Juliet

Who She Is

Juliet is the only daughter of Capulet and Lady Capulet, not yet fourteen when the play begins. The Nurse, who nursed her, swears in Scene 3 of Act I that her birthday falls on the eve of Lammas-tide, a little more than two weeks away. She already has a chosen suitor, Paris, and the first answer the text gives her is a prudent one: she will look and see whether she likes him.

Trajectory

In Scene 3 of Act I, her mother asks what she thinks of marrying, and Juliet says it is an honor she has not yet dreamed of. As for Paris, she promises to look and see whether she likes him, without committing herself beyond what her mother's consent allows.

In Scene 5 of Act I, she talks with a stranger and answers in the verses of pilgrim and saint; when he kisses her, she says he kisses by the book. She asks the Nurse his name and, before knowing who he is, says that if he is married, her tomb will be her wedding bed. On learning that he is a Montague, she concludes that her only love was born of her only hate, seen too early without being known and known too late.

In Scene 2 of Act II, at the window, she laments that Romeo bears the name of a Montague and asks what is in a name.

When Romeo reveals himself, she fears the haste of the pact, which seems too quick to her, like lightning that is over before anyone says it has flashed, and agrees that if he is thinking of marriage, he should reply the next day, by the messenger she will send at nine, with the place and the hour.

In Scene 5 of Act II, she waits for the message and despairs, because the Nurse takes three hours to return and still dawdles before telling her. When the Nurse finally speaks, Juliet runs to Friar Laurence's cell, and in Scene 6 of Act II the two say their joy cannot fit into words, before the friar takes them to the church.

In Scene 2 of Act III, she waits for the night when Romeo will come to her room, and the Nurse arrives with the ropes and lets her believe that he is dead. Upon learning that Romeo killed Tybalt and was banished, Juliet curses him, corrects herself at once and concludes that the word banished has killed ten thousand Tybalts. She sends a ring to Romeo through the Nurse.

In Scene 5 of Act III, she tries to hold Romeo back at daybreak and, in the farewell, says she has the soul of a bad omen, that she sees him as a dead man at the bottom of a tomb. Her mother appears speaking of revenge and promises to have Romeo poisoned in Mantua; Juliet answers with phrases her mother understands in one sense and she in another. When her mother announces the marriage to Paris on Thursday, Juliet refuses it. Capulet threatens to disinherit her, her mother says she is done with her, and the Nurse, after defending her before the father, advises her to marry Paris. Juliet swears that from then on the Nurse and her heart will be two, and goes to the friar, resolved to die if there is no other remedy.

In Scene 1 of Act IV, she meets Paris in the friar's cell and answers him with phrases of double meaning. Alone with the friar, she shows a knife and says she will kill herself if there is no remedy; he proposes the potion that will make her seem dead for forty-two hours, and she accepts without fear. In Scene 2 of Act IV, she returns home and, on her knees, asks her father's pardon for her disobedience and promises to obey. Capulet, relieved, wants to bring the wedding forward to the next morning, but Lady Capulet reminds him that it will only be on Thursday.

In Scene 3 of Act IV, she asks the Nurse and her mother to leave her alone, and lists what could go wrong, from the potion being poison to waking in the crypt before Romeo arrives. She sees the ghost of Tybalt and drinks, toasting Romeo.

In Scene 5 of Act IV, she is found dead on the morning of the wedding. In Scene 3 of Act V, she wakes in the tomb and asks the friar for Romeo; when he flees at the noise of the guard, she refuses to go with him. She finds her husband dead with the cup in his hand, kisses his lips in the hope of finding some poison, and kills herself with his dagger.

Themes Embodied

Juliet's space narrows, and she decides each step more alone. In Scene 3 of Act I, she answers her mother that she will only look to see whether she likes him; in Scene 5 of Act III, her father, mother and Nurse cease to be support; in Scene 3 of Act IV, she says she must play her dark scene alone; in Scene 3 of Act V, even the friar flees, and she is left with Romeo's dagger.

Juliet is the one who most learns to say one thing to those who hear and another to those who know. With her mother, in Scene 5 of Act III, she speaks of Romeo in phrases her mother reads as hatred; with Paris, in Scene 1 of Act IV, her answers fit two meanings; with her father, in Scene 2 of Act IV, her feigned obedience leads him to think the daughter has mended her ways. The potion works only because each of the three hears what they want to hear, and the one who knew the truth, the friar, depends on a letter and on time, which is exactly what is missing.

Relationships

• Romeo: the love of the ball, the husband of the cell, the dead man in the tomb; she loves him in spite of his name and calls him husband even when she curses him.
• Friar Laurence: confessor and author of the potion plan; he is the only one who knows everything, and he flees when she most needs him.
• The Nurse: the confidante who carries the message and, in the end, advises what Juliet cannot accept.
• Capulet: the father who, at first, says her consent weighs more than his will, and who after her refusal threatens to disinherit her.
• Paris: the suitor she puts off with phrases of double meaning.
• Tybalt: the cousin she weeps for and then sees as a ghost.