Juliet is a young teenager, she is gentle, loyal, and respects her parents, but thinks for herself. When she first meets Romeo she falls for him instantly. Juliet falls in love with Romeo and asks him to marry her. Juliet’s parents, Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet want her to marry Paris, a young Capulet. Juliet does not like the idea of this, and when Romeo and Juliet are together she is very worried her parents will find out. Juliet blames herself for things that go wrong in their relationship, “Prodigious birth of love is to me,” unlike Romeo who blames fate.
When this play was written, like Macbeth, people believed in fate, fortune, chance and other beliefs similar to this. Shakespeare has written the play in a way where people believe that the fortune, fate and chance affect Romeo and Juliet, and emotion and happiness is in the stars. Romeo believes that fortune is affecting his relationship with Juliet and his happiness, he says, “O, I am fortune’s fool.”
Juliet’s parents, Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet believe that Juliet should, “Marry, that is the very theme.” This explains that Lord and Lady Capulet want Juliet to get married. Lady Capulet felt that Juliet was coming to the age where she should be married. Lady Capulet is a powerful person and has an inconsistent personality, similar to Lord Capulet. She is cold hearted, and is distant from her daughter and husband. She is very selfish and rarely sees other people’s point of views, she is not close to her daughter but tries to rule her life and make decisions for her. This makes it almost impossible for Juliet to discuss anything with her parents because they want to always make decisions for her. Lady Capulet virtually forces Juliet to marry Paris without even giving her a choice, so it is impossible for her to even speak a word about Romeo. The only person Juliet can speak to is the Nurse, who Juliet feels she can trust, but the Nurse also has a good relationship with Lady Capulet.
Romeo’s family is very different to this and his parents are loving towards him. Romeo has a good relationship with Friar Lawrence, a priest. He is like a father figure to Romeo. Friar Lawrence understands about Romeo and Juliet’s relationship and how Juliet is under the influence of her parents. Friar Lawrence comes up with a plan for Romeo and Juliet where Juliet shall take a potion on her wedding day, and appear dead. Her body will then be taken into a trunk underground. Romeo will then receive a letter from Friar Lawrence and go and meet Juliet where she is sleeping. However it is only Juliet that knows about this: and Romeo does not receive the letter.
Friar Lawrence wants Romeo, Juliet and the two families to be happy. He is well intentioned, but does no think about his actions. Before he gives Juliet the potion, he talks to Romeo and Juliet about marriage without consent of their parents. He persuades Romeo and Juliet to get married. The Friar is a man of peace, and does not do this to cause more problems, but to bring the two families together.
Juliet tries to talk to the nurse about her misfortune, but at the last minute when Juliet needs the nurse most, she lets her down and offers no advice. She asks Juliet how she even speaks of Romeo’s name after what he did to her cousin Tybalt. She says, “Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin.”
“Shame come to Romeo.”
Romeo and Juliet rushed their relationship right from the start. If they hadn’t rushed it so much and kept their relationship a secret, the two teenagers may not have died. I believe that if they had a more public relationship where their families knew about it from the start, the two families would have accepted the fact that their son and daughter are in love and they would have had no choice but to let the feud die down. The hast, secrecy and feud between the two families could have been three major factors for Romeo and Juliet’s death. Shakespeare’s play explains all about young teenage love and how it is passionate, but hasty, and how it affects young lovers. Before Romeo fell in love with Juliet, he said that he was in love with another young Lady called Rosaline. He called her “exquisite,” he means that she is special to him and he loves her. However Romeo seems to like the feeling of loving someone or being in love, but is he actually in love with Rosaline because his feelings sway very rapidly, and he falls in love with Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet made many mistakes, but Romeo’s biggest mistake was killing Tybalt, a close relation to Juliet and her parents. This caused the Capulet family to hate the Montague family more, especially Romeo. This made it harder for Romeo and Juliet to have a relationship. However this was not entirely his fault. Mercutio, one of Romeos close friends was quarrelling
with Tybalt, when Romeo enters the scene. Tybalt threatens Romeo, “Boy this shall not excuse the injuries, that thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw.” Romeo refuses, “I do protest I never injured thee.” Mercutio tries to “O calm,” them. Tybalt takes the opportunity and kills Mercutio. Romeo has no choice but to kill Tybalt for what he “hath” done to Romeo’s friend. Lady Capulet shows more hatred for Romeo than ever before and demands for him to be executed, she says, “Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.”
It was very difficult for the young teenagers to cope with their love as neither of them could discuss the situation with their parents as they would have been angry, and probably stopped them from seeing each other. Lady Capulet is an uncaring person, but feels that she is being too caring for Juliet. She does not like Romeo, and wants him to be executed because he killed one of her close relations, Tybalt. She is very insensitive and has a strong willed personality, although towards the end of the play her character changes and she acts as a sensitive caring person towards Juliet.
Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulet Party. They fall in love within minutes. Their relationship was made very hard by people around them who made their life difficult. Neither Romeo nor Juliet had anyone they could rely on. The nurse who was supposedly loyal to Juliet let her down, and turned against Romeo due to the death of Tybalt. Friar Lawrence tried his best for Romeo and Juliet and was sympathetic towards them, but his plan didn’t work. Their relationship started very rapidly, and neither Romeo nor Juliet had planned what they were doing. I feel that from a mixture of immaturity, hast, passionate love, feud between their two families and number of other untrustworthy people in their way, Romeo and Juliet’s relationship would have never worked. However, I do feel that Romeo and Juliet had something incredibly strong between them, that it actually caused suicide.
