The Nurse, throughout the whole play is seen as a mentor to Juliet. She, unlike Juliet’s parents, Capulet and Lady Capulet, advises what she sees as the best for Juliet. All Capulet wants is for Juliet to marry Paris to improve their social standing, but the Nurse goes against this to help Juliet marry Romeo. However, in this scene, the Nurse changes sides. From being Juliet’s ‘ally’, she starts to advise that she goes ahead with the marriage to Paris, against Juliet’s wishes. This puts all the more tension on Juliet and the scene as a whole:
‘NURSE: Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are very happy in this second match,
For it excels your first, or if it did not,
Your first is dead, or ‘twere as good he were
As living here and you no use to him’
The Nurse gives this unexpected advice to keep Juliet out of trouble and away from Romeo who is seen as dangerous after killing Tybalt.
Juliet no longer has the Nurse to confide her thoughts in and she is left all alone. Her speech starting on line 230 really emphasises this point. This increases Juliet’s tension and makes the audience feel sorry for her. The Nurse even goes as far as to say ‘your first is dead’ which is dramatic irony, because the audience knows that Romeo will die. We can see that in many people feel that Romeo has already died, as being banished from Verona is as bad as dying. Even Romeo would prefer to die than to be banished: ‘Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say ‘death’’. The audience know that they will never see Romeo alive again and to say he is already dead is ironic- increases dramatic effect created by Shakespeare.
Lady Capulet also begins to distance herself from Juliet; she rejects Juliet, her only daughter. Her main aim is to get Juliet to wed Paris. When Juliet does not want the same she rejects her: ‘I would the fool were married to her grave’. Juliet does not tell Lady Capulet about Romeo, it would just make the situation worse. Lady Capulet thinks she is still mourning over the death of Tybalt, which adds tension because the audience know that Juliet is actually mourning Romeo, and to see Lady Capulet being unaware of the situation which she is trying to control is aggravating.
‘LADY CAPULET: Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death
As the villain lives which slaughtered him.
JULIET: What villain, madam?
LADY CAPULET: That same villain Romeo.
JULIET: [Aside] Villain and he may be many miles asunder. –
God pardon him, I do with all my heart:
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.’
We see that Juliet has so much love that she even forgives Romeo for killing her cousin. That is how much she loves Romeo. Lady Capulet goes on to say that they are going to poison Romeo: ‘Shall give him such an unaccustomed dram / That he shall soon keep Tybalt company’. Juliet answers that she will only be at ease until she is dead if they do poison Romeo: ‘Indeed I never shall be satisfied / With Romeo, till I behold him – dead –.’ There is a large amount dramatic irony there because that is exactly what happens in the end: Romeo dies from poison and so Juliet kills herself so that she can be closer to him. And so she is basically predicting what is going to happen. Adds to the ever-increasing tension building up in this scene.
Romeo having been exiled or, ‘dead, or ‘twere as good he were’, as the Nurse says, Juliet now has no one left to fall back on. Her parents and the Nurse have both left her feeling alone and with no clear path to follow. We realise how lonely she is in her speech on line 230. She says she will go to Father Lawrence’s cell, never to return. It is apparent, only to the audience, that she is right. More and more tension is being built by this dramatic effect. ‘Go in, and tell my lady I am gone, / Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’s cell, / To make confession and to be absolved.’
The quarrel between Capulet and Juliet is a very disturbing sight for the audience and leaves them feeling torn between the two characters. It is violent and shocking: ‘Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch! / I tell thee what: get thee to church a’Thursday, / Or never after look me in the face.’ The audience have strong admiration for both Romeo and Juliet but here we can see Capulet threatening her with exile from his household. It puts the audience under pressure because Juliet is put forward as a ‘hero’. This creates tension and dramatic effect and also, we know that Capulet is going to lose her anyway so we feel sorry for Capulet. But also for Juliet as her once, loving and forgiving father is now throwing her out unless she marries a man who she does not love: An upsetting reminder of the decisions Juliet has yet to face. The audience also hears Capulet talking freely about Juliet’s death: ‘die in the streets, / For by my soul, I’ll never acknowledge thee,’ This is disturbing and tense as we know that Capulet would not let his only child die in the streets but yet he says is without the faintest idea that she will die that same day.
However, this scene can be taken in very different ways because, over the time the audiences have developed different views on marriage and patriarchy. For example, a nineteenth century audience, even though they still like Juliet, would have sided with Capulet because Capulet has given Juliet a lot of wealth and support but she has married Romeo against his wishes and behind his back. In Elizabethan times it was believed that all children should obey their fathers and not question his decisions. So, the audience would have found it very wrong that Juliet married Romeo. Pathos is evoked for Capulet, although this feeling would have been limited as Juliet is the ‘hero’ of the play, not Capulet.
The audiences of the twentieth and twenty-first century feel sorry for Juliet and would feel angry with Capulet. A modern audience does not have the same views on patriarchy, and children now have more liberties and can make their own choices. Therefore they will feel angry that Capulet is making Juliet marry Paris for his family’s pride as modern marriages are created through love rather than to improve family status. In the scene, Capulet is rude to Juliet and tells her very strongly what to do, he also sends off Lady Capulet to tell Juliet about the marriage. Modern audiences do not believe in patriarchy and would feel angry that Capulet is ordering his own family around: ‘Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!’ So the audience would definitely not have sided with Capulet and they would sympathise with Juliet completely.
Social order was very important in Elizabethan times and Capulet would have been head of the house, so could have ordered both Lady Capulet and Juliet around. This is different from modern eras where women and men are now equal. So when Capulet says to Lady Capulet: ‘take me with you, take me with you, wife’, an Elizabethan audience would have accepted this as being quite normal. A modern audience however would feel angry with Capulet for talking to his wife this way. This is how the tone of a scene can change according to the audience’s reaction.
