As Lady Capulet enters, Juliet is crying on the bed. The audience knows she is crying because she doesn’t know when she shall see Romeo again. However, her mother misinterprets her crying as mourning still for her cousin Tybalt’s death:
“Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death? What wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?”
Juliet replies with “Yet let me weep for such a loss.”
Here is when then audience would realise it isn’t Tybalt she weeps for- it is Romeo’s departure that makes her feel so sad. Lady Capulet points out to her that Tybalt’s killer is still alive, and mention of Romeo’s name makes Juliet realise that in order for her parents not to find out about her secret marriage to the son of their worst enemy, she needs to convince her mother that she hates Romeo as much as they do:
“Aye, from the reach of my hands, would none but I might avenge my cousin’s death.”
Here Juliet’s use of language is very clever, if the audience picks up on it. When she says the above quotation it could be perceived to mean Juliet is reflecting on the distance between her and her love. Also when she says:
“Indeed, I shall never be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him- dead -is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d.”
Lady Capulet would take this to mean that Juliet’s heart is dead until she sees Romeo dead. But, if we rearrange the punctuation and the way Juliet would say the sentence, it could mean that she will not be satisfied with Romeo until she sees him again and her poor heart is dead for her loss;
“Indeed, I shall never be satisfied with Romeo till I behold him. Dead is my poor hear for a kinsman vex’d.”
Also when she says:
“O, how my heart abhors to hear him named when I cannot come to him.”
This could seem to mean that she cannot bear to hear his name when she cannot see him, but her mother would take this as she cannot bear to hear him named when she cannot wreak revenge on him. Furthermore, when Juliet says:
“To wreak the love I bore my cousin upon the body that slaughtered him.”
This could mean she just wants to wreak the love she had for Tybalt upon Romeo. These are all very clever uses of language, and show how Shakespeare used language to have a profound and strong effect on his audiences, which would be very effective if the audience can pick up on it.
One reason why Juliet may have felt such a great need to hide her marriage from her parents is because at the time when the play was written, the husband and father of a family would have lawfully owned his wife and daughters. They would legally have had to anything he ordered whenever he wanted. The fact that Juliet has already defied her father by marrying his enemy without permission would have shocked an Elizabethan audience. However a modern day audience would probably be much more lenient in their views and be more sympathetic to Juliet.
Moreover, the dramatic tension would be heightened for both audiences as Juliet desperately tries to convince her mother that she hates her husband, Romeo.
Next, Lady Capulet tells Juliet that her father has arranged for her to marry the Count Paris.
“Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn, the gallant young and noble County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church, shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.”
But Juliet refuses and makes suggestion at what she has done:
“He shall not make me there a joyful bride…I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear, it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate.”
Again, this would have shocked an Elizabethan audience because not only has Juliet secretly disobeyed her parents once, but now she is openly disobeying them a second time. Also, when Juliet says she would rather marry Romeo she hints at what she has already done. Even though her mother does not pick up on this, the dramatic tension would be heightened even further here for the audience, because again what if Lady Capulet aroused suspicion from this statement?
Next, Lord Capulet enters and at first plays the loving kind father who has arranged this marriage to cheer up Juliet. He talks of how happy he is that Juliet is to be married:
“When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew; but for the sunset of my brother’s tongue it rains downright.”
Here he uses a metaphor to compare his feelings to the weather, and also uses alliteration-“doth drizzle dew.” This makes Lord Capulet seem clever and witty, so the audience would feel more respectful towards him.
However, on learning of her refusal to co-operate he consequently grows very angry that she will not marry a gentleman of such high status.
“…Will she none? Doth she not count herself blessed, unworthy as she is, that we have wrought so worthy a gentleman for her bridegroom?”
Juliet then uses an oxymoron, which is inked to the love and hate between the Capulet and Montague families.
“Proud can I never be of what I hate; but thankful even for hate that is meant love.”
This is an oxymoron because she mentions two opposites in the same sentence which in this case is hate and love. This might confuse the audience and show them how Juliet is trying to beguile her parents into believing she hates Romeo.
The aggression which Capulet begins to attack Juliet with is, arguably, the dramatic climax of the scene for a modern day audience. This is because that although the tension has been steadily rising as the scene gets more and more serious, the anger with which Lord Capulet attacks Juliet is so massive that it’s almost like all the tension is being released when he shouts at her. Capulet goes on in a tirade of anger, cursing Juliet and threatening to disown her if she doesn’t marry Paris:
“For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee, nor what is mine shall never do thee good: trust to’t, bethink you; I’ll not be forsworn.”
The audience would really begin to feel the fear and anger as his tirade goes on, and as Lord Capulet grows more and more angry he insults Juliet lots and even threatens to hit her, saying:
“O my fingers itch!” Thus reaching a climax of the scene, when he storms out quickly and suddenly. Lord Capulet’s harsh words would have quite a negative affect on the audience. The passion and fury that Capulet attacks his daughter with would make them feel like Juliet- small, intimidated and hurt. Because of the sheer vehemence of his words, the audience would probably be a lot more sympathetic towards Juliet, although an Elizabethan audience would be much more understanding of Capulet’s reasoning behind his strong words, because of traditions and beliefs at the time.
After Lord Capulet has gone, Juliet reaches out to her mother for help, and threatens to kill herself if she doesn’t:
“O, sweet mother cast me not away! Delay this marriage...or, if you do not, make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies.”
However, her mother casts her off and tells Juliet not to talk to her as she will not acknowledge her until she obeys her father. She then leaves.
By now Juliet is very distressed, and turns to the nurse as a last resort.
“O God! O nurse, how shall this be prevented... what say’st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse!”
At this point the audience would feel still a bit tense but on the edge of relief, as they think the nurse will offer some great comfort and witty plan. However, what she does say comes as a shock to Juliet and the audience:
“I think it best you married with the county. O, he’s a lovely gentleman! Romeo’s a dish clout to him....”
This would come as a big shock to both Juliet and the audience because it isn’t what they expect her to say. The nurse says that Juliet should marry Paris and forget about Romeo, even though this is bigamy and was and still is illegal, not to mention against God in a time when religion was a very powerful denominator in most social situations. Juliet is doubtful of the Nurse’s words, but the nurse sticks to what she’s said and insists Juliet is better off with Paris, because Romeo may as well be dead to her:
“I think you are happy in this second match, for it excels your first. Your first is dead; or ‘twere as good he were as living here and you no use of him.”
This again would shock the audience further, because before the nurse was keen for Romeo and Juliet to marry, and seemed pleased for her when she did so. So now she is contradicting herself in advising Juliet to marry Paris as well. This would probably have shocked an Elizabethan audience more than a modern day audience, because of the religious and social implications it would have had on the Capulet family if they had found out Juliet was married to two people.
Once the Nurse has offered her ‘comfort’, Juliet pretends to agree with her and sends the nurse on her way:
“Go in and tell my lady I am gone, having displeased my father, to Laurence’ cell, to make confession and be absolved.”
This would have a mixed response on the audience: some would probably feel a little surprised that Juliet would so readily agree to such a drastic measure, whereas some would feel that Juliet is making the right choice by forgetting Romeo and marrying Paris. However after the nurse leaves, Juliet talks of how she will go to Friar Laurence and see what he says and if all else fails, she has the power to take her own life:
“I’ll to the Friar, to know his remedy: if all else fail, I myself have power to die.”
At this point the audience would begin to feel worried for Juliet, because they don’t know what she might do when in such a state. Furthermore, they have knowledge of the prologue and this would have an even more negative affect on the audience, as they grow more despairing of the situation.
In conclusion, the overall effects of the scene and its events have a very varied affect on the audience, which contribute to maintaining the audience’s interest in the play, both in a Shakespearian theatre or a modern day setting. The rise and fall of dramatic tension, such as when Capulet grows very angry at Juliet quickly and when he leaves suddenly, is of particular interest and enjoyment to the audience, as is the use of dramatic irony and such other language techniques.
