Emily Cramond-Wong 3E
How does Shakespeare build Lord Capulet’s mood in this scene?
Throughout all his plays, William Shakespeare manages to build the mood of the scene and of the characters through his writing. This unique skill gives power and depth to the scene. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare builds a very strong mood in his characters, in particular, Lord Capulet’s mood in the scene where his daughter tells him that she will not marry Paris. His explosive reaction is strongly felt through Shakespeare’s words.
Juliet does not wish to disobey her father. At the time when the scene was written, a daughter was very much expected to obey and respect her father, the head of the house. At the time though, a father oft chose a husband for his daughter, so Juliet was actually lucky that her father was originally willing to let her choose her spouse. But he changes his mind after his heir’, Tybalt’s, death. He could have changed his mind for many reasons. The most plausible ones are his anxiety over losing his heir, where would his money go now? And the other is him thinking that a marriage to a very eligible young man would cheer his inconsolable daughter up. He was wrong.
His plan provokes the opposite reaction to the one he expected. He expects Juliet to cheer up rather more quickly than she did after Tybalt’s death, but he is surprised to find her “still in tears”. Personally I cannot blame her for being upset, Capulet, on the other hand, seems very nonplussed over the death of his “brother’s son”. Capulet describes the death of Tybalt thus:
“When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother’s son
It rains downright”
Capulet does effectively say that Tybalt’s death is more catastrophic than the death of day when he compares the two as downpour and drizzle respectively. But by comparing the death to something as ordinary and as common as the weather, it makes you wonder whether he was really as effected by the death as Juliet was. Lord Capulet starts the scene as thoughtful, almost tender, but also a bit teasing and callous. After his extended metaphor, comparing Juliet to a boat caught in a storm, he becomes practical and demanding again. He barks “how, now, wife!” at Lady Capulet, obviously displaying his status and implying through this impersonal order that he owns her, all at the same time. Then after getting his wife’s attention, he asks, in a very kingly manner, whether she had “delivr’d… our decree?” Not only does his use the royal plural, again throwing his status in their faces, he makes his wife sound like a mere foot soldier obeying his every command. Shakespeare obviously wants us to think that Capulet feels his status is important. His regal air quickly turns to disbelief when his wife, his foot soldier, reports that Juliet “will none.” Capulet’s speech after this is full of rhetorical questions such as “is she not proud?” and is full of repetitions, clearly showing his confusion and disbelief. His repetition of “take me with you” implies that he has misheard his wife, or that maybe he doesn’t want to believe what he has just heard. Juliet replies carefully saying, that she is thankful but she cannot marry Paris. Capulet doesn’t know this, but if Juliet marries Paris, she would be committing bigamy, as she is still married to Romeo. It is after her timid and careful speech that Lord Capulet starts to get really irritated. In his net speech he gets really quite harsh and cruel towards her. He speaks of “chop-logic”, saying that Juliet is talking in riddles. He really cannot comprehend that this young girl is defying him after he profusely assured Paris that she would obey his every word. He anger slowly build up through the scene. Shakespeare first makes Capulet mock Juliet by repeating her words of “proud” and “I thank you” then turning them on her in a patronizing, cruel way. He tells her to “thank [him] no thankings” or to “proud [him] no prouds” which, of course, isn’t at all grammatically correct. This could be Shakespeare’s way of either showing Capulet’s confusion or Capulet’s way of emphasizing that what Juliet is saying is nonsense. Capulet follows this up with a series of threat and insults, building up in cruelty and harshness as the speech goes on. The next time Capulet speaks he says “my fingers itch”. His anger has grown so that now he is moved to violence. But the next thing he says us, in my opinion, crueller than hitting Juliet, He says how he though Juliet was a blessing, as all his other children dead but he emphasizes that he realizes they “have a curse in having her”. He says to her face that he thinks she is a curse, a hindrance and an annoyance. Clearly his anger has grown and made him malicious. But it is Capulet’s last speech were he blows his top. This is evident by the fact that his first words are blasphemy. Blasphemy is rarely found in plays from that period; Shakespeare was taking a great risk by publishing it. The words would have been censored. The fact that Shakespeare takes the risk shows the he really wants the audience to know that Capulet is positively spitting venom. Capulet complains that “day, night, tide, time, work, play, alone, in company” that he is always trying to find Juliet a husband. The long list emphasizes and labours his point. He tells Juliet that she is ungrateful and that she should be happy that he has found her “a gentlemen of noble parentage”, a worthy gentleman to take her hand. He calms his anger but right to the end his malice remains. Lord Capulet even threatens Juliet with expulsion form his household should she not obey him, for he will “not be forsworn”.
