Examine the Development of Juliet’s Character To the End of Act Iii, Drawing Attention To Relevant Themes and Use of Techniques

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EXAMINE THE DEVELOPMENT OF JULIET’S CHARACTER TO THE END OF ACT III, DRAWING ATTENTION TO RELEVANT THEMES AND USE OF TECHNIQUES

Three scenes into the play, In Act I Scene iii, the audience finally meets the second main protagonistic character; Juliet. Thematically, this scene continues to develop the issue of parental influence, particularly the strength of that influence over girls. Lady Capulet, herself a woman who married at a young age (“...I was your mother much upon these years...”), offers complete support for her husband's plan for their daughter, and puts pressure on Juliet to think about Paris as a husband before Juliet has begun to think about marriage at all (“...it is an honour I dream not of...”). Juliet admits just how powerful the influence of her parents is when she says of Paris: “…I'll look to like, looking liking move; but no more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly…” In effect, Juliet is saying that she will follow her mother's advice exactly in thinking about Paris.

While providing a humorous moment, the Nurse's silly anecdote about Juliet as a baby also helps to portray the inevitability of Juliet's situation. The Nurse's husband's comment about Juliet falling on her back when she comes of age is a reference to Juliet one day engaging in the act of sexual intercourse. His comment, therefore, shows that Juliet has been viewed as a potential object of sexuality and marriage since she was a toddler. In broad terms, Juliet's fate to someday be given away in marriage has been set since birth.

Beyond thematic development, this scene provides magnificent insight into the characters of the three main female characters. Lady Capulet is a flighty, ineffectual mother: she dismisses the Nurse, seeking to speak alone with her daughter, but as the soon as the Nurse begins to depart, Lady Capulet becomes nervous and calls the Nurse back. The Nurse, in her hilarious inability to stop telling the story about her husband's innuendo about Juliet's sexual development, shows a vulgar streak, but also a familiarity with Juliet that implies that it was she, and not Lady Capulet, who raised the girl. Indeed, it was the Nurse, and not Lady Capulet, who suckled Juliet as a baby (“…when it did taste the wormwood on the nipple of my dug…”).

Juliet herself is revealed in this scene as a rather naïve young girl who is obedient to her mother and the Nurse. But there are glimpses of a strength and intelligence in Juliet that are wholly absent in her mother. Where Lady Capulet cannot get the Nurse to cease with her story, Juliet stops it with a word. Juliet's phrase “…But no more deep will I endart mine eye than your consent gives strength to make it fly…” seems to imply a complete acquiescence to her mother's control. But the phrase can also be interpreted as illustrating an effort on Juliet's part to use vague language as a means of asserting some control over her situation. In this phrase, while agreeing to see if she might be able to love Paris, she is at the same time saying that she will put no more enthusiasm into this effort than her mother demands. The phrase can therefore be interpreted as a sort of passive resistance.

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During Act I scene v Juliet meets Romeo and falls deeply in love. The meeting of Romeo and Juliet dominates the act, and, with extraordinary language that captures both the excitement and wonder that the two protagonists feel, Shakespeare proves equal to the expectations he has set up by delaying the meeting for the entire act.

Shakespeare has converted the first conversation between Romeo and Juliet into an extended Christian metaphor. Using this metaphor, Romeo ingeniously manages to convince Juliet to let him kiss her. But the metaphor holds many further functions. The religious overtones of the conversation clearly ...

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