Although the reason why Juliet could not enlighten her father, or any of her family, about her relationship with Romeo was because of the family feud, it could be disputed that it was Romeo’s fault that they were in the relationship in the first place, knowing that she was a Capulet and even coming to the Capulet’s party in the first place, where they fist met and began to fall in love. But Juliet also agreed that the fact that their families were enemies didn’t matter. She says, “Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot, not arm nor face…’ ‘What’s in a ame? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;’ this tells us that Juliet refuses to deny her love just because Romeo was a Montague. I don’t think that Romeo deliberately, set out to cause any damage to Juliet’s life or to influence her in any way, but the affect he had on her was unbelievable, and they found themselves deeply in love after only a couple of days. On the other hand it could all be down to fate that Romeo saw the guest list, and the only reason he wanted to go to the party was because he saw Rosaline’s name was on the list. This is fatal, as he goes looking for love with Rosaline but finds himself falling in love with Juliet. In a way this love could have been of some use in the end, if they had been honest to their families from the beginning, and maybe the family feud could be resolved through their love for each other. Maybe it was fate that they met, and they had been put together for a reason; the prologue suggests ‘a pair of star-crossed lovers’ that coincidently met and almost immediately fell in love. The family feud caused a lot of problems for example, Tybalt’s and Mercuitio’s deaths were due to them fighting over the family feud. And in the end it caused their own children’s deaths by trying to keep the two families apart, their children must have felt excluded and ultimately could only confide in the friar and each other.
Friar Lawrence was the local monk, the equivalent to a priest today, he was supposedly a trustworthy man, or so Romeo and Juliet thought. He was the first to know about Romeo’s love for Juliet, this is when Romeo asks if the friar would marry them. At first the Friar rebukes Romeo for his uncertainty in love, but the agrees he will marry them because it may ‘…turn your households’ rancour to pure love.’ He comes across as being wise and dependable in this scene and gives Romeo a last piece of advice before his exit; ‘Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.’ Friar Lawrence marries them secretly, without either of their families knowing. You might say that the Friar was deceitful in doing this behind their families backs, but the friar would be disloyal to Romeo if he refused to marry them if that was what they wanted. I think his intentions were worthy but his actions may have been misguided.
Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin; he influences Juliet in that he is very much against the Montague’s. As a cousin Juliet should be able to trust Tybalt, and she should be able to tell him about her love for Romeo, but because he is so resentful towards the Montague’s she can’t. One example of this is at the Capulet’s party when Tybalt, finds that Romeo was there and immediately is ready to start a fight, but in this scene Capulet is very rational and scolds Tybalt for doing this. “What dares the slave come hither” says Tybalt, “This is a Montague, our foe: a villain…” The language used here is very abrupt, rude, cursing and shows the bitterness between the families. This kind of behaviour reoccurs later on in the play when Tybalt starts a fight with Mercutio, and eventually kills him. This then leads to Romeo fighting Tybalt for the sake of his good friend Mercutio, “Staying for thine to keep him company: either thou or I, or both, must go with him”, and Tybalt is soon killed to. This is a big mistake for Romeo as this means banishment. This would affect Juliet because she would have to live without the man she is married to, and is in love with. This is where Juliet becomes a victim of the male influences in her life, as her future depends on Romeo because of a fight between Tybalt and Mercuitio.
Capulet sets a date for Juliet to marry the county Paris, not knowing Juliet is already married and without asking Juliet if this is what she wants first. Juliet pleads with her father, as she knows she can’t marry Paris if she is already married to Romeo. “Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word.” Although she begs her father in this way, there is still a great deal of respect shown for her father, and so this makes her a victim of her fathers influences in her life.
She has three days before the wedding, and during this time Romeo is banished. Only the Nurse and the Friar know of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship at this time, so she turns to them for help in the crisis. She goes to Friar Lawrence’s cell seeking help, threatening to kill herself if he doesn’t help her. This is where the Friar makes a mistake and helps her out of this commotion, by giving her a sleeping potion, to take on the night before the wedding, so that she appears dead, and obviously can’t marry Paris. Here, the friar is influencing Juliet in a big part of her life and future, and the friar’s plan is what partly causes Romeo and Juliet’s suicide. The Friar was incorrect to do this, but probably felt guilty, as he was the one who secretly married Romeo and Juliet in the first place. In order for Romeo and Juliet to be together at the end of this Romeo was to come and awake Juliet secretly so that they could secretly leave Verona together. The males seem to over power Juliet, for example the fraiar is the one who arranges their flea, and Juliet doesn’t have much opinion and lets the males make the decisions and actions. It was the friar’s job to make sure that the letter explaining this was to get to Romeo before Juliet awakened.
The letter never did reach Romeo, but Balthasar does and without knowing Juliet is not really dead, he tells Romeo that ‘her body sleeps’. Romeo immaturely resolves to kill him self that night in the tomb with Juliet, he decides to go to the apothecary who sells poisons. He gets to the tomb before Juliet has awakened and drinks the poison to kill himself. I think that Romeo took the easy way out, I think he showed immaturity and maybe shows he wasn’t ready to be married in the first place. When Juliet eventually wakes, she finds Romeo dead and she too resolves in killing herself.
I think that the friar had to take a lot of blame for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, but there are also many other influences, including her father, Romeo and Tybalt. I feel that it should also be argued that Juliet was to blame for her own death, as she got married without the consent of her parents, and then couldn’t deal with the consequences.
To a certain extent I think that Juliet was a victim of the male influences in her life, but it would be unfair to say all the influences in her life were male, the nurse and lady Capulet could also be blamed, due to the fact that the nurse was the only other person who knew about Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. Lady Capulet was almost equally persistent in wanting Juliet too marry Paris, as Capulet was, so you could also say that Juliet was a victim of the female influences in her life. Capulet is a leader, and Lady Capulet tends to agree with him, as most wives would have at that time, but you could also say that Lady Capulet is a victim of her husbands’ influence as well as Juliet. The Nurse tries to remain a neutral character, but gets absorbed within the love of her beloved Juliet and Romeo, I would probably have done the same in the Nurse’s position, as she tries to keep everyone happy by not telling Juliet’s parent’s her secret, but her actions could be wrongly viewed.
Overall I think that Juliet was a victim of the male influences in her life to quite an extent. Due to the patriarchal society this could be expected, but I think Juliet was lead by the males in her life and didn’t have much say, even with her family. Most of the influences in Juliet’s life were male, in my opinion. Some of them were directly to blame, but some were indirectly to blame when linked to Juliet’s eventual suicide.
