Once Romeo has left Juliet’s chamber Juliet has a premonition of seeing Romeo dead. ‘As one dead in the bottom of a tomb’ implies when Romeo is gone she sees him dead in a tomb, as she believes he will be caught in Verona whilst he is banished. When Romeo leaves his lover he leaves the audience with a question in their heads ‘will they ever meet again?’ Juliet's parents mistake Juliet's sorrow for grief for her dead cousin, Tybalt. They believe her mood will improve by marrying Count Paris, her suitor, on the forthcoming Thursday. Her father & mother choose Paris has her suitor as he is wealthy and related to the prince of Verona.
Juliet’s fate is foretold in the prologue. Act 3 Scene 4 begins to build up dramatic tension when the audience are aware Juliet is already married to Romeo but Lord Capulet and Paris are unaware of that and are busy planning her wedding to her suitor Paris. If she were to marry Paris, Juliet would be committing sin called, bigamy.
As Romeo is leaving Juliet’s mother is on her way to her chamber, shouting Juliet’s name. Juliet thinks to herself ‘is it my lady mother?’ she thinks this because it is very unusual for her mother to go to her chamber as they do not have a strong relationship. Lady Capulet is visiting Juliet’s chamber to give her good news or is it good news?
When Juliet receives the news from her mother that she is to marry Paris, Juliet panics and her mother thinks she is just shocked, and tries to reassure her as it is her father arranging this marriage to make her happy after the death of her cousin Tybalt ‘thou hast a careful father child’ this proves how much her father is caring for her.
Lady Capulet and Juliet did not have a powerful relationship as Juliet was brought up by her wet nurse and not her mother. During the sixteenth centaury because of the infant mortality rate caused them not to build a powerful relationship has rich children were given to a ‘wet nurse’ at birth.
Lady Capulet highlights her own ignorance and naivety as she tries to cheer up her daughter. She wants to please her husband by making sure Juliet accepts the proposal for marriage to Paris. But Lady Capulets precipitated the fatal chain of events are to unfold.
Apart from Lady Capulets fear of her husband, I think that Juliet is also frightened of Lord Capulet as she apart from Lady Capulet calls him ‘My Lord’ and ‘Father’; Juliet and her father share many similarities as Juliet like her father is short- tempered, stubborn and extremely strong- minded, and in the society of Shakespeare’s time, men were meant to be feared and respected.
In this scene we now see, Juliet is being thrown into an undesired marriage and she is already married to Romeo. Juliet is only a teenage girl at the age of fourteen, and to our audience of today this seems shocking, but in Elizabethan times children to marry young.
Juliet is now taken by shock at the announcement of her arranged marriage, to Paris. She had never expected this and is married to Romeo. But Juliet shows her strong strength of mind as she now knows what she wants and to do and doesn’t. ‘Saint Peters Church, Peter too, he shall not make me there joyful bride,’ from the quote we can now see all Juliet wants to do is to be an independent woman, and although she doesn’t recall this all she wants most of all is the feud to be over and her and Romeo to be together as one.
Lord Capulet is outraged when Juliet rejects his proposal for her to marry Paris. There is good use of dramatic irony and ambiguity at this point as Juliet tells us ‘I will not marry yet and when I do I swear it shall be Romeo’. At this point we know that Juliet is married to Romeo and she leads her parents to believe that she would rather marry someone she ‘hates’ than to marry Paris. Her father is outraged and begins to stammer and get furious. ‘Hang thee young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to the church o’ Thursday, or never after look me in the face: Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;’ this proves Capulet does not want to hear anything but a yes I will marry Paris, but he furious as Juliet rejects his proposal. The audience feel scared for her as they fare Capulet may injure her.
The nurse steps in and tries to save her. Capulet tells her ‘know your place woman…’ and the nurse backs down. The nurse turns against Juliet and tells her to marry Paris even though the Nurse helped in the process of getting Romeo and Juliet married.
In this play, Juliet’s relationship with the Nurse, Lady Capulet, Lord Capulet and Romeo all break down leaving Juliet isolated. She goes to Fryer Lawrence as a last resort.
All the events in the play lead to the dramatic deaths of the star crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet.
