Lord Capulet essay

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Jessica Peacock, 10F, Mrs. Saunders.

With Particular reference to Act 3 scene 5 of “Romeo and Juliet”, discuss how Shakespeare presents Lord Capulet’s character to the audience.

Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” is set in “fair Verona” in Northern Italy around 1599. It is one of Shakespeare’s most captivating plays due to the theme of forbidden love, a mixture of tragedy and love. In this essay I will be concentrating on the part of Lord Capulet, the father of Juliet and the head of one of the rivaling families. This feud is first mentioned in the prologue described as an “ancient grudge” between “Two households, both alike in dignity”. This informs the audience of the setting and the struggles before this story starts.

In Act 1, Scene 1 we are first introduced to Lord Capulet. “Give me my long-sword, ho!” This line reveals many traits of Capulet’s personality. It shows that he is reasonably pugnacious and cantankerous as he does not wait to discover what the fight is about. In this scene you do compare Capulet’s character with Benvolio’s; although Benvolio is younger; he is much wiser and tries to make the servants “part”, whereas Capulet is much more head-strong and much less rational, he lunges straight into the fight without finding out what it was about. It also tells us that Capulet is reasonably old or conservative as he calls for his “long-sword”, this was a very old-fashioned weapon and many younger generations at the time were using a rapier. I believe that by using this sword Shakespeare might be trying to portray parts of Capulet’s traits through the sword. For example, I think that both the sword and Capulet are strong and bold, I also think that another similarity is that they both have to lunge head-strong into a fight and they cannot stop the fight once they have started. This comment shows that Capulet is affluent and is not caring towards his servants and it shows that he treats them as insignificant. Lady Capulet yet again emphasises that Capulet is old by shouting: “A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?”

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The fight ends when the Prince sets his decree. In Act 1 Scene 2, you see Lord Capulet’s reaction to this decree; “-'tis not hard, I think, /For men so old as we to keep the peace.” This shows that Capulet can be wise and mature however I believe that he usually decides to listen to his more aggressive side. As Paris comes to ask about his proposal to Juliet we see an unexpected pleasant side to Capulet’s character. This scene shows Capulet as the protective father and it also tells us that Capulet has been through struggles; “Earth hath ...

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