Romeo and Juliet English Coursework

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare

Discuss how Shakespeare creates tension in Act 3, Scene 5,

through his presentation of relationships between adults and
children

Act 3, Scene 5 is an important scene in the play because it shows a change in

relationships which greatly affects how the watching audience sees some of the
major characters in the play. It is also a part of the play which greatly increases the
difficulty in Romeo and Juliet’s marriage, and adds much tension, which translates on
stage to entertainment.
This essay aims to outline some of the ways Shakespeare uses the relationships
between adults and children

In order to understand why this scene is tense, we must look at what has happened
in the play before our key scene, and gain some understanding of Romeo and
Juliet’s awkward situation.
Romeo and Juliet are from two prominent and feuding families who reside in the city
of Verona, a real city in northern Italy. As far as the audience are aware, they are
their parents’ only offspring, the only other ‘children’ in the family (other than
nondescript ‘kinsfolk’) are Benvolio and Tybalt, cousins to Romeo and Juliet
respectively.
As only children, their parents are naturally protective of them – Juliet’s father,
especially. Towards the beginning of the play, in Act 1, Scene 2, Paris asks Capulet
for permission to marry his daughter. In Elizabethan times (when the play was
written and performed), it was the job of the father to give away the daughter, as if
she were a present or his property, rather than her own person.
Rather than just give away his daughter to Paris, a young nobleman, kinsman to the
prince, and someone who would be seen as a ‘good catch’ for a husband, he tells
him:
‘But going o’er what I have said before,
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride’
We can see from this speech that Capulet is protective of his daughter, and whilst he
wants her to marry a fine man (she tells Paris to come back in to years), he doesn’t
want her to grow up too quickly. It would appear that he has her best interests at
heart.
In the following scene, we first see the relationships between Juliet and her nurse
and mother. Her mother seems somewhat out of touch with her daughter, having to
ask the nurse to find her…
(‘Nurse, where’s my daughter? Call her forth to me’)

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…and doesn’t seem to be able to talk to her daughter, other than through the nurse
or in her presence…
‘This is the matter:--Nurse, give leave awhile,
We must talk in secret:--nurse, come back again;
I have remember'd me, thou's hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age..’
However, she does appear to have some consideration for her daughter’s feelings
and wishes, as she asks her what she thinks of marrying the nobleman, and to start
thinking about marriage; she also makes her speech a little more personal by putting
in some of her own experience (that she was a mother at the age her daughter now
is):
‘Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,
Are made already mothers: by my count,
I was your mother much upon these years’
Whereas Juliet seems to respect her mother (first referring to her as ‘Madam’ rather
than, perhaps, mum or Mother), she seems to be more at ease talking to her nurse.
It would appear that Juliet and her nurse have always been close… even to the point
of the nurse taking over the traditional mother’s job of breastfeeding her child. She
makes a reference to this in the same scene:
‘And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,’…
‘When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!’
Above, the nurse talks of breastfeeding Juliet. This is, of course, very unusual in this
day and age, but not quite unheard of in Elizabethan times. The fond fashion in
which the nurse remembers this, however, seem to indicate that Juliet and the nurse
have a strong relationship. The fact that she was breast-fed by her nurse rather than
her biological mother hints that perhaps the nurse was (and is?) more of a mother to
her than Lady Capulet.
The nurse also seems friendlier than Lady Capulet – by saying things such as ‘A
man, young lady! Lady, such a man as all the world - why, he's a man of wax’ and
‘Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days’, she seems to be more excited about
Paris’s proposition than Lady Capulet.

Act 3, scene 5 in some ways seems a distorted reflection of Act 1, scenes 2 and 3.
Capulet has arranged to marry Juliet off to Paris, and once again it is Lady Capulet
that has the job of telling her. However, the Capulets’ stances on Juliet regarding
marriage have changed. Instead of wanting to protect his daughter from an early
marriage, Capulet is now the one trying to rush her into it. Likewise, her mother,
rather than asking Juliet for her thoughts on the matter, is telling her what is going to
happen.
Juliet has just spent her wedding night with her beloved and now husband, Romeo.
He has been banished to the city of Mantua for avenging the murder of his friend
Mercutio. The scene starts on quite tense grounds, as Juliet has almost been caught
with her lover, who is a sworn enemy of her family and faces execution if found in
Verona. Simply Romeo being in the house is enough to create some tension - that
Juliet is crying heightens this tension.

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Juliet’s mother shows herself to be a little insensitive by effectively telling her

daughter that crying isn’t going to bring anyone back, and that it shows her to be a bit
stupid:
‘Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of love;
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.’
Lady Capulet then shows her ignorance of Juliet's marriage and feelings for Romeo
by telling Juliet not to weep for Tybalt’s death, but that Romeo lives. Romeo is
referred to as the ‘villain’ several times – this adds emphasis to the fact that the
Capulets see Romeo as a bad person. Juliet mutters, aside to the audience, that she
believes that Romeo and ‘villain’ are ‘many miles asunder’. This confirms to the
audience that Juliet and her mother have opposing views.
Lady Capulet continues, calling Romeo a ‘traitor murderer’ and threatens to send
someone to Mantua to murder Romeo. The audience do not want to see Romeo be
murdered, now that they can see how in love he and Juliet are. Shakespeare then
very cleverly crafts a speech for Juliet that has dual meaning.
‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it;
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that slaughter'd him!’
The punctuation at the beginning can be altered to sound differently to the audience
than Lady Capulet would hear it. It could be read ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
with Romeo, till I behold him, dead – [dead] is my poor heart for a kinsman vex’d’,
where the kinsman is the slaughtered Tybalt… or ‘Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
with Romeo, till I behold him. Dead is my poor heart…a kinsman vex’d’… where
Romeo isn’t dead, just a kinsman (husband) vexed (in distress).
She says that if she could find a poison that would let Romeo ‘sleep in quiet’, she
would temper it. Whereas Lady Capulet would see this as her daughter wanting to
poison Romeo and kill him, the audience may take it as her wanting to take Romeo’s
troubles (i.e. their separation) away so that he can sleep peacefully at night. More
observant members of the audience may also link this to the ending of the play,
where Juliet temporarily poisons herself in an effort to solve her and Romeo’s
problems.
When Juliet says that her ‘heart abhors to hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love [she] bore [her] cousin upon his body that slaughter’d him’, her
mother takes this as not being able to lay her hands upon him… but the audience
obviously realises that she means that it hurts her to hear his name and not be able
to be with him… perhaps even to get sexual gratification out of him. The audiences
may well be shocked by these lusts that are well beyond her years – remember that
she is only 13.
The tension at this point would be building, as Juliet is playing a dangerous game by
playing with her words like this. The indication that Juliet wants to ‘wreak her love
upon him’ may also have been quite shocking… audiences of the time would not
have been so exposed to such blatant references to sins of the flesh.

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When Lady Capulet declares that Juliet’s father has arranged a marriage for her in a
few days, the audience may feel a quick dropping sensation in their stomachs – for
they know that Juliet is already married – and therefore cannot marry Paris – and that
this means that the secret marriage between Juliet and her Romeo may be
discovered. She also once again shows her ignorance of Juliet’s true feelings by
being under the impression that the marriage will cheer Juliet up – not make her
problems worse. She uses repetition of the word ‘joy’ here to emphasise what she
presumes Juliet should be feeling.
Juliet strikes back with the following:
‘Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!’
Juliet swears by Saint Peters Church and Peter too’ – Elizabethan audience would
find this blasphemous and shocking. She also throws her mother’s term ‘a joyful
bride’ back at her, and questions her parents wishes by saying to the effect of ‘I’m
wondering about you’re wish to marry me off to someone who hasn’t even bothered
to court me’… then downright defies them by saying that ‘I will not marry yet’. In
Elizabethan times, daughters were seen as their parents’ (and especially father’s)
property, so it would have been seen within Capulet’s rights (if, perhaps, a little
unfair) to ‘give away’ his daughter.
The last three lines of the dialogue are broken up strategically with commas, which
drag out the speech and make it seem much more powerful and effective than if it
was read without these breaks. The whole speech, whilst not quite being
disrespectful, is defiant and directly challenges Juliet’s parents’ wishes. The
audience will feel now as if the tension is coming to a peak, as society absolutely
demanded that children abided by their parent’s wishes, and that even though the
marriage can’t go ahead, Juliet will be punished for trying to prevent it.
When Capulet enters, he appears in a fine mood, but this soon changes when his
wife informs him of their daughter’s wishes. She says that she wishes ‘the fool were
married to her grave’… this is the first sign of the rift created between Juliet (the
younger generation) and her parents (the older generation). Capulet enquires of
Juliet's motives for not marrying Paris with the following:
‘Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?’
Here, Capulet shows his apparent displeasure that Juliet isn’t thankful for her father’s
arranging of this marriage – saying that she should be proud and count herself as
blessed – this shows Juliet and her father’s relationship as starting to waver. He also
says that Paris is ‘so worthy a gentleman’, but that she is ‘unworthy’… indicating,
perhaps, that he gives Paris more credit than his daughter. This shows the audience
something about their true relationship and how much he values her. Bear in mind
his conversation with Paris in act 1, scene 2 – where Capulet was protective of his
daughter, and talked of her more like a person – whereas now he is ‘giving her away’
as if she were property.

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‘Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:

Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.’
As we can see, Juliet's relationship towards her father is quite different. Even though
she can’t like that he's arranged a marriage for her, she still respects him and is
thankful that he has arranged a wedding for her in an attempt to cheer her up –
because it was meant well. This makes Juliet, the child in this scene, seem instantly
more likeable to the audience – which makes anyone who tries to hurt Juliet seem
less likeable. From the following person onwards, this person is Capulet:
‘How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not;'
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!’
Capulet now starts verbally assaulting his daughter, due to her not wishing to have a
marriage to a man she does not know forced upon her. After calling her illogical, he
throws her own words back in her face, mocking her, telling her not to bother
thanking him but just to be ready to marry Paris – because he will drag her to the
church regardless. He finishes by aggressively insulting her.
The way Shakespeare chooses to rapidly change Capulet’s mood like this makes
Capulet appear volatile and dangerous. The audience by this point in the play have
already grown to side and empathise with Juliet, so they will oppose anything that
threatens her.
As with Juliet’s speech, the punctuation drags out the long sentences in this block of
dialogue, and makes it more powerful. The speech also starts in the iambic
pentameter, which follows the rhythmic beating of your heart, but then goes out
slightly towards the end… this can be seen to show that Capulet is getting more and
more worked up in his determination to control his daughter and starting to lose
control.
Shakespeare also uses direct address (‘mistress minion, you’) to make the speech
seem more direct and focused; asyndetic listing to make his list of words to throw
back at Juliet appear longer; poetic word-play to make the speech more interesting;
fricative alliteration, and violent verbs such as ‘drag’ to make the speech more
powerful.
Until this point it seems that there may be a chance for Juliet to brush the wedding
aside and perhaps convince her parents to like Romeo – however, after this, there
seems to be very little chance of that happening. The tenseness in the audience
shifts from the state of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage to concern for Juliet’s welfare.
After this outburst, Lady Capulet asks her husband if she is mad – although she
doesn’t appear much of a mother, this may suggest that she holds her only daughter
in higher regard than her husband does. It seems that perhaps this relationship isn’t
quite as bad as it previously appeared. However, by trying to calm her husband, she
may anger him further – this, coupled with the knowledge that Lady Capulet too
thinks that this is perhaps getting a little out of hand, creates yet more tension.
‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

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[She kneels down]’

Juliet now pleads with her father on her knees. The audience really feel the tension
now, as it seems that the relationship between Juliet and her father are coming to the
point of no return. Kneeling down is also a very dramatic and meaningful gesture -
she is putting herself at her father’s mercy.
‘Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!’
It is at this point that Capulet really loses control. At this point the audience may start
wondering how far Capulet will go. He makes references to her being killed (‘hang
thee’), calls her a ‘disobedient wretch’, and directly threatens her – warning her never
to look him in the face again if she isn’t at the church to marry Paris on Thursday. He
ends by ordering her to be quiet - repetition of imperative commands are used here
for emphasis. He also goes as far as saying that he wishes she had never been born
– a shocking thing for him to say at his child.
After Juliet has put herself at her fathers mercy by kneeling at his feet, to be cursed
in such a manner is obviously a huge shock to the audience, and the tension is
beginning to peak. Tension has been sustained for quite a long period of time now,
and the audience will most likely be on the edges of their seats in anticipation for
what will happen to Juliet and how this squabble will be resolved.
Luckily, at this peak, the nurse decides to join the quarrel, siding with Juliet, whom it
was mentioned that she was close to earlier. She stands up to her employer on
Juliet’s behalf, and tells him that he is the one in the wrong:
‘God in heaven bless her!
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.’
Standing up to your employer in the Elizabethan era would have been strongly
discouraged and rare. That the nurse feels that defending Juliet, who is essentially
just a girl she is employed to mind, is worth losing her job, tells us a lot about how
strongly the nurse feels about this girl.
Capulet then tells the nurse to be quiet, and dismisses her as a gossiper. The nurse
changes tactics slightly and becomes more polite and diplomatic, saying that she
‘speaks no treason’ and asks him politely for permission to talk (‘may not one
speak?’). Capulet, however, is still in a foul mood, so calls her a ‘mumbling fool’ and
tells her to be quiet.
Lady Capulet, whilst not being on Juliet’s ‘side’, speaks in her favour as she tells
Capulet that he is being ‘too hot’ – showing that even though her husband’s word is
law, she still cares somewhat about her daughter. There is more relationship-related
friction, as now Lady Capulet puts herself in danger of antagonising her husband.
Whilst this isn’t friction between adults and children, it is still tension that the
audience may feel.
Capulet then dives into his most intense, aggressive and fuelled speech – or,
perhaps more appropriately, outburst – of the scene and perhaps even the entire
play.

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‘God's bread! it makes me mad:

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,
I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.’
Capulet starts off with an exclamation (‘God’s bread!’) and lists the times he’s cared
for her asyndetically for impact and to draw them out. The actor could possibly raise
his voice list item by list item here to build tension. He goes on to rant about how he
has ‘provided her’ with a ‘gentleman of noble parentage’, and other traits so desirable
in the Elizabethan era – building up Paris’s image, acting proud that he has been
able to ‘catch’ this man for his daughter… almost holding him in awe, even – and
then curses his daughter for suggesting that she will not marry him.
He refers to Juliet – his own daughter – as a wretch and a ‘whining mammet’. He
mocks her by throwing her own words back at her – somewhat childishly as many of
the things she hasn’t actually said and Capulet has just presumed or exaggerated
(such as ‘I cannot love’, ‘I am too young’ etc). This shows that he has little respect at
her and is determined to get at her, regardless of what she has actually said.
He threatens to throw her out: ‘Graze where you will you shall not house with me’ -
he also uses the word ‘graze’ here in place of ‘live with’, reducing her to the level of
cattle - and warns her that he is not joking about this by saying ‘I do not use to jest’.
He then tells her that she is his property (‘And you be mine’), and that he can use her
as property as he ‘gives [her] to [his] friend’. He finalizes the raving speech with his
wish that she should die or live a life of misery (‘hang, beg, starve, die in the streets’
– asyndetic listing again here, used as if Capulet’s thoughts are so fuelled that he
feels he must rush to spit them out) if she disagrees with him.
The audience, who side with Juliet, will by now have a deep disliking of Capulet.
Juliet turns to her mother.
‘Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.’
Here Juliet wails to the heavens, before begging her mother not to disown her as her
father has done. She pleads to her mother to delay the marriage for a short period of

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time – going as far as suggesting that would commit suicide. Ironically, at the end of
the play, Juliet and Romeo die together in ‘a tomb belonging to the Capulets.’ The
watching audience knows that she wishes to delay the marriage to give her time to
think things over and sort out her marriage to Romeo – however, the audience also
knows that Lady Capulet doesn’t know that this is the case, and that she probably
thinks Juliet is being a little childish. However, her mother replies with:
‘Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.’
By refusing to talk to her daughter from that moment onwards, Lady Capulet
effectively lands the fatal blow to the Capulets’ previously good stance with the
audience. After Capulet tries to protect his daughter from an early, restrictive
marriage, and then his wife siding somewhat with his daughter as she tried to gently
calm him, their change in the face of the audience is quite remarkable. Romeo and
Juliet are the ‘heroes’ and focus of the play; the older generation of the Capulets can
now be seen by the audience as the villains.
Juliet then turns to her nurse in desperation. Throughout the play so far, the nurse
has been unwaveringly loyal to Juliet and has wanted for her only what she thinks is
for the best. However, after asking for consolation and for a way to prevent the
marriage, the nurse says:
‘Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!
Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are 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 of him.’
Instead of her expected reply of consolation and a method of preventing the marriage
and rejoining with her husband, the nurse reminds Juliet that Romeo has been
banished and won’t dare come back to see her, at least not without it being in secret.
She continues, saying that she believes that in the current light of things, it would be
best for Juliet to marry Paris, this man who, although noble, barely knows her, if it all.
She compares Romeo to a dishclout and Paris to an eagle - quite offensive and
complementary comparisons respectively.
Even though th e nurse is talking sense, this is not what the audience want to hear at
this point. By telling Juliet that she should leave someone that the audience love for
someone that her father is forcing her to marry on threats of violence makes her
almost as bad has the Capulets. The next few lines of dialogue are where Juliet and
the audience finally realise that it’s the younger generation versus the older
generation:
‘JULIET
Speakest thou from thy heart?

Nurse
And from my soul too;

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Or else beshrew them both.

JULIET
Amen!

Nurse
What?

JULIET
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in: and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.

Nurse
Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.’
After checking that the nurse truly means what she says (‘Speakest thou from thy
heart?’), Juliet exclaims ‘Amen!’ What she really means is ‘so be it’… this is the point
where she decides to forsake any adult advice and try and sort things out for herself.
The nurse doesn’t understand, but the audience does – this reinforces the idea that
the way the younger generation and audience think is now different from the way the
adults think.
She still has respect for her father and her religion, because she says ‘Having
displeased my father’… ’make confession and to be absolved’ – or so it seems.
After the nurse exits and Juliet is left alone, she makes one last emotional speech to
the audience:
‘Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:
If all else fail, myself have power to die.’
Juliet now renounces her faith in god, saying that ‘[the nurse] and my bosom
henceforth shall be twain (split apart)’. There is another suicide reference at the end
of this dialogue. This increases tension back from the level it sunk to after Juliet’s
parents left. Because of the actions and words of the older generation in the Capulet
household, Juliet is contemplating suicide. This makes the audience angry with the
adults.

After this scene, Juliet goes to see the only adult left that she trusts – Friar Lawrence.
He gives her a draft of sleeping potion, planning to fake her death so that she can
escape and be alone with her Romeo, at least until things get straightened out.
Unfortunately, Romeo doesn’t receive Lawrence's message explaining the situation
to him, and thinks that Juliet is indeed dead. In his mad grief, he rushes to the
Capulet family tomb to take one last look at his late wife, and meets Paris there.
After a struggle, Paris is killed, and Romeo poisons himself.
Juliet awakes soon after, and after dismissing the Friar who comes to offer some
form of consolation, gives her Romeo one last kiss, and stabs herself with his dagger.
Afterwards, Capulet, Montague, Friar Lawrence and the prince meet outside, and the

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friar reveals the story to all parties. Only at the end, after their offspring are dead, do
they realise their errors.
Act 3 scene 5 affects the rest of the play quite dramatically. If marriage wasn’t about
to be forced upon Juliet, she wouldn’t have needed to take quite such drastic steps to
reunite herself with her secret husband, and the deaths of Romeo, Paris and Juliet
could all have been avoided. All that Capulet needed to do was to ask his daughter
of her opinion before arranging her to be married, or for Lady Capulet to respect
Juliet's wishes to delay the marriage for a month so that she could get things
straightened out.
In the end, the feuding families of Montague and Capulet finally settle their
differences, at a price – as prince states at the end of act 5,
‘For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.’

To put the play into context, readers must understand some things about Elizabethan
society.
Elizabethan society was what is known as a patriarchal society – that is, a society
governed by men. Women had very little individual power or influence, and fathers
were seen as the head of the household and were to be obeyed. Daughters were
regarded as possessions of their fathers – something that could be ‘given away’ to a
candidate that the father decrees as suitable.
This would have made Juliet's arguing with her father very unorthodox and shocking
– a woman, arguing with her father, the man who possessed her. Children were
expected to obey adults at all time – their word was law. Adults and children didn’t
have the sorts of friendly, easygoing relationships that they we enjoy today – children
were to obey and not have strong opinions or an unhealthy amount of free will – both
of which Juliet possesses.
Religion was also a big part of Elizabethan society. Marriage was seen as a holy
event and was also a big family event. For Juliet to have had a rushed wedding with
very few people (and no family members) present would have been very unusual to
the Elizabethan audience.
The idea of suicide would also have been much more shocking to an audience in the
Elizabethan era. Whereas nowadays suicide is seen as taking your own life,
Elizabethans had the added shock of a woman going against gods will.
Towards the beginning of the scene, Juliet expresses quite explicitly that she would
like to ‘wreak her love upon Romeo’s body’. In these times, people are quite
saturated with references to sex and love in the media, but at the time Shakespeare
wrote this play, the topic was considered taboo. Audiences would have been
shocked at Juliet’s seemingly ‘unquenchable lust’. However, the scene isn’t quite
enough to repulse the audiences – it is just enough to get them excited and feel a
sense of risk.

I think that Shakespeare was successful in creating tension with his presentation of
relationships in act 3 scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. There is already some tension in
the play, which is built upon when Lady Capulet narrowly misses catching Romeo in
her daughter’s room, and Juliet dangerously plays with her wording to give it dual
meanings. The relationship heightens yet more when Juliet defies her parents by
stating that she will not marry the man her father has chosen for her, and reaches a
peak as her father starts hurling abuse and threats at her.

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

02145 10 23329
Romeo and Juliet English Coursework

The tension drops slightly as Juliet's parents leave, and Juliet is left to be told that
perhaps Paris is better match for her by her nurse, before rising again as she
contemplates suicide.
Although the scene would have been much more shocking to an Elizabethan
audience who hadn’t been as exposed to elements of the play such as suicide, lust,
and defiance of one’s elders, I believe that the scene would still entertain a 21 st
century audience.
Many of the play’s themes – forbidden love, lust, rebellion against one’s parents,
adults, and the norms and conventions of society in general etc – still ring true with
audiences today, even if perhaps in a slightly different way. This, I believe, makes
Romeo and Juliet a timeless classic that could be enjoyed regardless of the
audience’s era.

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

02145 11 23329
Romeo and Juliet English Coursework

Bibliography

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994 edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=vexed
http://www.william-shakespeare.info (for when the Penguin Popular Classic edition
was not available)

Candidate Number Dan Foy Landau Forte College

02145 12 23329