Character study of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet Assignment                  

I have been asked to write an assignment on Romeo and Juliet - a play written by William Shakespeare around 1600 and still one of the most popular Romantic-Tragedies performed in theatre today.

I have chosen Juliet because I believe she is an interesting character and she has a subtly split personality or conflict of loyalties, which I find interesting and which I feel a lot of teenagers today might identify with.

I have to chosen to look in detail at the whole of Act 3 Scene 5 after line 59, when Romeo has left.

‘JULIET

    Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay, husband, friend!

    I must hear from thee every day in the hour,

    For in a minute there are many days:

    O, by this count I shall be much in years

    Ere I again behold my Romeo!

ROMEO

    Farewell!

    I will omit no opportunity

    That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

JULIET

    O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?

ROMEO

    I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve

    For sweet discourses in our time to come.

JULIET

    O God, I have an ill-divining soul!

    Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,

    As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:

    Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.

ROMEO

    And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:

    Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!’

The contrast of joy over time with Romeo followed by sadness at their parting means that Juliet is already in a heightened emotional state before the news comes which is to cause her to oppose her parent’s will for the first time ever. This scene is vital to understand Juliet’s changing character. 

‘JULIET

    Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:

    Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!

LADY CAPULET

    We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:

    Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,

    Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,

    Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,

    That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:

    And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

JULIET

    Indeed, I never shall be satisfied

    With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--

    Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.

    Madam, if you could find out but a man

    To bear a poison, I would temper it;

    That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,

    Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors

    To hear him named, and cannot come to him.

    To wreak the love I bore my cousin

    Upon his body that slaughter'd him!’

The scene takes place in Juliet’s bedroom. Her mother enters soon after line 64, immediately after Romeo leaves. Capulet’s wife asks Juliet how she is and asks if she’s missing her cousin Tybalt (who recently was killed by Romeo) Previously, Capulet and his wife discussed bringing forward Juliet’s wedding to Paris to the next Thursday as Juliet had been extremely emotional since the death of Tybalt.

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‘JULIET

    Madam, in happy time, what day is that?

LADY CAPULET

    Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,

    The gallant, young and noble gentleman,

    The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,

    Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.’

 Juliet becomes very anxious regarding this and when her father enters with the Nurse (around line 122) an argument between Juliet and her father ensues.

‘JULIET

    Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:

    Proud ...

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