Juliet - Brave and desperately in love? Or irresponsible and rebellious?

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Liam Woodward

10AF

Juliet – Brave and desperately in love? Or irresponsible and rebellious?

        In Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the character of Juliet Capulet is just thirteen years old. She is at an age where she stands on the border of maturity and immaturity and this sometimes shows in her actions. It could be argued that her behaviour in the play is either brave because she is desperately in love with Romeo, or that it is irresponsible and she is just being a rebellious teenager.

        At the beginning of the play when we first see Juliet in Act I Scene III, we meet the Nurse and her mother. We get an immediate impression of how the Nurse has bought up Juliet since she was a young baby and she is closer to her than her own mother, this is shown by the Nurse’s stories of Juliet from when she was a baby, “And she was weaned-I shall never forget it”. Juliet seems to be an ordinary and obedient child who lives a normal sheltered aristocratic life in 17th century Italy.

        Juliet is asked in the very first scene we meet her if she would like to marry Paris. Her response is possibly one of the first stages in the evolution of her character in the play, “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move.” Juliet agrees to meet Paris and see what she thinks, but she has already decided that she won’t go out of her way to fall in love with him, this could be interpreted as a polite and respectful way to her parents of saying no.

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        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 ...

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