In act III, scene v, all four of the most important people in Juliet's life go away from her. Examine the scene and discuss the reasons why each one leaves.

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Romeo and Juliet

In act III, scene v, all four of the most important people in Juliet’s life go away from her. Examine the scene and discuss the reasons why each one leaves.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a story about two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Two of the teenagers from the two families - Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet - fall in love and marry secretly. Later during a fight, Romeo kills one of Juliet’s cousins, Tybalt. This results in his banishment. During this scene, Juliet finds everyone she loves abandoning her.

When this scene begins, Romeo and Juliet are together. They are happy and the mood of the scene is quite light. They discuss Romeo leaving but Romeo decides that he should stay, as he doesn’t really want to leave anyway. Juliet is trying to make him, as she cares about him and really doesn’t want him to die, when the nurse comes in and announces that Juliet's mother is coming, forcing Romeo to leave.

When Juliet's mother comes, she sees that Juliet is upset and assumes that it is because of Tybalt. Juliet can’t tell her mother that she is in love with Romeo, so she has to speak with a double meaning. This is so that she can keep fooling her mother and at the same time not tell any lies. At one point, she changes her meaning three times, saying ‘I shall never be satisfied with Romeo, ‘till I behold him’, then realising that this doesn’t sound quite right and adding ‘dead’, but changing it to ‘dead-is my poor heart’ after a little thought. Lady Capulet shows in a few ways how distant she is from her daughter. In line 72, she says ‘Some grief shows much of love, but much grief shows still some want of wit’. This demonstrates a lack of compassion. Also, she doesn’t see that Juliet is not being entirely truthful to her, indicating that she doesn’t spend much time with her daughter.

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At this point, the mood of the scene is still quite light, but this changes when Lady Capulet reveals her ‘good news’ to Juliet – that she is betrothed to Paris. Juliet cannot marry Paris as she is already married to Romeo, and begs her mother to tell Capulet that she can’t, saying ‘I pray you tell my lord and father, Madam’. Juliet's mother is scared of Capulet, and shows her distance from her daughter by refusing to back her up, telling her to ‘tell him yourself and see how he takes it at your hands’. At this point, ...

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