The balcony scene shows that they would do anything for their love and that they would not let the family feud split them up.
“ Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself”,
“O be some other name!”
Juliet is much more practical then Romeo, but is still deeply in love. Juliet wants to know how he got to her and fears Romeo might get caught, but he just answers as if there’s nothing to worry about. “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls.”
First Juliet is worrying that everything is too sudden, “ It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,” and she’s afraid that it will all go away in one flash,
“ It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like lightning, which doth cease to be.”
Then, after worrying about going too fast, she asks him to marry her, “If that thy bent of love honorable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,” this is a very quick change of view.
The next time we see Juliet she is waiting for the nurse to return with news from Romeo about marrying her. The nurse is more like a mother and a friend to Juliet then her real mother is, so she can confide in the nurse about Romeo. Juliet is impatient with the nurse and is frustrated.
As Juliet is waiting for Romeo to come and spend the night with her she goes through a lot of different emotions. She wants the night to come quickly, as she says “come” six times in a short period, “ Come, night, come, Romeo, come, thou day in night.” She is excited that she and Romeo will be married officially, but also scared. As soon as the nurse says “he’s dead, he’s dead.” there is a huge difference in her mood. The nurse does not state clearly who’s dead and Juliet thinks that Romeo is dead instead of her cousin. As Juliet is confused about who is dead she asks the nurse,
“ Is Romeo slaughtered? and is Tybalt dead?
My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord?”
This shows that although she is very close to Tybalt, she loves Romeo more. As Juliet learns that Romeo killed Tybalt she is very confused and doesn’t know what to think. She loves him, but hates him at the same time. Her speech is full of oxymorons,
“ Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!
Dove- feathered raven, wolvish- ravening lamb.”
She can’t reconcile Romeos actions with her feelings for him and so describes him with these conflictions. Juliet is saying that he looks lovely on the outside but is horrible on the inside, “ O serpent heart, hid with a flow’ring face.” As soon as the nurse joins her in hating Romeo, Juliet becomes all defensive. She remembers herself and that Romeo is her husband and that she should stand by him at all times, “ O what a beast was I to chide at him!” She chooses Romeo above her family.
In Juliet’s next speech she finds out that Romeo is banished. As she speaks there are lots of words to do with either death, woe or suffering, this shows that she is extremely miserable and depressed. She would rather have heard that her mother and father were dead instead of Romeo being banished,
“ Why followed not, when she said “Tybalt’s dead”,
‘Thy Father’ or ‘thy mother’, nay, or both,”
This just shows how much Juliet does love Romeo who she met a couple of days ago, more than her own family, who she has known all her life.
Meanwhile, as Capulet thinks that all the grieving is for Tybalt instead of for Romeo, he decides to cheer her up, he arranges for Juliet to marry Paris. Capulet thinks that Juliet is still the obedient child from the beginning of the play. He doesn’t know how much she’s changed, so thinks that Juliet would marry Paris if her father said to,
“ Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love: I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.”
The morning after Romeo and Juliet have just spent their first and last night together, they swap roles, now it is Juliet who is being quite impractical and Romeo who is being sensible. Juliet doesn’t want Romeo to leave, and it is Romeo who says that he must go, if not he will be found and put to death. He persuades Juliet and he climbs down from the balcony. Juliet looks down on him she says,
“ Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.”
We know that the next time she will see Romeo he will be lying dead in the bottom of a tomb. She now has doubts that they will be able to overcome the problems that they are faced with, and foresees his death.
After Romeo has left, Lady Capulet comes and has a word with Juliet. Juliet has to trick her mother into thinking that she is grieving for Tybalt and not for Romeo leaving. As she talks to her mum, she talks in double meanings,
“ Indeed I shall never be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him – dead-
Is my poor heart.”
This quote can mean two things, either she will not be satisfied until Romeo is dead, so her mother would think that she hates Romeo. Or she will never be satisfied until she sees Romeo, otherwise her heart will break. As Lady Capulet tells Juliet of the plans to marry Paris Juliet throws the offer back at her. She is very shocked as her daughter has never disobeyed her wishes ever before. Before she would use the familiar “thy”, but as soon as Juliet disobeys, her mother uses the third person “She” instead. It is as if Juliet is no longer her daughter. “ I would the fool were married to her grave”.
When Capulet finds out how Juliet has disobeyed him, he is not at all happy, and says that if she doesn’t marry Paris on Thursday, he will have her thrown out of the house and make sure no one helps her,
“ Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church a’ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.”
After her father has gone she tries to win her mother over, but her mother only says that she doesn’t want anything to do with her ever again. Juliet then turns to the nurse, as she is the only one left that she has. The nurse however says, “ I think it best you married with the county” saying that Paris is much better than Romeo, and Romeo isn’t likely to come back anyway. “ Your first is dead, or ‘twere as good he were.” She thinks Romeo is as good as dead, and Juliet should move on. Now even the nurse has left Juliet. The nurse was Juliet’s best friend and now Juliet has started lying to her. She has to pretend that she is taking her advice and is going to marry Paris. When the nurse leaves, Juliet says to herself, “ I’ll to the friar to know his remedy; If all else fail, myself have the power to die.” This is saying that she is willing to die if she can’t have Romeo.
When Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence’s cell she meets Paris. She pretends that she is happy to marry him, and uses double meanings again. When Paris leaves she asks for the Friars help, as he is the only other one apart from the nurse who knows about Romeo and Juliet. As he tells her the plan of drinking the potion and pretending to be dead, she goes on about how she would rather kill herself than marry Paris, “O bid me leap, rather that marry Paris, From off the battlements of any tower” She acts as though she is not afraid, “Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear.”
When Juliet is in her bedroom by herself, just before she is going to drink the potion, she is having a lot of doubts. Just before the nurse leaves her and she’s talking to her, she seems very in control but as soon as she’s left on her own she gets a bit hysterical. Her mind is full of questions, “ What if it be poison….” and “How if when I am laid…”. She gets quite carried away, and is extremely illogical.
As she wakes up in the tomb, she finds Romeo’s dead body by her side. I think in the film, this scene was much better as they made it so Romeo saw Juliet awakening just before he dies and he can’t do anything about it as he has already drunk the poison. I think this was really good because if Juliet had wakened a second earlier everything would have been perfect, or as perfect as it could have been. In the play the friar comes into the tomb just after Juliet awakes and says to her to get out and run away, and when she does not, he leaves her, “ I dare no longer stay”. This shows that in the end she had no one at all to turn too. Her parents would have disowned her if she hadn’t married Paris. The nurse thought it was right to marry Paris and to leave Romeo. Now Romeo is dead and the friar now too left her. The friar is like God, and so it’s like God has turned his back on her. The only power she has left is to kill herself, and join Romeo in Heaven.
As you read through the play, Juliet changes a lot. At the start she acts all innocent and wants to please her parents, but as the play progresses you see that she starts to mature. When she disobeys her fathers wishes you would think that she was a completely different person. She goes through a lot, at the end she can’t handle anymore. At the beginning she is in control, but towards the end, when she is growing apart from her family, she starts losing control and gets hysterical at times.
I think the characters are still relevant today as in many different cultures there are still arranged marriages, and children are being pressured into things they don’t want to do. I think Juliet’s love for Romeo was strong throughout the play, so much that she would die for him, which I think is true love.
