When Juliet first appears in Act 1 Scene 3, her general demeanour is informal toward the nurse; almost as if she is a mother figure. She is, however, highly decorous with her actual mother, who she is required to address as “Madam”, and holds a dialogue with her as a person of substantially lower status would. This is also implicit when the mother feels uncomfortable talking to Juliet alone, and calls the nurse back because she bears stronger relations to her daughter than the mother does. This portrays how shallow the relationship is, and seems a little unorthodox to modern audience, but the audience of the time would not have seen anything wrong with the situation. Juliet’s parents do not share her attitude toward the relationship; Juliet is required to respect and obey them without question, whereas the parents treat her more as a metaphorical ‘ornament’, which will be raised and cared for as best as possible, and then sold off to the highest bidder (the best suitor). Her willingness to comply with regulation is obvious when Juliet says “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move…gives strength to make it fly”. Here, she is demonstrating only the highest standard of obedience, but this has yet to change – at the point of her engagement to Romeo, she seems to make the conscious decision to discontinue obeying her parents every command, and that ‘following your heart’ is a far more fulfilling path to devote one’s energy to.
Soon, Tybalt is killed by Romeo, and in Act 3 Scene 4 we can immediately see the way in which this event has affected Capulet. His view of the situation between Juliet and Paris has gone from “Let two summers wither in their pride”, letting Juliet mature before taking on marriage at a sensible time, to “A’ Thursday let it be”. Here it is tangible to assume that Capulet has decided to take the situation in hand and without too much thought, set a date for Juliet’s marriage to Paris. This, of course, is a direct contradiction to his behaviour in Act 1 Scene 2 where he took even Juliet’s very elation into consideration, at variance to now, where he seems not to even spare a passing thought. This would suggest that Capulet’s attitude toward Juliet has become far more predominant, even though he is still trying to keep what he thinks are her best interests in mind. This is reflected in Act 3 Scene 5; Capulet more than puts Juliet in her place, his enragement is almost insurmountable at such a blunt refusal to such a reasonable decision in his eyes. Capulet almost looses control over himself: “Or I will drag thee…You tallow-face”. And when his wife comments on his dwindling sense of reason: - “What, are you mad?”. However these outbursts only show how high Capulet’s expectations of Juliet’s obedience have become. A modern audience would find this rather extreme expression of opinion outrageous, but audiences of the time would see this as the necessary action to be taken, possibly a bit too much.
Capulet is not the only one whose attitude has changed. Juliet also reacts differently this time. She speaks confidently with her mother, a change to her formal speech that came previously; but when her father enters and she cannot comply with his demands, he becomes outraged and Juliet is reduced to a pleading insignificance, kneeling humbly before her father’s unwavering will power. But now she continues to plead for what she believes in (the values of true love etc) and not what she is told to believe by her parents (that they should choose who Juliet is married to). She has taken a perilous step toward liberty here, of which has put her into an impossible situation. For her, it is irresolvable because she cannot obey her father and marry Paris, due to the fact that she is already married. Capulet’s alternative to her obedience, however, is catastrophic for Juliet, as she knows nothing of the outside world. This means that she is forced to agree to Friar Lawrence’s plan because it is the only way she can obtain her goal. Ultimately, we all know what a terrible (and slightly ironic) anticlimax this gives rise to.
From this we can see that Shakespeare had a message in this play for parents and children of the time alike: those values that were held so dear should indeed be followed, but not to the extent of putting either parent or child in a situation where they are force to comply, because it will always end in someone paying the price of disobedience, which can be devastating.
In the end we sympathise with Juliet because she has committed such a brave and desperate act in order to be with Romeo, and has had to deal with such mental abuse from her own father. An audience of Shakespeare’s time, however, would be more inclined to see them in equal sympathies, because Capulet’s actions would then have been a far more common practice, and so a refusal of his hard work would create as much sympathy for him as for Juliet’s misfortune. Audiences today sympathise with Juliet because of the perceived lack of freedom she had by today’s standards. The blame for this apparent change in the values of parent-child relations over the years (from Shakespeare’s era to recent years) is not easily placed. But if it were my decision, I would blame the changes in human rights laws, the allowance of women to vote, recent acts of global equality etc. (not implying any of these are bad); because if these changes in society had not occurred, we would feel the same way those of Shakespeare’s time felt about the play.
