Romeo & Juliet: Juliets relationship with her father act 3 scene 5

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Romeo & Juliet Coursework

In this piece of writing I am going to explore Juliet’s relationship with her father from Act 3 Scene 5. You will understand how powerless women were during the Elizabethan period. Women in the Elizabethan period were over-powered by men, they had to obey their father, brother and husband. Men were superior to women. I am going to discover the truth of how women were treated.

Women felt that they had no voice within society, there were only three options for women, these were to cook, clean and wash, women were only known for these three things, they were known as the domestic goddess.

 Women had no power over anything not even money, women lived in a society in which men were the leading figures and made all the decisions, men dominated and ruled everything. Fathers had complete control of the women in his family this meant wife, sister and mother.

Women were not allowed to make financial decisions, they were not even allowed to work, men were in charge of government and law, women had no say in anything, they had to hold their opinions, views or lifestyle, women were known to be ‘inferior’ to men. The only way for women to take control of their lives, was commit suicide.

Even to the day the woman gets married, she is not allowed to have choice, her father is the one that has to choose who his daughter marries because it is said that men were the only ones with wisdom and knowledge. The women cannot refuse to marry because they are forbidden to say what they think, therefore their only option is suicide.

During the Elizabethan society was totally unfair to women because everyone should have equal rights and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and thoughts, no-one should be known as inferior to anyone else. All these women worked really hard behind closed doors so they should have at least had chance at being something or some one in society. Men should not have underestimated women because they did not give them a chance to show that they were capable of, and some of these women could have been better than some of the men at their jobs.

Romeo and Juliet is set during the 1500’s when men were in total control of everything. When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, it was when men had power over everything, Juliet was a young beautiful girl who was told what to do by her father, her father even had the right to tell her who she had to marry.

In Act 1 Scene 2 Paris asks Lord Capulet for Juliet’s hand in marriage, Lord Capulet’s initial reaction is utter shock, and I think Capulet could not believe that Paris wanted to marry Juliet, it was unexpected, I know this because this because he say’s, “Let two more summers wither in their pride, ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” Although Capulet liked Paris he thought that his daughter was too young to marry him, because he say’s, “She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.” This means that his daughter is only thirteen. There are a number of occasions where Capulet show’s his feelings, such as, “And too soon are those so early made,” although Capulet makes a lot of excuses he allows Paris to marry his daughter as long as she agrees.

It is obvious that Capulet did not want his daughter to wed Paris, but he thought it was right to allow the wedding to follow through, as long as Juliet agrees.  

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The reasons for Capulet’s change of heart, is because he thinking of how his daughter feels about Paris, he also may think that there is no other worthy man in the world to marry his daughter, I know this because he say’s, “But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart.”

It does not come across Capulet’s mind that Juliet does not love Paris, he just assumes that they are in love but obviously not, he does not realise this, he only chose Paris because he may have thought that he was the perfect one, and the perfect ...

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