Juliet’s first meeting with Romeo is a large step for her towards adulthood, there is an immediate physical attraction between the two and Romeo calls Juliet’s hand a “holy shrine”. The couple kiss for the first time after just fourteen lines of speech to each other. Juliet continues her transformation during this scene, by which the end she has decided for herself what she wants – to be with Romeo. She later confesses this to the Nurse, “That I love a loathed enemy.”
By the end of Act II, Scene II, Romeo and Juliet have agreed to marry. Romeo climbs into the Capulet orchard and speaks to Juliet who is on her bedroom balcony. Whereas it has been Romeo who so far has been the more persistent of the two in complementing Juliet, it is in fact Juliet who is the one that proposes marriage, “Thy propose marriage, send me word tomorrow,” this could also be seen as significant as it shows how serious Juliet is about Romeo and it is not just him manipulating her with his compliments.
By the end of Act II, Romeo and Juliet are married as things continue to decline. The next development in the story for Juliet is when she finds out Romeo has killed her cousin Tybalt. In Act III, Scene II, Juliet is waiting for the Nurse to bring back Romeo as they had arranged when the Nurse returns with news of the fight. She teases Juliet slightly in misleading her into thinking Romeo has been killed, “Can heaven be so envious?” However she eventually reveals what has really happened, “Tybalt is gone, and Romeo is banished; Romeo that kill’d him.” The Nurse also makes her feelings about Romeo clear, blaming him. She is shocked however when Juliet defends him, “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?” Juliet is stuck in between her family member Tybalt, but also her husband and the one she loves Romeo. Her defence of Romeo could be seen as her continuing to distance herself from her family.
Juliet’s constant rebelling against her family culminates in Act III, Scene V. Juliet is in her room with Romeo, he has to leave quickly when her mother enters the room, the couple say goodbye, “Farewell, farewell! One kiss and I’ll descend.” When Juliet begins to cry, her mother tells her to stop grieving for Tybalt, the audience know however she is crying for Romeo. Lady Capulet informs Juliet that she will marry County Paris on Thursday morning, Juliet rejects. In her refusal, Juliet is very calm, simply saying that she would rather marry Romeo, a Montague than Paris, “It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate.” This angers Lady Capulet and especially Lord Capulet who enters the scene and is very angry with Juliet. He shouts at Juliet and is very rude and offensive in his verbal attacks, “Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch!” He tells her that if she refuses to marry Paris, to never look him in the face again, Juliet continues to take his criticism still refusing to marry the County. It is when Juliet’s parents leave, when the Nurse advises Juliet to forget about Romeo and just marry Paris to satisfy her parents. When the Nurse leaves, Juliet dismisses the Nurse’s comments, “Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!” It is at this point in the play when everyone in Juliet’s family has deserted her; she is now left all on her own.
Juliet confides in the Friar in Act IV, Scene I. It is here where he suggests Juliet takes a potion, which will make her appear dead, this way she will not have to marry Paris on Thursday. This is an important scene in interpreting the character of Juliet. She reveals how frightened she is of being all alone for more than a day lying in the Capulet’s tomb, and lists all the things she would rather do than marry Paris. She uses strong images of dead bodies, “O’er-covered quite with dead-man’s rattling bones / With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.” Even though she is very scared, as well as whether she can trust the Friar in taking the potion, she does so in the next scene. This shows how much Juliet did not want to marry Paris, and how much she wanted to be with Romeo.
When she took the Friar’s potion in Act IV, Scene III it illustrates how desperate Juliet was at this point in the play. Things had rapidly declined for her and Romeo since they had gotten married at the end of Act II, she had lost the support of all her family, even the Nurse who she considered to be her closest friend. When the Friar’s plan does not work and a message to Mantua does not make it to Romeo, Romeo returns to Verona and takes a deadly poison when he thinks Juliet is dead. Juliet awakens and stabs herself with Romeo’s dagger when she finds him lying next to her.
When we first meet Juliet at the very beginning of the play, we see the very first signs of her turning against her parents. She continues to grow more and more independent, especially when she meets Romeo and marries him within just a day of knowing him. By the end of the play, she has made the transition from immaturity to maturity. In conclusion, Juliet is forced into desperate acts towards the end of the play, these needed to be taken as a result of her serious relationship with Romeo and distancing herself from her family, whom she had lost through being irresponsible and rebellious and trying to become more independent.