Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare.

        A modern day audience would feel more sympathetic toward Juliet than an Elizabethan audience because in Elizabethan times especially in very noble families there were a lot of arranged marriages. The women would have to stay at home and obey whatever their father or husband had told them.

        At the beginning of Act 3 scene 5 Romeo and Juliet are waking up after having consummated their marriage and now they are both officially man and wife in the eyes of God.  It is daylight and Romeo must leave Verona or risk getting captured and executed.  We can tell that Romeo and Juliet truly care for each other because Romeo would even risk being ‘put to death’ if ‘Juliet wills it so’.  Romeo is Juliet’s life to her and we know this because she says to ‘let day in and life out’.  Juliet also visualises Romeo ‘As one dead at the bottom of a tomb’. This is dramatic irony because Juliet doesn’t know that the next time she sees Romeo is when he is dead at the bottom of a tomb.

        Lady Capulet is about to tell Juliet that she is to marry County Paris on Thursday.  Juliet is still weeping over Romeo and Lady Capulet tries to calm her down.  Throughout this scene Juliet is talking about Romeo, whereas Lady Capulet thinks she is talking about Tybalt.  Juliet says ‘Would none but I venge my cousin’s death’ because she does not want any harm to come to Romeo.  Lady Capulet says that she ‘will give Romeo an unaccustomed dram / That he shall soon keep Tybalt company’. This is dramatic irony again because we know that Romeo dies at the end of the play.  Shakespeare uses duality of meaning when Juliet says that she would mix the poison herself, but she means that she will ‘temper’ it, which also means to water it down.  A double meaning is used again when Juliet says ‘O, how may heart abors / To hear him…. come to him’.  Juliet wants to be with Romeo to show him her love, whereas Lady Capulet thinks she wants to ‘avenge herself on Romeo for Tybalt’s death’.  Lady Capulet tells Juliet that it has been arranged for her to marry Paris on Thursday to make her feel better but Juliet refuses. Juliet says that she would marry ‘Romeo, whom you know I hate / Rather than Paris’. This is Dramatic Irony again because we know that Romeo and Juliet are already married.  

        Lord Capulet joins Lady Capulet in this part of the scene and uses an extended metaphor.  He talks about water and sea, calling Juliet a ‘conduit girl’.  He means that if Juliet doesn’t stop crying she will make herself ill.  Lord Capulet is still the caring and considerate father that we have seen so far in the play until Lady Capulet tells him about Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris.  We then see Lord Capulet’s character change and his manner towards Juliet becomes very aggressive.  He uses rhetorical questions such as ‘Doth she not give us thanks? / Is she not proud?’.  This is where Lord Capulet becomes very angry and threatening towards Juliet because he tells her ‘To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s church / or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither’.  He is very insulting towards Juliet calling her ‘green sickness carrion…/You tallow face!’.  Lord Capulet even threatens to throw his only daughter on the streets and even though Juliet begs him to listen to her he calls her a ‘disobedient wretch’.  Lord Capulet’s manner towards Juliet shows us the ‘convections of the day’ and how women from noble Elizabethan families were supposed to behave.

        When Lord Capulet leaves Juliet begs her mother one more time to ‘delay’ the marriage but sadly her mother disowns her and she is left with the nurse who is her closest friend to help her.  Juliet is shocked when the nurse betrays her and tells Juliet to marry Paris. Juliet would never break her vows with Romeo and is upset when the nurse who helped her get married to Romeo lets her down.  Also Juliet says ‘If all else fail, myself have power to die’.

        Overall, I think that we feel sorry for Juliet because of the dilemma she is in and we sympathise with her because it is not likely we would be faced with a problem like this in our lives.  Juliet has no one left to turn to feeling very alone and we know that she loves Romeo more than anything because she would rather kill herself than break her vows to him.  This makes us increasingly sorry for Juliet because if Friar Laurence cannot help her then she will commit suicide.