romeo and juliet

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English Coursework

Romeo and Juliet

By Gurdip Bening

Title: How does Shakespeare present the characters of Lord Capulet and Juliet to the audience? Comment on character, action and language.

When we first see Juliet in Act 1, Scene 3, we see her as a typical girl from the Elizabethan Period. Shakespeare shows her to be young hearted, naive and an obedient girl who would never think twice of disobeying her parents. So in Act 1, Scene 3, when her mother mentions Paris' interest in a marrying Juliet, she responds saying that she will try to love him for her mother's sake, 'I'll look to like, if looking liking move, But no more deep will I endart mine eye, Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.'

I think that when Romeo comes into Juliet's life she changes drastically. This is shown when she ignores her previous marriage arrangements made by her parents and tells the nurse to see Romeo for the marriage arrangements. When the nurse returns with the news and does not give Juliet the information straight away, Juliet gets annoyed and shows a lack of patient with the Nurse, 'Here's such a coil. Come, what says Romeo.' I think this comes across as a shock to the Elizabethan audience because in the Elizabethan period, women were subordinate to men. This means they had no control over their life, so when Juliet was arranging her marriage with Romeo behind her fathers back she was breaking this tradition.

In Act 3, Scene 5, Juliet is told that her marriage to Paris was organized to take place in a couple of days and she is asked to prepare for the marriage, but this time, her reactions are very different. From the innocent, well-behaved daughter of Capulet, she disagrees and shouts back at her mother; 'He shall not make me there a joyful bride.'

Shakespeare also uses the effect of irony, 'I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear
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It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,' this shows that she is being a little manipulative and saying that she doesn't want to marry Paris at all, and she would rather marry Romeo. Her mother would interpret this as she does not like Paris, but the audience know that she is saying this because she loves Romeo and wants to be with him. Also when her father's anger increases she falls to the floor and begs to him, 'Good father, I beseech you on my knees, this shows that she still respects her father. Religion also ...

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