Despite Capulet believing he has complete power over Juliet, he clearly cannot communicate well with her, which is proved by him telling his wife to talk to Juliet for him. “Wife, go you to here ere you go to bed, acquaint her here of my son Paris’s love,”. Fathers often communicate through women, as they find it hard to understand daughters as well as sons, mostly because they are commonly more protective over daughters, often meaning their attitude and how they speak can be more aggressive. Not only this, but Capulet also refers to Paris as his son, yet again proving his belief in his power over Juliet, and fails to see any hindrance in his plans for the two of them to be wed.
Lady Capulet is forced by Elizabethan society to agree with the marriage, and even if she objected to it, she would not have been able to voice her opinion for fear of the consequences. She also sees no problem with the arrangement, as it was the normal thing to be done, she might be glad for both her and her daughter, as he will provide a comfortable life for Juliet, and also raise the status of the family. When Lady Capulet goes to tell her about the marriage, Juliet is very upset because she is afraid that she will never see Romeo again, however, her mother thinks that it is because of Tybalt’s death and says it is not because he is dead, but that the villain, Romeo, who killed him is still alive, the whole play includes dramatic irony like this, because Lady Capulet is unaware that Juliet married Romeo and has forgiven him for killing Tybalt. “But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.”, this shows how Lady Capulet also sees the wedding as a good thing, which will bring happiness to everyone.
After initially telling his wife to give the news to Juliet, he goes in after, offering sympathy to her as she seems so upset, “How now, a conduit girl? What, still in tears?” this fatherly comfort soon disappears after he discovers that she refuses to marry Paris. He starts throwing insults at her in a growing rage, he feels this way because he as her father is meant to have complete control, and he refusing to do as he says is belittling, and in his eyes, makes him less of a man. This is the turning point in the play, where the relationship between Juliet and Capulet has changed because of her love for Romeo, it reflects the theme of the play of a child’s relationship and attitude towards their parents, which is still relevant in the 21st century. After Juliet got married to Romeo, she probably saw herself as a woman, and felt like she did not have to answer to her father any longer, because her love for her husband defied all rules. Juliet must have felt strongly about her fathers proposition otherwise she would not have gone against Capulet’s word, this sort of action in the time was extremely unusual which would have made Capulet feel even worse, because it would bring the wrong sort of attention to the family, bringing shame and disgrace which is why he reacted in such a furious way. Although her father carried on to call Juliet shockingly offensive names, she begged for his forgiveness over and over again, while Capulet distances himself from her by referring to her in the third person, she makes massive efforts to regain the love of her father she feels as if she has now lost. “’Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! You tallow-face!’…’Good father, I beseech you on my knees, hear me with your patience but to speak a word.’” Juliet is desperate to speak to her father, and fears him the whole time throughout this scene which is shown by her language.
Capulet flies in to a fiery rage and threatens and insults Juliet, he uses emotive language which often means that the modern audience often sympathise with Juliet, but in the Elizabethan period, Juliet’s behaviour could have been seen very differently, she might be seen as acting spoilt headstrong, character traits that were undesirable at the time which might be how Capulet sees his daughter, explaining why he acted in the way he did. Capulet distances himself from his daughter with his language, and casts dramatic imagery with his insults; “Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought so worthy a gentleman to be her bride?” he does not speak to her directly, instead often to his wife referring to her in the third person, this distances himself from her and is like him disowning her. As well as this, his anger becomes more and more aggressive, and in some versions of the play Capulet can be seen abusing his daughter physically, as well as verbally “Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.” a hurdle is a frame on which prisoners were dragged to execution, this shows how strongly Capulet feels, that no matter how much Juliet refuses to, he will force her to marry Paris.
Capulet emphasises his frustration with his daughter by threatening to deny the existence of her altogether if she does not go on with the marriage; “I tell thee what: get thee to church
a’ Thursday, or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!”. This sort of behaviour from her father would be very tough for Juliet to endure, she is faced with the prospect of losing her whole family, as her mother too refuses to help or listen to Juliet; “Talk to me not, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.” Lady Capulet might have reacted like this for many reasons, as a woman she would have been expected to support her husbands views, but also she might be jealous of her daughter. Juliet’s reaction would have been shocking to anyone at that time, but as her parent, she would have only wanted the best for her daughter and her stubbornness was incredible. Lady Capulet herself would have gone through a similar thing to Juliet, she is far younger than her husband just like Juliet is a lot younger than Paris, but probably what aggravated her the most is that her daughter seemed to think that she did not have to do the same as everybody else, all of these things may have caused Lady Capulet to be jealous of her daughters indifference and obliviousness to how good a life she was being offered.
Juliet’s fate is sealed from the response to her marriage proposal, both of her parents practically disown her in Lady Capulet’s anger says; “I would the fool were married to her grave”, this is another case of dramatic irony, as eventually this is the reason Juliet kills herself, her fate is also seen when Juliet implies that if her mother rejects her and does not delay the marriage, she would die “Or if you do not, make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies.”. The dramatic irony unfolds further in to the play as the audience then sees Juliet being moved there after she fakes her death.
In an attempt to persuade Juliet to marry Paris, Capulet emphasises how hard he has worked to find a suitor for her, trying to guilt Juliet in to doing as he wishes; “..still my care hath been to have her matched; and having now provided a gentleman of noble parentage…And then to have a wretched puling fool, a whining mammet in her fortunes tender to answer ‘I’ll not wed, I cannot love; I am too young, I pray you pardon me.’” Capulet almost mocks Juliet, making her response seem more ungrateful than it really was. He also makes Paris look more idealistic, and describes him as an honourable, handsome, great man; this is to further convince Juliet to marry him, as he is made to sound like a sort of Prince Charming. Capulet continues to threaten Juliet after this; “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, Nor what is mine, shall never do thee good.”, so unless Juliet follows her fathers orders, she’ll have nothing, which Lady Capulet supports after her husband has left. This makes Juliet feel as if she has no one to turn to, her whole family are threatening to deny her existence, and feels as if she has no choice over what to do. She confides in the person she feels closest to, the Nurse, throughout the whole time she has been with Romeo, she has helped her sneak around and she believes that Nurse truly understands her emotions. When the Nurse too advises Juliet to marry Paris, she no longer has anyone apart from Romeo, this is where she gives in and knows she has no hope left, apart from to agree to do as her father wishes.
Capulet’s attitude changes after Juliet finally consents to marrying Paris, he refers to her as “headstrong”, which shows how he thinks she was being stubborn when she refused to do as he said first of all, she then begs for forgiveness and makes a promise to follow Capulet’s orders in future; “Pardon, I beseech you! Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.”. Juliet has planned to take a poison to make her seem dead, so she can run away with Romeo, her asking to be forgiven does a way to end things on the good side of her father, as she does not want to have Capulet hate her when she leaves to never see him again. Capulet is delighted by Juliet’s decision and puts pressure on her by deciding to change the day of the wedding to Wednesday (tomorrow), Juliet carries on consenting to the marriage and asks Nurse to help her get herself ready for her wedding. Capulet is relieved and his whole personality is completely changed, he becomes excited about the wedding, now convinced that nothing will go wrong, and arranges things himself. Juliet uses double meanings when she talks about the wedding; “To help me sort such needful ornaments as you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?”, as this may seem to be for her wedding, it is more for her to meet Romeo in, this is another example of dramatic irony as the audience know of the Friar’s plan, but her family do not.
Throughout the play, things have put strain on Juliet and Capulet’s relationship, at the beginning they had a common father, daughter relationship, where Capulet had power over her, but communicated through Lady Capulet about important situations, she had more respect for him at the beginning, and even consented to marrying Paris in the future then. Capulet obviously cared for Juliet and wanted to protect her, which is why he spent so long finding the right suitor for her, he also planned the wedding to benefit Juliet, as he thought it was the right thing to do for the family. Even though Juliet respected her father, she had to refuse to marry Paris, it was noticeably hard for her to do, and begged for her father to forgive her. Capulet did not know about the deeper reasons forcing Juliet to disobey him, and therefore could not fully understand, this is why he reacted so dramatically. Because he was so angry when she rejected Paris’s proposal, when she finally consented it was such a relief, and filled him with joy. But after Juliet’s suicide, it appears that he was never really close with Juliet, as he focuses on how he will never have an heir, as now Paris will not be married in to the family, and won’t have a son to leave his name to; “Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir, my daughter he hath wedded. I will die and leave him all; life, living, all is Death’s.” This proves how sexist the society was, Capulet saw his daughter only as a path to gain a son.
