How does Juliet’s character develop during the play? Free Essay Example

In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Juliet’s character is completely

transformed in less than a week. There is a clear difference in personality from the point Juliet is introduced to the point in which she dies. Whilst there are many events in the play to support this idea the most important is in the way she interacts with Romeo. Towards the end of the play Juliet is very obstinate which is very different to the beginning where she is submissive.

When we first meet Juliet, her mother, Lady Capulet is informing her about the proposed marriage with Paris. Juliet says little during this scene but the garrulous nurse almost speaks for her. When Juliet does talk it is informal to the nurse and formal to her mother. This shows how Juliet is actually closer to the Nurse than her mother. Many girls of her age in the time of the play would have been married so it is slightly unusual that she has not even considered getting married.

She gives a description of marriage which she later contradicts:

“It is an honour that I dream not of.”

She says she will obey only her mother’s wishes:

“I’ll look to like if looking liking move

But no more deep will I endart mine eye

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly”

Here the use of alliteration with “L” creates a soft sound, suggesting the voice of a young immature girl. The quotation implies that Juliet is a person with little personality and who does what she is told.

Juliet appears obedient, subservient. Her language is formal and lacks any indication of the passion we later see in Juliet.

Although Romeo had previously declared he would love no one but Rosaline, Benvolio is proved right when he tells Romeo that he will “make thee think thy swan a crow”. The moment Romeo sees Juliet he is entranced by her beauty:

“Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright”

There are a number of a number of descriptions of Juliet which compare her to light, particularly in the famous ‘balcony scene’:

“What light through yonder window breaks?

It is in the East and Juliet is the sun”

Romeo is a conventional romantic. J picks up on his words and they speak a very clever word play. This creates an image of equality. In this time men and women weren’t equal. There a resemblance to the way Romeo talks to Mercutio. In Romeo and Juliet’s first conversation Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim to give imagery of his faith. Romeo then compares Juliet to a shrine or saint. Religious ideas run throughout their conversation:

“Profane”, “holy shrine”, “sin”, “pilgrims”, “wrong, “devotion”, “palmers”, “faith, “despair”, “purged” and “trespass”

The conversation is written as a love sonnet. The sonnet changes the tone of the party. Also Juliet is very talkative unlike she was earlier. It gives an image of Romeo and Juliet being in a world of their own. There are several sonnets throughout the play. A Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line poem. Each line has ten syllables with three sections. The first eight lines have a rhyming pattern of ABABCDCD, the next four lines have a rhyming pattern of EFEF ending with a couplet GG. Sonnets were very popular with English poets in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. They are based on an Italian poet, Petrarch’s style. Basically a sonnet has a tradition of neat rhyming, elaborate conceits, puns and repetition.

Act two Scene two starts with Romeo comparing Juliet to the sun, stars and heavens. Juliet declares her love for Romeo despite his belonging to the hated Montagues. She questions, “Wherefore art thou Romeo”. She is asking why here love should be called Romeo, as it is the name that is the problem not the person. She declares her love and offers to renounce her name:

“Deny thy father and refuse thy name

Or if thou will not, be sworn my love

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet”

Juliet furthers her emphasis on the troubles caused by Romeo being a Montague when she enquires, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. By the way Juliet repeatedly refers to the feud so often it shows how serious it is. Juliet warns that her family will kill him if they find him. Romeo says that denying Juliet’s love would be more hurtful than “Twenty of their swords”. After admitting a bit of embarrassment at being overheard telling of her love, she asks if Romeo loves her using very direct language:

“Dost thou love me?”

Romeo and Juliet exchange vows of love, but both are fearful. Juliet fears their love is “Too much like the lightning” which is clearly contrary to the Friar’s later advice that “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast”. A parallel can be made with Juliet’s words to another Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Lysander uses the same image as Juliet. Romeo fears because it seems dream-like and unreal. Juliet asks if Romeo will marry her where as earlier she said marriage was something she didn’t want. She is stronger than she was as she in a command when she asks for marriage. Juliet uses the first of many falcon imageries:

“O for a falc’ner’s voice”

The Nurse calls and Juliet leaves only to return. This shows she can’t bear to part with Romeo. Juliet thinks, “Parting is such a sweet sorrow” and is extremely reluctant when she finally does leaves. “Sweet sorrow” is an oxymoron because it contains two incongruous words brought together to make a striking expression. Oxymoron comes from two Greek words meaning “sharp” and “dull”. Much of this play is a clash of opposites so oxymorons are particularly appropriate.

When Juliet speaks in Act 2 Scene 5 she waits impatiently and brings forward one of the oppositions in the play, between young and old, between caution and impetuous emotions, between mature wisdom and impulsive reactions are all made apparent. Romeo’s passion is clearly evident:

“I stand on sudden haste”

This contrasts with Friar Lawrence’s advice as he urges “love moderately, long doth love doth so”. As the nurse arrives to speak with Juliet about plans for the wedding she doesn’t immediately tell Juliet what Juliet wants to know. The nurse complains she is ill and tries to change the subject. This frustrates Juliet who then starts to beg. The nurse however likes the power this gives her. The nurse uses sexual innuendo as she jokes “you shall bear the burden soon at night”.

Romeo personifies death just before he marries in Act 2 Scene 6. This hints towards the awaiting tragedy:

“Love-devouring Death”

The Friar sums up the play in one line by using oxymorons by saying “These violent delights have violent ends”. Romeo in elaborate language tells of their love like a rich description of a coat of arms. Juliet argues however that “conceit more rich in matter than in words”. Romeo and Juliet leave to be married.

In Act 3 Scene 2 Juliet speaks in an epithalamium filled with hope fear, love and excitement. She is unaware of the murderous events of the day and with her love for Romeo, longs for the night to come. Juliet reminds the audience how important it is for her love with Romeo to remain secret when she exclaims, “Romeo leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen”. She continues with the imagery of falconry:

“Hood my unmanned blood, bating my cheeks.”

Romeo is her “day in night”. This shows how she too uses elaborate romantic language. When the Nurse arrives she again withholds important information from Juliet. She says that someone has died which launches Juliet into a panic thinking Romeo has died. Juliet discovers eventually that Tybalt has died and Romeo exiled. Juliet accuses Romeo in a list of oxymorons as being beautiful but acting vilely:

“Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical!

Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!

Despised substance of divinest show!

…A damned saint, an honourable villain!”

She rebukes the Nurse’s words of “Shame come to Romeo” and defends Romeo. She is nevertheless angry and full of grief. Juliet follows these emotions by talking of suicide, fear and hysteria. The Nurse however tries to calm her down and promises to find Romeo and send him to comfort her in her bedchamber that night.

After their night together in Act 3 Scene 5 Juliet is reluctant to see Romeo leave so tries to persuade Romeo it is not yet dawn, not yet time for him to leave. She attempts to convince Romeo that it was a nightingale they heard but Romeo replies “I must be gone and live, or stay and die”. Juliet finally accepts that it is dawn and hastily proclaims, “It is, it is”. This repetition again shows that Juliet can be panicky she does however calm herself quicker. She describes the lark as being “out of tune”. This is because she doesn’t want to hear it. The Nurse enters and warns the lovers that Lady Capulet is approaching. As Romeo leaves, Juliet’s words filled with foreboding thoughts. Before Lady Capulet enters Juliet personifies fortune as being “fickle”. She conveys an idea of how there is both good and bad luck. Juliet’s weak relationship with her mother is shown again as it is unusual for Lady Capulet to go into her room:

“What unaccustomed cause procures her hither”

In the following conversation Juliet’s cleverly replies to her mother with sentences that have a double meaning. Lady Capulet does not pick up on this mistaking Juliet’s tear for Romeo as tears of grief for Tybalt. Juliet’s replies strengthen her mother’s mistaken belief, and Lady Capulet threatens vengeance, promising to have Romeo killed in Mantua. This however is obviously not the comfort Juliet requires but Juliet is wise enough to keep her true emotions hidden. Lady Capulet again in an effort to comfort Juliet says that the wedding with Paris would be brought forward to Thursday night. Juliet naturally is appalled and shows true strength of character by refusing to do so. Capulet enters and he too misinterprets Juliet’s tears. Capulet starts off by confidently offering fatherly support to Juliet but soon flies into a towering rage on hearing Juliet’s refusal. He threatens and insults her. There is an example of dramatic irony in Lady Capulet’s words:

I would the fool married to her grave.”

Capulet is extremely harsh and completely outraged he even threatens that he will use violence on Juliet:

“My fingers itch”

The Nurse is incredibly brave when she attempts to defend Juliet, as she is just a servant. “O sweet mother, cast me not away” pleas Juliet to her mother but Lady Capulet is powerless against Capulet. Juliet is self prophetical:

“Or if you do not make the bridal bed

In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.”

The noose tightens on Juliet when she seeks comfort in the Nurse but even the Nurse, the person to who Juliet has trusted the most, turns against her. Juliet immediately feels betrayed, sends the Nurse away and vows never to trust her again. Juliet resolves that she will seek the aid of Friar Lawrence.

In Act 4 Scene 1 Juliet says, “What must be shall be”, a line that echoes one of the major themes throughout the play, the theme of fate and fortune. When she speaks with Paris she again uses incredibly clever language with double meanings. As soon as Paris leaves however Juliet reveals how she truly feels:

“Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help.”

Juliet then asks the Friar for help, threatening to commit suicide if she is forced to marry Paris. Friar Lawrence begin to devise a plan to prevent Juliet’s marriage to Paris. Juliet declares she will do anything “rather than marry Paris”. She lists six brave and dramatic lengths she will go to:

“From off the battlements of any tower…”

Friar Lawrence divulges his plan. He will provide Juliet with a potion to make her seem dead. Se will be place in the Capulet, where Romeo will meet her when she awakens and take her to Mantua. The Friar questions “If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear”. This queries if Juliet will have enough courage to follow the plan through. This outrages Juliet. This demonstrates a complete change in Juliet’s character.

Juliet apologises to her father whilst he is busy with wedding preparations. She is aware that she will never see him after she has drink the potion so attempts to appease will him before she leaves. Naturally Capulet is thrilled with Juliet’s turnaround. He decides that he will bring the wedding forward even further. By doing this he is accelerating the awaiting tragedy.

Juliet starts Act 4 Scene 3 by deliberately deceives her mother by using double meanings and dramatic irony. She then sends her mother and the Nurse away. Alone, in a soliloquy, she will fight her fears, plucking up the courage to drink the mixture. If the mixture doesn’t work she will kill herself with a dagger rather than commit bigamy. Juliet reveals her true emotions by questioning the Friar’s motives with a repetitive list of what could go wrong:

“What if it be a poison which the Friar…”

She proves her change in character by drinking the potion. This is a sign of great courage. Despite all her fears she will risk everything.

In at 5 Scene 3 Juliet awakens and immediately asks, “Where is my Romeo”. The Friar, in a panic, attempts to get Juliet to leave before the Watch enters. Juliet is rushed and impulsively grabs Romeo’s dagger and abruptly kills herself.

Looking back at Juliet’s character from the beginning of the play it is hard to believe how Juliet had changed so much, in so little time. In the first scene we see her she appears to be like a little incapable of the passion she later shows. When she dies she doesn’t consider her actions she just carries them out. Juliet developed, because of her love for Romeo, into a women.