Lady Capulet build County Paris up to sound fantastic using words such as “noble” and talks repeatedly about joy and happiness. This could give the impression she is trying to convince Juliet it’s a good thing but also herself – however, after Juliet’s speech she changes and dismisses her daughter. At this point she should be slowly walking away from Juliet, which, would represent how she is distancing herself from her daughter.
In Juliet’s speech we see her anger coming through straight away as she immediately curses and “oath against god”. I would have her jump up after the curse and have most of the camera shots focused on her. Beginning with a long shot, gradually zooming in as her. However a couple of shots would needs to show Lady Capulet shock at Juliet’s outburst.
Lord Capulet would enter in a very cheerful mood with a big smile on his face expecting Juliet to be much happier because of the new of the marriage. We can tell she is surprised partly because of the many tear images he mentions in his speech such as “showering”, “flow” and “tears”. As he is told she doesn’t want to marry he erupts with anger.
Capulet doesn’t understand why Juliet doesn’t want to marry County Paris. People in a modern audience mostly would sympathise with Juliet and not understand why he is so angry. However, back in the times when Shakespeare wrote the play, arranged marriages were quite common and it would be expected for the woman or man to accept the arrangement. We can tell this be the way he refers to it as a decree (like a contract). Because of this we can sympathise with Capulet as he has worked hard to find her a partner but it seems unnecessary for him to get so angry. In modern times if the woman didn’t accept her partner she wouldn’t be forced into the marriage. Having said that, arranged marriages don’t happen as much as they did back then. They mainly take place in religions such as Islam.
As Lady Capulet tells Lord Capulet how Juliet feels about the marriage we see her acting even colder towards Juliet. The line “I would the fool were married to her grave” shows us that Lady Capulet feels that if Juliet doesn’t marry Paris she might as well be dead. This is an example of retrospective irony as we see at the end of the play. After this I would have Lady Capulet stood out of the scene, or just lingering in the background stood near to the door. It would show how she feels awkward and would rather not be there.
During Capulets' second speech in this scene, I would have him act as Baz Luhrman does in his version of the play. Getting more and more angry as the speech progresses with a close-up getting closer. We can tell how angry he is by the amount of punctuation used in the scene. If the actor playing Capulet was taller than Juliet I would have him looking down on her in disgust.
By now I would have Juliet beginning to cry again showing her emotion. As she replies to Capulet (“Not proud you have…”) I would also have her getting increasingly angrier and perhaps moving towards her father. As she finished speaking he would push her away, emphasising how he doesn’t want her is she wont do this for him.
After Juliet gets angry we really see Capulets’ anger come through. I wouldn’t have him making it obvious by shouting, but speaking fairly loudly in a cold determined harsh tone. Shouting is not needed because his many curses against his daughter make it clear how angry he is. However, I would have him shouting and getting more and more angry again in the last couple of lines to emphasise his anger and also emphasise the harshness of his words. “Green-sickness carrion” isn’t a nice thing to say to anyone but it is shocking that he would call Juliet that. This could also be seen as retrospective irony as Juliet does end up dead. She would at the point be on the floor crying, as she doesn’t want to marry Paris.
Even Lady Capulet sees Lord Capulet is over-reacting and steps in to try and calm him down. In Baz Luhrmans' version of this scene he has Capulet hitting her so she goes away, falling to the floor. This shows us their relationship may not be so stable and Lady Capulet could be afraid of him, I’d show this by having her completely move away from him after he hits her but having a quick shot of her getting back up quickly as though nothing had happened – trying to hold on to her dignity.
One of the only stage directions Shakespeare has used in this scene is where Juliet says “good father I beseech you on my knees” so I would have Juliet on her knees crawling towards Capulet as though begging him to listen to her. However, Capulet doesn’t want to hear what Juliet has to say so I would have the actor push Juliet away so she falls onto her back. At this point she would be crying almost hysterically as her father continues to insult her – “we have a curse in having her”
At this point we see the nurse step in and stick up for Juliet. She even goes as far as saying “you are to blame my lord” this shows us how much she cares for Juliet.
When Capulet is saying his speech before the nurse (“Hang thee…”) I would have Capulet still shouting at Juliet and I think she should get up and try and get away from him. She could run out of the door like in the Baz Luhrman film. He could grab hold of her to stop her running away and the nurse could separate the two of them. As she argues with Capulet I would have Juliet stand behind the nurse. This would show how she feels the nurse protects her. Most kids would run to their mothers but Juliet has no one else to go to – the nurse has been more of a mother to Juliet anyway and probably raised her from birth. It was typical in those times for rich parents to employ a nurse that has had a child at the same time so they could do everything – even breastfeed. We know this happened in this situation as the nurse mentions her own child, which died, a few times. However, Lady Capulet does tell Capulet he is “too hot” which shows she is trying to stick up for Juliet and demonstrates the contrast between the couple – he is too hot and she is too cold.
Capulet then continues to shout at his daughter. I’d have him talking here to same way, as before – not shouting. I would also have Juliet either behind the nurse or sat on the floor clinging to her. I think either of these would represent how she wants the nurse to protect her. Capulet continues to insult his daughter in this speech. I would have him shout the last line and storm off as this is where he exits and will demonstrate just how angry he is. He could possibly bang something to the floor like in the Baz Luhrman film when he knocks plates to the floor to give even more of an impact. At that point I would also have the music die down quickly – up to that point I would have had it building up more and more like the anger was doing.
After her father has gone I would introduce Lady Capulet back into the picture and have Juliet on the floor as she talks to her mother – as though she is begging. However Lady Capulet shows her no emotion in the response and I would have her walking away as she speaks, then exiting the scene as she finishes.
Juliet and the nurse would then be left alone. Juliet is expecting the nurse for comfort and asks her for help – “some comfort nurse” – but does not get what she wants. The nurse tells her she should marry Paris, which surprises Juliet, and she distances herself from the nurse for the first time. To show this, when the nurse begins to tell Juliet her “comfort” she would lead Juliet back into her bedroom with her arm around her, but when she had finished talking Juliet would break free and move across the room away from her.
I’d tell the actress playing Juliet to avoid making eye contact or looking at the nurse for the rest of the scene as she is dismissing the nurse. Another way we can tell she is doing this is they way she starts to give the nurse orders such as “Go in: and tell my lady I am gone…” after the nurse has gone she really turns on her and curses behind her back. After all the arguments she had with her father though we do see that they are rather alike – both of them tend to curse quite harshly when they get going.
Juliet’s last line in this scene is another example of retrospective irony. She says, “If all else fail, myself have power to die”. This is an example of retrospective irony because at the end of the play this is actually what happens to her.
