“My sword I say! Old Montague is come, and flourishes his blade in spite of me.” He still wants to fight because the Montagues are there; he says they are only here to defy him.
As soon as the Prince arrives the fighting stops as they listen to what he has to say. He talks to both Montague and Capulet (the head of each family) with disgust, and warned them of the consequences if anything like this happened again, they would both be executed.
“If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.” This emphasises how often this happens and how much the families despise each other.
At the start of Act 1 Scene 2 Capulet says,
‘‘Tis not so hard I think, for men so old as we to keep the peace.’ This is a complete contrast to Act 1 Scene 1 where he wanted to join in with his family fighting the Montague’s. This might be due to him having a conversation with Paris who happens to be a blood relative of the Prince also Paris wants to marry Juliet. This might give him an advantage if Paris goes and tells the Prince too. This tells us that Capulet can put on a show / performance to achieve his goal in this case playing off Paris to get in the Prince’s good books. Paris then moves the conversation on to the prospect of marrying Juliet, ‘But now my lord, what say you to my suit?’ This is where I think Capulet isn’t sure on what to say, he does want Juliet to marry someone like Paris but he thinks she is too young.
‘But saying o’er what I have said before. My child is yet a stranger in the world.’ This shows more of a sensitive side to him, and suggests that he loves her greatly.
‘Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she, She is the hopeful Lady of my earth.’ This shows the audience and Paris that she is everything to him and he does not want to give her away just yet but he also does not want to see her hurt,
‘But woo her gentle Paris, get her heart, my will to her consent is but a part.’ Here he tells Paris that he will only consent to the marriage if she (Juliet) agrees.
For the times what Capulet said would be quite surprising since normally they would not give the daughters a choice who they married it would be decided by the father and the husband to be. At this point you would say he was a good father, respecting Juliet’s wishes towards the choice of her husband.
By looking at this scene it would have changed the audience’s perception of Capulet, and they would have seen more of a sensitive side to him.
When you see Capulet at the party he is trying to work the crowd and crack jokes to get everyone in the party mood.
‘She I’ll swear hath corns.’ He seems in a good mood and trying to impress the crowd wanting to spread his good mood to the other guests.
‘You are welcome, gentlemen. Come musicians play.’ Also here he was telling musicians to play. It gave the impression he wanted to be in control of everything that was going on.
Later on in the scene he sees one of his cousins that he has not seen in a while, they start debating when was the last time they met.
‘Capulet: How long is’t now since last yourself and I were in a mask.’
His cousin comes back and tells him that it was thirty years ago but Capulet disagrees,
‘What man, ’tis not so much, ’tis not so much.’ Then his cousin h=gives him evidence to prove how long ago it was.
‘’Tis more ’tis more, his son is elder sir; his son is thirty.’ Even with this evidence Capulet continues to argue which gives the feeling that he is stubborn and cannot admit that he is wrong. Capulet though seemed to be getting agitated due to the fact that his cousin would not believe him even though he had no evidence to say it was not that long ago. He did not want to believe that some one would argue with him when he thought he was right.
During the party Tybalt (Capulet’s nephew) notices that a Montague (Romeo) has got into the party and goes to warn his Uncle. When he tells his uncle he gets a surprising reaction.
‘Content thee gentle coz, let him a lone.’ He told Tybalt to leave Romeo alone so they did not disturb the party. This made Tybalt angry and he still wanted to cause trouble and get him out of the party.
‘I’ll not endure him.’ This seemed to make Capulet angry again and warned Tybalt that he was in charge. This was Capulet showing people that he was in control and wanted to keep the party moving smoothly. He did not mind who was at the party as long as they did not disrupt it in any way. Also the way he was talking to Tybalt seemed to give the impression he wanted it his way like the way he spoke to the musicians. He also does not want to bring attention to the conversation by talking to the guests while he is talking to Tybalt.
‘[To guests] Well said my hearts! [To Tybalt] You are a princox, go;’ This gives the impression that he is disgusted with Tybalt and thinks that he is a show off trying to impress, might take the guests eyes off Capulet.
Capulet seems to be drunk and a bit disorientated in the final part of the scene.
‘You will set cock-a-hoop, you’ll be the man?’’ This shows lack of judgement and he has in fact embarrassed himself. By the end of Act 1 you would perceive Capulet as a mixed character who would do anything to make sure he got what he wanted no matter the consequences. He was quite stubborn and would not accept people correcting him when he was wrong. At this point the audience has still not seen Capulet with Juliet. I don’t think that Shakespeare wanted to see them together so people would think ‘would he treat his daughter the same.’ When we first saw him talking to Paris he talking about how much she meant to him but later on he seemed quite aggressive and talked down people which makes you believe that he was putting on a show for Paris.
Before the beginning of Act 3 Scene 5 Capulet announces to his wife that Juliet will marry Paris.
‘I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love.’ This is what Capulet announces saying he will take the risk and offer Juliet’s love to Paris. He has made the decision because he feels Paris is a noble man and can offer Juliet a lot. This is why he expects her to be overjoyed.
‘She shall be married to this noble earl.’ This him emphasising what he truly thinks of Paris.
When Capulet goes to see Juliet she is crying he believes these tears for Tybalt who had recently been killed. He speaks to her.
‘What still in tears? Evermore showering?’ I see this as him trying to cheer her up ready for the “good news” but to some people that could be a sign of impatience or annoyance.
When he is finished speaking to Juliet he turns to his wife and says,
‘Have you delivered our ‘decree’?’ Using the word decree it gives the impression that the decisions is final, not like what he said to Paris. But he was expecting her to be overjoyed but she wasn’t.
‘Not proud you have, but thankful you have.’ She was trying not to make her father too irate by saying that she did not want to marry him but was thankful for the thought. This could suggest that she mite be scared of what her father could do to her, due to the power he has.
