Juliet herself first appears in Act 1 Scene 3 with her mother Lady Capulet and the nurse. Lady Capulet is asking Juliet her views about marriage; Juliet refers to marriage as an ‘honour’ but admits she hasn’t really thought about it. At this point Lady Capulet says ‘The valiant Paris seeks you for his love’. She tells Juliet that Count Paris wants to marry her and by calling him ‘valiant’ she shows that she would approve of this marriage. Lady Capulet only seems to refer to the social advantages of marrying Paris; she doesn’t even mention any of the romantic aspects which Juliet is more interested in. An example of this is when she says ‘That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory’ which means that the glory will be the opinion of many people.
In a humorous moment the Nurse refers to a moment when Juliet was a baby and her husband had commented about Juliet falling on her back when she comes of age, which is a reference to Juliet one day having sexual intercourse. The nurse said crudely “Yea,’ quoth he ‘dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit’. This quote shows that Juliet has been viewed as an object for marriage and motherhood since she was a toddler. This shows that Juliet’s fate to someday be given away in marriage had most probably been set at birth, as it was with many young girls in this time.
Lady Capulet doesn’t seem to be very close to Juliet in this scene, she seems very distant and cold almost as if she didn’t even know her. This is shown partially through the formal speaking between mother and daughter rather than an informal friendly atmosphere. An example of this is when Lady Capulet says ‘How stands your disposition to be married?’ This formal behaviour between mother and daughter was also common in 16th century families. Juliet is showed here as a very obedient yet naïve daughter as she agrees with her mother’s request and states ‘I’ll look to like, if looking liking move: But no more deep will I endart mine eye’. This means that she will try her best to love Count Paris but will not take it any further at this point. This was typical behaviour of a girl her age in this time although the majority of girls wouldn’t even have had a choice in the matter. Another way in which this obedience is shown is in Act 1 Scene 5 at the Capulet feast when Lady Capulet sends the Nurse to find Juliet she leaves Romeo instantly to speak with her mother.
In Act 3 Scene 4 Juliet’s parents are having a discussion with Count Paris about marrying off Juliet. Earlier in Act 1 Scene 2 Lord Capulet lets the match and marriage proposal to be Juliet’s decision but he would rather leave it two more years now he is marrying Juliet off the following Thursday without consent from Juliet! Although this seems reckless and unfair to Juliet, Lord Capulet only agrees as he feels it would make Juliet happy again, a surprise as he thinks Juliet is mourning over Tybalt’s death, when she is actually mourning over Romeo’s banishment for killing Tybalt. Evidence of this is in the following scene, Act 3 Scene 5 when an ironic conversation between Juliet and her mother Lady Capulet occurs.
Juliet is speaking of how much she loves Romeo but her mother misinterprets it, as Juliet plans, that she hates Romeo and wishes him dead. An example of this is when, with a complicated bit of punning, Juliet says ‘God pardon him! I do, with all my heart; And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart’. This leads Lady Capulet to believe Romeo causes her great pain over the murder of Tybalt when in fact it means Romeo causes her great pain over getting banished. This is by far the most dramatic change in the relationships between Juliet and her parents. Whilst discussing ‘The villain’ Romeo’s banishment Lady Capulet says ‘We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not: Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua’. This means that the Capulets will have vengeance for Tybalt’s death and that she will send someone to Mantua to kill Romeo.
Lady Capulet then joyfully states that Juliet will be married on Thursday to the Count Paris, explaining that he wishes to make her happy. Juliet is devastated and declines against the marriage saying ‘I will not marry yet, and when I do I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris’. This is very ironic and out of character for the normally obedient Juliet, her love for Romeo had given her the willingness to disobey her parent’s request. This shows that her marriage to Romeo has suddenly thrust her forwards into maturity and she is finally trying to make her own decisions. Obviously Lady Capulet is shocked at this behaviour and desperately runs for cover by saying ‘Here comes your father, tell him so yourself; And see how he will take it at your hands’. This shows that Lord Capulet had the most authority in the Capulet house.
As Lord Capulet enters he is surprised that Juliet is still in tears and assumes that Lady Capulet has not yet given her the news of her marriage. Lady Capulet soon tells him of Juliet’s determination to defy him, and then turns on Juliet with nasty comments as she had disowned her such as ‘I would the fool were married to her grave’ which means: I hope the fool will die.. This is cruel and also out of character. Outraged Lord Capulet then joins in and begins threatening Juliet that if she does not obey them and marry Paris she will be disowned. He says ‘And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend; And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee’ which means that Juliet is his property and if he wants to give her to his friend and she does not obey him then she can die staving on the streets and he promises that he would never acknowledge her again. This language is out of character from how Lord Capulet is normally presented; the thought of him being disobeyed sends him into a rage of fury, he is shown to like control and authority. This scene makes Lord Capulet appear nasty and brutal as he is being awful to Juliet and suddenly isn’t acting like her father, not like they’re even related at all. This is a massive contrast to his previous behaviour in other scenes such as Act 1 Scene 2 where he is shown as a loving father who cares only about his daughter’s own happiness and wellbeing.
In Act 4 Scene 1 Juliet tells her nurse to lie to her parents and say that she is going to Friar Lawrence’s cell to be relieved of her sins for defying her parents when she is actually going to seek help to reach Romeo. The friar gives his advice and conjures up a plan to fake Juliet’s death and have Romeo rescue her from the Capulet vault on the Thursday morning. He gives her a poison and tells her to drink it on Wednesday night and that he will send the message to Romeo in Mantua. The hopeful Juliet agrees and travels home to apologise to her father.
When Juliet arrives home she finds her parents preparing for the wedding. She surprises them by repenting her disobedience and cheerfully agreeing to marry Paris. She says ‘To beg your pardon:-- Pardon I beseech you! Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you’. This means that Juliet is very sorry and will never again disobey her father. Lord Capulet is so pleased that he insists on moving the marriage up a day, to Wednesday, the next day. This sparks a huge problem for Juliet as Romeo didn’t know about any of these events and she was going to have to take the poison early. In this scene Lord Capulet suddenly becomes all fatherly and loving towards Juliet as their argument had never happened! An example of this is when he says ‘Well I am glad on’t; this is well,--stand up,--, This is as’t should be.--Let me see the county’ This shows that Lord Capulet was a good father as long as he got his own way and Juliet obeyed his every request, he is now content as he feels he has gained control once again over Juliet.
The real showing of Lord and Lady Capulet’s love for their daughter is in Act 4 Scene 5 where they discover Juliet is dead, unaware that she is under the influence of Friar Lawrence’s poison. Lady Capulet is first to enter and is devastated and hysterical, she repeats her words over and over mourning over Juliet’s body. Her first words when she discovers Juliet are ‘O me, O me, my child, my only life! Revive, look up, or I will die with thee’. This behaviour from Lady Capulet greatly contrasts her behaviour towards Juliet in Act 3 Scene 5, the argument. She goes from being a nasty mother about to disown her daughter to the grieving mother who now says that if her daughter is dead she is as good as dead herself. This proves that her behaviour in the argument was only triggered through rage, deep down she did love Juliet and always had.
Lord Capulet also shows his undying love for Juliet, though in a different way to Lady Capulet. He sadly states his plans for Juliet, how she would have been so happy and how he would have been too. In his speech he refers to Juliet as ‘the sweetest flower of all the field’. This metaphor has a large impact on the way you see Lord Capulet as he did love his daughter so dearly, this line means that he views Juliet as the best of all the daughters in the world he possibly could ever have had. This along with other lines such as ‘And with my child my joys are buried’ really brings across how proud he is of his daughter and how much he loves and cares about her. His behaviour here also greatly contrasts with his behaviour in the scene of the argument but as with Lady Capulet it now becomes clear it was through rage of her disobedience. By telling us of his plans for Juliet we realise although in Act 3 Scene 5 he appeared brutal and cruel he only ever had Juliet’s best intentions at heart and he really did love her and wanted her to be happy. He truly believed the marriage to Count Paris would have achieved this.
The final confirmation of Lord and Lady Capulet’s love for Juliet is shown in Act 5 Scene 3 where Juliet is discovered to be truly dead. Lord Capulet and Montague shake hands and decide together that they will erect two golden statues of Romeo and of Juliet which will be placed together in the memories of their love for them and of their love for each other.
The conclusion is that Lord and Lady Capulet’s ever changing moods towards Juliet never mean that they don’t love or care about her, the nastiness shown, especially in Act 3 Scene 5 is just the way they acted through the shock and offence of being disobeyed by their normally obedient daughter. I feel that this scene really does contribute to the tragedy because if this argument had never of occurred, if Lord and Lady Capulet had understood Juliet’s wish to not be married to Count Paris then the wedding would have been cancelled and Friar Lawrence’s plan would most likely of been successful. Romeo and Juliet would have been happy together and Lord and Lady Capulet would not of felt betrayed as they would carry on living life thinking that Juliet was dead.
