Lord and Lady Capulet Characters Free Essay Example

Lady Capulet does care for Juliet, but she herself believes that grieving is a pointless process. This may be because she doesn’t truly love Lord Capulet as she is happy to hear the proposal of Paris to Juliet. This may be because Lady Capulet was not allowed to marry for love so she therefore believes Juliet shouldn’t be given that choice either. This goes back to women in Elizabethan times being treated like property and possessions so their fathers chose who they deemed suitable in terms of their wealth and social status to marry.

This would then allow lord Capulet and lady Capulet to climb the social hierarchy. Lady Capulet is a cold mean hearted woman and has a resentful attitude because she wasn’t allowed to marry for love she thinks Juliet shouldn’t be allowed to either. This allows the audience to feel pity and sorrow for Juliet because she is a completely different character to her mother. Lady Capulet seems as if she’s setting out to ruin things deliberately.

In my opinion Lady Capulet may care more for Tybalt more than she is letting on and this is why it is harder and far more complicated for Juliet to hide her feelings for Romeo.

This then causes Juliet to worry because her Mother thinks that she wants to kill Romeo for murdering tybalt and she tells Juliet that she will kill Romeo as settling of scores. “Shall give him such an unaccustom’d dram That he shall soon keep tybalt company; And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.

” Juliet then fears that Lady Capulet will do as she says and kill him. This puts Juliet in an even more aqua position because she cannot say anything to try and protect Romeo because this will only cause scepticism and Lady Capulet may question Juliet’s trust.

There is lots of tension here because Juliet fears for Romeo yet cannot tell her mother. This is also dramatic irony because the audience know that at the end of the play, Romeo buys some poison and drinks it thinking Juliet is dead, not due to Lady Capulet like she is threatening to poison him here. Juliet then is trying to avoid lying about settling the score with Romeo and has to try and avoid arousing suspicion in doing this. She uses words with double meanings to put her mother off the track and is truthful. Juliet tells lady Capulet that she wishes only she could get revenge for tybalts death.

This then eludes Romeo from being the culprit and she escapes bringing Romeo into the revenge. “Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death! ” Juliet says this meaning only she would kill the person that killed Tybalt, however she knows that she would never kill Romeo so uses this as a double meaning. This then fools Lady Capulet because she thinks that Juliet wants no on other than herself to kill Romeo as a sign of respect to Tybalt, as it was Romeo who killed tybalt. However we, as the audience know that this would never happen and after she says;

“Indeed, I never shall be satisfied. With Romeo, till I behold him -dead- Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex’d. ” To lady Capulet, this means that Juliet will not be content until she is sure Romeo is dead by killing him herself and then she can see him dead. However there is a double meaning here. There is a pause before the word dead which is symbolised by the “-“which means that she will not be content until she beholds him and her poor heart is dead in her grief for Tybalt. Lady Capulet doesn’t tell Juliet the reason why she has come to see her straight away.

She puts it off and gradually builds up to the news by talking about ‘joy’. As Lady Capulet takes her time to tell Juliet the real reason why she has come to see her, she is also building up tension as the audience wait to see how Juliet will react to an arranged marriage. Lady Capulet gives several hints at to what she may be trying to say. She advocate what the news is by saying: “Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child; One who, to put thee from thy heaviness, Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy That tho expect’st not, nor I look’d not for,”

Juliet should show a look of hope and faith here, because with tybalts death, she wants something positive to look forward to. This increases the audiences sympathy with her as a girl shouldn’t have to go through the amount of negative things Juliet has been through. The audience believe that Lord Capulet cares deeply for his only surviving child, as he organised party to see if paris was truly loyal to being juliets wife buy resisting temptation from all other girls that approached him. However this is ironic in view of the way he reacts later in this scene when Juliet refuses.

On hearing this comment, juliets panics and realises that she must marry paris. This shocks the audience as it shows how much she loves Romeo and it would be extremely rare when Shakespeare wrote the play to have a situation occurring like this one. Juliet then realises that she must buy herself time and suggest to her mother that Paris should try and impress her first and she “will not marry yet”. Her mother thinks she does not want to marry at all as she tells her mother that she would marry Romeo before marrying paris.

However the audience already know she is married and telling the truth, not exaggerating. In Elizabethan times, children had to obey their parent and females were thought to be substandard to males. Therefore they defiantly did not dare defy their fathers. Lady Capulet then warns Juliet that her father is coming and she should tell him herself; “Here comes your father; tell him so yourself. ” Lady Capulet seems to be a cold hearted mother but she may believe that Juliet is being deliberately difficult and ungrateful that her father has gone to the trouble of finding her such a good match.

She wants Juliet to tell her father this herself because Lord Capulet has a bad temper and she doesn’t want to be the messenger. This shows the audience that he has a big ego and is the ruler of the household being the only male. However lord Capulet may sympathise with Juliet as her cousin has just died and she is his only child, therefore he wants the best for her. More tension is added when Capulet and the nurse enters, as the audience worry about his reaction to Juliet’s refusal. As he is the only male on the stage, he is domineering and controlling.

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