for sure that it was the morning is if the room gradually got lighter and the light would be shining in through Juliet’s window so it would look like sunlight.
When Romeo gets up out of the bed and starts getting dressed he should never be too far from Juliet because the audience need to feel that they are really in love. It should also seem that there is a magnet between them attracting them to each other. Maybe during this part of the scene Juliet should always be touching Romeo and when Romeo delivers the line “Let me be tane, let me be put to death”, Juliet should be helping Romeo get dressed and they should be laughing and joking together. This would be show that they are really comfortable in each other’s presence and can tease each other. When Romeo leaves Juliet he should come out into the audience. This would be great for the play because it would be a physical representation of them being apart from each other. This would be dramatic irony because at this point the audience know that they would never see each other again.
When Juliet says the line “Madam, I am not well” to her mother Juliet should hesitate a bit because when her mother asks her what was wrong she was trying to cover up what was really wrong with her and she had to think of a quick excuse. When Juliet says that she will not marry Paris “He shall not make me there a joyful bride” she could either deliver this line in two ways. The first way is that she could say it as if she was having an emotional outburst, and say these lines quickly and shouting at her mother. This would be affective because it would show that she really did not want to marry Paris and it would also show how strong her love for Romeo is. Another way she could deliver these lines is to say them slowly and quietly. This would be affective because she would be saying them as if she was in disbelief and if she said them slowly it would show the audience that she was really thinking about what she was saying and she would be being truly honest with her mother.
After this speech by Juliet is delivered Lady Capulet could step back away from Juliet in disbelief. This would also show a physical distance between Lady Capulet and Juliet. This would be good because it would show that they do not have a close mother and daughter relationship. If they did Lady Capulet would have already suspected that something was going on between Juliet and Romeo and therefore would not have arranged the marriage between Juliet and the County Paris. Juliet is closer to Nurse and she would turn to her as a mother figure. We know this because Juliet told Nurse and Romeo and all of her other problems and not her mother. When Juliet has said lines 116-123 she should calm down so that her mother does not get suspicious.
The point in this scene when Lady Capulet and Juliet are to tell Capulet that Juliet will not be getting married to Paris could be delivered in two ways. One way is to miss out the part of the scene where Capulet says “ thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind” and you could have Lady Capulet telling Capulet the news outside of Juliet’s bedroom and then Capulet could storm through the doors and start shouting at Juliet then this would make a more dramatic entrance for Capulet and this would also make the atmosphere tense in the audience because they will be wondering how Capulet would react.
Another way how you could do this is when Capulet is saying the speech about “ thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind” Capulet could pick up Juliet and rock her backwards and forwards. When Capulet is then told the news he will have Juliet in his arms. I think that this would be very affective because the audience would feel scared for Juliet because Capulet would be in total control of her. This would also show how dominating Capulet is.
When Capulet says, “Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds” he needs to be really shouting at Juliet and he could pick her up and be very violent. This would be good for this scene because we know from earlier on in the play when Capulet was talking to Tybalt at the ball he can be very short tempered. At this point when Capulet puts Juliet down she needs to act scared of Capulet. Maybe she could hide behind pillows or Nurse. If she hid behind Nurse it would show how she trusts Nurse to protect her and look after her. When Capulet says “My fingers itch” his hand should be about to hit her but then a few inches away from her face he should stop.
When Juliet is talking to Nurse after her mother and father have gone Nurse could be running Juliet a bath and Juliet sitting next to her and they should be physically close whilst she is doing this. This is to how comfortable they are with each other and how close they are. When Nurse says, “I think it best you married with the County” Juliet should stand up and show her physical distance from Nurse. Juliet’s face should also be shocked because she hoped Nurse would stick up for her. Juliet feels betrayed. When delivering the lines “Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much” Juliet could either say these in a sarcastic way because she feels betrayal from Nurse or she could say them sincerely because she is grateful for all the ways Nurse has helped her.
