Explore the relationship in act 3 scene 5 between Juliet, Capulet and lady Capulet

Before  I  explore  the  relationships  I  shall give a brief build up of the events preceding act 3  scene   5  Benvolio  (Montague)  and  tybalt  (Capulet)  have fight  in  street  which  is  broken  up  by  the  prince  of  Verona.  In scene 2  count  Paris  asks  Capulet  if  he  may  marry  Juliet  but  Capulet  says  he  either  has  to  wait  or  make  Juliet  fall  in  love  with him.  Scene  3  Lady  Capulet  tells  Juliet  that  Paris  wants  to  marry her.  Scene  5  Juliet   and  Romeo  meet  and  fall  in  love  with  each other. In  Scene  1  Romeo  leaves  the  party  and  climbs  over  the Capulet  home  wall.  The balcony scene where Romeo proposes to Juliet.  Scene 3 Romeo asks Friar Lawrence if he will marry him and Juliet. Scene 4 Romeo tells nurse to get Juliet to meet him in the afternoon to get married. Scene 5 nurse tells Juliet what Romeo told her. Scene 6 Romeo and Juliet wed. In scene 1 tybalt taunts Romeo but then mercutio fights Tybalt. Tybalt then kills mercutio. Romeo then fights Tybalt and kills him. The prince then banishes Romeo after hearing what happens from Benvolio.  The nurse tells Juliet what happened to her cousin and her husband.  Romeo goes to Friar Lawrence and the friar tells him to leave the city and go to Mantua. Capulet tells Paris he can marry Juliet.

In the story Shakespeare uses a typical example of a nurse maid being the main carer in Juliet’s life. So when Lady Capulet wants to speak with her child by herself she lacks the confidence and closeness without the help of the nurse. ‘Nurse, give leave awhile; we must speak in secret-Nurse come back again.’ The fact she feels the need to call back the nurse shows Lady Capulet’s inability to communicate in a motherly way with her daughter.

At the beginning of the play Juliet is presented as a 14 year old girl, who is respectful, obedient and does as an Elizabethan child is expected. This initial showing of respect is shown in the way she addresses her mother and farther as lord and lady. A good example of this is when she first greets her mother.” Who is’t that calls? It is my lady mother Capulet” By calling her mother lady Shakespeare shows the audience the level of respect Juliet has for her mother and how high in Juliet’s regard she is kept.

Lady Capulet appears to modern audiences as a cold an unfeeling character because of her relationship with Juliet. This kind of mother Daughter relationship is not accepted in the eyes of today’s values. The way that Juliet is treated as a possession would be surely dealt with by social services yet in Elizabethan England this was common practice.

Capulet is Juliet’s farther and the head of the Capulet family. The power he has is best shown in act 3 scene when he says ‘Have you deliver’d to her our decree’ the use of the word ‘decree’ shows that in his family he has the power to make the rules of the house and they must be obeyed. The word ‘our’ is used as a decoy he knows he alone runs the house but it is said to present a united front between himself and his wife.

The order within the Capulet family is a typical example of the Elizabethan family structure. It is Juliet who must obey Lord and Lady Capulet, then Lady Capulet who must be dutiful and obey her husband. The only power Juliet has in this kind of structure is that of her own life. ‘If all else fail, myself have the power to die’. This is a bit ironic considering at the end of the play she does not really intend to die it is just an unfortunate series of events which escalates to him killing her.