When Lady Capulet enters Juliet’s room to tell her the news, she sees Juliet has been crying, and assumes the tears are for Tybalt. ”Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death? What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?” (Line 69). This sounds almost sarcastic and you can feel supportive for Juliet because she has lost a great deal. Lady Capulet continues and tells Juliet the news. “(Your father) hath sorted a sudden day of joy… (You will) marry, my child, early next Thursday morn…” (Lines 109-112) To which Juliet replies: “He shall not make me there a joyful bride… I will not marry yet, and when I do, it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris.” (Line 123) This speech by Juliet has a double entendre, which her mother interprets as Juliet disliking Paris. It does not occur to Lady Capulet that she really does love Romeo.
Her father enters the room and Lady Capulet appears to wash her hands of the affair, perhaps because she is afraid of Capulet and does not want to feel his wrath when he hears Juliet doesn’t want to marry Paris. “Here comes your father; tell him so yourself...” (Line 124) This shows how Lady Capulet abandons her daughter when she needs her support most. Capulet gets angry about Juliet’s refusal and warns her that she will be disowned if she does not do as she is told. He is deeply bewildered and does not know why Juliet has refused; he concludes that she is being ungrateful. “How? Doth she not give us thanks?” (Line 142). He starts to go over the top, with his fury, and insults Juliet “What is this? “Proud” and yet “not proud”? (You will) go to Saint Peter’s church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green-sickness carrion!” He insults her deeply and so the nurse steps in and takes on the role of Lady Capulet, by sticking up for Juliet and trying to protect her. Lady Capulet now appears to stick up for the nurse by telling Capulet to calm down “You are too hot.” (Line 176)
Lady Capulet’s lack of support and Capulet’s extreme rudeness towards their daughter makes the audience side with Juliet because they appear to be being particularly insensitive. Up to now, Shakespeare has made the reader feel sympathetic towards Juliet because we can see her gradual isolation. She has lost her cousin Tybalt, her husband Romeo, and now, her mother and father. She has now become especially vulnerable after the threat of being disowned by her parents. (“Get thee to church on Thursday, or never after look me in the face… Graze where you will but you shall not house with me…)(Lines 161-162, 188-189)
After Capulet and Lady Capulet leave, Juliet talks to her nurse. “What sayest thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, Nurse?” She seems to be pleading for help because her parents have deserted her. Nurse then replies “I think it best you be married to the County.” This does not please Juliet and she tells the nurse to leave her. “Go, counsellor!” (Line 213) The audience is shocked at this point, because the nurse has been the one person who has stayed by Juliet.
After the betrayal of the nurse, Juliet becomes even more vulnerable. Juliet was very close to the nurse, perhaps closer than she was to her mother, and assumed that nurse would stand by her and support her. Juliet is now completely alone in the world, and Shakespeare emphasises this by leaving her alone in her room as she says the words “Myself have the power to die”. The audience is especially sympathetic with Juliet now, because she feels she only has one option left, and that is to kill herself.
In conclusion, Shakespeare makes the reader increasingly sympathetic by introducing immense emotions of sorrow and sadness for Juliet, because she has lost her family and her one true love, Romeo. The reader has to feel sorry for Juliet, because the other characters, her mother and father for instance, are portrayed as uncaring and unkind to Juliet. In addition, Juliet’s true situation, which we already know about at the start of the scene, is significant; because it shows the confusion of her parents and how it affects the way they speak and behave.