“Earth hath swallowed all my hopes, but she!” This is implying that Juliet is all Capulet has got left. Despite the man of the house being the decision maker for everything, Capulet gives Juliet the choice, as she must give her consent to marriage
“My will to her consent is but a part, and she agreed, with her scope of choice.” This shows another side to Capulet’s character, because he is being kind and considerate, taking Juliet’s feelings into consideration with marriage, even though in those days he didn’t need to, because what the father said goes! Even though Capulet doesn’t want Paris to marry Juliet until she’s 16, he tells Paris to impress her at the party that he’s having, “But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart.” This is telling Paris to be nice to her, sweep her off her feet and make her fall in love with him. This shows that Capulet must like Paris, and want him to marry Juliet, as he’s giving him advice, and being very kind to him.
Capulet appears next at his ball, Act 1, scene 5; the ball is in his house and his house is full to the brim of friends and relatives having fun and drinking. We see two sides to Capulet’s character in this scene. He is very humorous and sociable with all of his guests. Capulet asks a female guest to dance, and when she declines he jokes with her
“She, I’ll swear, hath corns!” This makes the other guests laugh, as he’s declaring that this female guest will not dance with him because she can’t as she has corns on her feet. There is nothing wrong with her feet really, but he makes a joke out of the fact that he’s been turned down. He does this to show the guests a good time. He talks to women quite a lot at the start of this scene, telling some women to
“Foot it,” meaning for them to dance more! We learn again that Capulet is old with his references to the “old days” about 30 years ago, and with his comment to his cousin
“Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet, For you and I are past our dancing days” This is Capulet admitting to being too old to dance and making a mockery of it. We know that Capulet is in a good mood, because he allows Romeo and his friends to gate crash his party in masks. He does this because he is mellow and he wants to keep the peace.
The second side we see to Capulet’s character in this scene, is when Tybalt reports to Capulet that Romeo and his friends are here
“Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe.” It is apparent Tybalt does not want to be in the company of his enemy, but we learn that Capulet already knew about Romeo’s presence, but didn’t do anything in order to keep the peace. Tybalt questions Capulet’s view on the matter, and this angers Capulet, so we see a dominating side to him, with a temper. Capulet gets extremely annoyed at the fact that Tybalt is telling him what to do, and calls him a “Princox” this means an “insolent young man.” Tybalt carries on passing his judgement until Capulet says angrily
“Am I the master here?” This is a rhetorical question, shouting Tybalt down. Shakespeare uses lots of short answers for Capulet’s replies, as this shows anger on Capulet’s behalf.
We next see Capulet in Act 3, scene 4; Capulet decides to plan an early marriage for Juliet. He does this because he is deeply disturbed by the day’s tragic events and his lack of control. He feels bad that he did not control the escalating problem with Tybalt and Romeo, which lead to the death of Tybalt. Capulet feels responsible for the death of Tybalt, and to stop everyone feeling so bad, on impulse he suggests a wedding in order to cheer them all up. He decides that she is to be married on Wednesday, but upon finding out what day it is, he decides Wednesday is too soon, and changes his mind too Thursday. In this scene, Capulet says
“we were born to die,” this shows that Capulet is not afraid of death, and he is aware that everything dies. I believe by saying this he is trying to cheer up everybody, and it is also an attempt to make himself feel not so responsible for Tybalt’s death, as everybody dies. He also says “I think she will be ruled in all respects by me!” This shows another side to Capulet, as he is enforcing now what he gave Juliet the choice of before. This is basically saying that he is in charge of Juliet, and whatever he says, she now has to do. The death of Tybalt has changed his mood quite a lot.
We see Capulet in the scene afterwards, Act 3, scene 5; when he is having a large row with Juliet. They are rowing because Juliet has informed him that she does not want to marry Paris, this makes him furious. Lady Capulet talks to Juliet first, and finds out that she does not want to marry Paris; Lady Capulet then goes to fetch Capulet and tell him the news.
“What, still in tears? Evermore showering? In one little body Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind; For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is, Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs who, raging with thy tears, and they with them, without a sudden calm, will overset thy tempest-tossed body?” In this quote Capulet is confused as to why Juliet is crying, and he is comforting her with a beautiful, meaningful speech. The reference to the bark (boat) is a metaphor, as he is describing her to be like a ship tossed in a storm. This shows Capulet to be concerned. The audience know that the tears she is shedding are for Romeo as he has been banished from Verona. But Lady and Lord Capulet do not know about her love for Romeo, and they cannot understand the reasons for her hysterical behaviour. He asks Lady Capulet
“Have you deliver’d to her our decree?” A decree is a law passed by a head of state, so he is asking Juliet if she is going to go along with his decision. Upon finding out Juliet does not want to marry Paris, Capulet threatens her
“Hang thee, young baggage, Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what, go to church o’ Thursday, Or never after look me in the face.” Capulet is threatening to throw her out of the house, unless she goes to the church on Thursday to marry Paris. He says he will cut her off completely from the family if she does not do this. This would be a frightening prospect for a 13 year old girl even in this day and age, as no 13 year old girl could survive alone on the streets. Lady Capulet tells Juliet what a
“Careful father” he is, and the marriage to Paris would give her
“Joy!” Juliet refuses the proposal in fits of tears. Capulet then uses a list of rhetorical questions which show a crescendo of fury
“How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud?” By using a list of rhetorical questions, we see how annoyed Capulet is. We further see this when he starts repeating the words the Juliet has just said to him, as this shows sheer disbelief that his daughter is defying him. Capulet is tempted to hit Juliet, we know this because his
“fingers itch,” which is saying that he has to refrain from hitting her. His anger starts to show more as he states that it was a
“curse in having her.” The Nurse tries to defend Juliet, but Lady Capulet verbally attacks her by calling her
“Lady Wisdom.” This is a sarcastic comment, mocking the nurse, as she is not educated in the same manor as they are. Lady Capulet also tells her to
“hold her tongue” as her opinion was not wanted and she had to stay out of it, as it was none of her business according to Lady Capulet.
We see Capulet next a bit later on, in Act 4, scene 4; he is excited by the prospect of a wedding interferes with the arrangements for food and drink. We know that Capulet is excited by the wedding and he wants it to be a good day as he says
“Spare not for cost!” This shows us he doesn’t care how much money he spends, he just wants it to be an unforgettable day for his daughter. These are similar actions to what a father from today would do. We learn another side to Capulet in this scene, in that when he was younger, he used to be quite a “mouse-hunt” which means a woman chaser. Lady Capulet jokes with him about keeping a watchful eye on him now. The Nurse is insolent to Capulet in this scene, when she calls him a
“cot-quean” and sends him to bed, telling him he needs faith, and sleep or he’ll be ill the next day from staying awake all night. A cot-quean is a man who interferes with a woman’s jobs, such as housework (in those days). The nurse does not want him interfering, so she sends him to bed in a nice way, implying that she cares about how he will be tomorrow, but we know deep down she must resent him from the argument the previous day.
The scene, in which we next see Capulet, is Act 4, Scene 5; when he orders the nurse to go and wake Juliet from her bed. The nurse whilst trying to wake Juliet makes crude jokes about the night she faces ahead with Paris, like
“The County Paris hath set up his rest, that you shall rest but little!” This means that Paris has slept well so that tonight, he will make the wedding night memorable. The nurse carries on trying to wake Juliet, but begins to panic after a while when there is no response. Her mood soon changes as she realises Juliet is dead, and shouts
“Alas! Alas! Help! Help! My lady’s dead!” Lady Capulet enters and she also notices that Juliet is dead. Capulet enters the room calmly, and laughs “Ha! Let me see her.” at the prospect that Juliet is dead when Lady Capulet says “Alack the day! She’s dead, she’s dead! She’s dead!” Capulet uses lyrical language to describe her death
“She’s cold, her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” This shows Capulet to be deeply upset and moved by her death. Everybody is shocked and horrified at her death. Here Shakespeare is personifying death – who “lies on” Juliet, then he uses a simile “like frost on a flower.” He continues using sexual imagery, by saying that Juliet had been “deflowered” by death. However, he is unaware of the fact that Juliet had slept with Romeo before her death, but she’s not really dead. Capulet sees death as his “son in-law” and his “heir.” This is rather sick on Capulet’s behalf, as he seems to be more concerned about the succession of the Capulet name, rather than the death of his only child, Juliet.
Finally we see Capulet in Act 5, Scene 3; when both Lord Montague and he view the now dead bodies of both Romeo and Juliet. Their grief unites the two enemies at last. Will the death of both of their children, who were in love, finally make the families make piece with one another… I guess we’ll never know!
I believe that Capulet would at last make peace with the Montague’s, as I think that Friar Laurence would of told Capulet about the love and marriage of Romeo and Juliet, to explain why they both killed themselves. I think that the families would have made peace, so that this would be a large thing for them to remember their deceased children by.
I personally do not think that this is in character of Lord Capulet, but as we’ve seen throughout the play, Capulet regularly changes his mood. I think that he would adapt to the loss, and that this would make him change quite a lot. As he would probably blame himself for the death of Juliet. Making him a changed man, who would want to make peace with the family that his daughter chose to marry into, as it would have been her last wish.
