How does Shakespeare present Juliets situation in the second half of act three scene five Essay Example

How does Shakespeare present Juliets situation in the second half of act three scene five? Essay Prior to Act three scene five Juliet has got herself into a web woven with secrecy and the ingredients for disaster. She has fallen in love with a man that she can never be with and is forced to grow up and shed the skin of the innocent angel her father depicted her to be. In Act one scene two Capulet puts across the idea of Juliet being innocent when he talks to Paris; he tells him that his child is yet a stranger in the world highlighting her sheltered life and her naivety that comes from having not seen the change of fourteen years. The tragedy of the central characters situation is embedded in the minds of the audience at the beginning of the play, as we are told about the star crossed lovers and their prophesised doomed fate. As we watch the play we see a young adult, representing youth and innocence, fall in love and encountering the horrors of humankind. The fair young maiden, Juliet, has fallen in love with the forbidden fruit of humanity: the enemy, a Montague named Romeo. The family feud between Montagues and Capulets fuels the disastrous series of events that ends up in catastrophe. The love of the young couple is tested when Juliet is forced to choose between her beloved and her family. We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare present Juliets situation in the second half of act three scene five? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare present Juliets situation in the second half of act three scene five? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on How does Shakespeare present Juliets situation in the second half of act three scene five? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer To make the young lovers situation worse, there is no longer even a small chance Juliet can tell her parents of their marriage as Romeo is the murderer of their nephew, as he avenged the death of his friend Mercutio by killing Tybalt. Furthermore, as his punishment he has been exiled from Verona with a death threat if he were to be caught. Juliet is torn between her love for Romeo and her loyalties to her cousin Tybalt. Juliet can see no good in her situation Tybalt is gone and Romeo is banished. She is grieving for her cousin yet longing for the man who murdered him. She realises that despite all this she still loves Romeo. The young couple have barely been married and are already separated, with the help of Friar Laurence and the Nurse, Romeo and Juliet spend their wedding night together. The scene is full of contrast such as gone and live and stay and die. This symbolises Juliets state of confusion. Juliet realises that if Romeo had not killed Tybalt he would have killed him, she gives herself to Romeo and recognises him as her lord. As Romeo exits he leaves behind a broken hearted Juliet who is in a fragile state. When Juliets mother enters the room Juliet is an emotional wreck and can not control herself. She is in a state of unhappiness at the separation of her husband. Adding to Juliets desperate situation and unhappiness her mother walks in. Lady Capulet demonstrates her callous attitude. She assumes Juliets tears are for her dead cousin and is dismissive and cruel asking her if she can wash him from his grave with tears?. Lady Capulet is almost making fun of Juliet by pointing out that her tears can not bring her cousin back to life, which shows that she does not care very much about her daughters feelings and is not that upset about the death herself. Shakespeare first presents this image of Lady Capulet being an uncaring and dismissive mother in Act one scene three, when she is introduced to us. Whilst talking to the nurse she brings up the topic of Juliets marriage to Paris, her tone of voice is very abrupt . She says Well, think of marriage now. the businesslike way she talks about marriage shows she views this topic as just part of the way the world works and this gives you a greater insight into the character of Lady Capulet. Despite Juliets obvious objections to marrying Paris she goes on to question her and asks What say you? Can you love the gentleman? The matter of fact tone she has when she talks about love hints that she believes it is an unimportant part of a marriage. This idea is backed up when she then goes on to tell Juliet to Read oer the volume of young Paris face. The extended metaphor highlights that to her you only need to look at someone to love them. Shakespeares presentation of Lady Capulet is an accurate portrayal of a typical wife at the time, putting her husbands will before her own daughters wishes and desires. Furthermore, she has a typical 16th century attitude towards marriage and love. She herself would have had an arranged marriage and would have been married young. She probably had little choice whom she married and would automatically expect Juliet to be in the same situation. To her it is just part of the system, this is what happened to me and this is whats going to happen to you. Later on in Act three scene five you see Juliets fathers attitude towards marriage. Capulet arrives, announcing that he has lined up a suitable husband, meaning an affluent and aristocratic one, ignorant of the fact that his only daughter is already married to the son of his enemy he assumes Juliet will obey his orders. Unaware of her love for this man, whom he perceives to be a banished convict, he assumes, like Lady Capulet before him, that her tears are for her dead cousin. Capulet, seeing his crying daughter, uses imagery to describe Juliets grief. He looks at her crying face and watery eyes and compares her to the sea, he tells her that thy eyes, which I may call the sea, do ebb and flow with tears. The words ebb and flow illustrate the sea-like quality to her tears, as like the tide they sometimes gush out and then stop, repeating the pattern over and over again suggesting that she still has many more tears to cry. This powerful image of the tide moving backwards and forward, ebbing and flowing, describes how it looks to see the tears on Juliets face. To reinforce this image of Juliets tears being plentiful he asks her How now conduit girl? This metaphor implies that her tears are gushing like water down a pipe. Capulets use of the metaphor may at first appear sympathetic but is actually being used to mock her, he is highlighting how pathetic she looks by saying she is crying so much she is the in a storm of emotion. His comparison of Juliet to a storm is ironic as it is he himself who will become worked up into a storm upon hearing Juliets refusal to marry Paris. The storm begins to brew as Capulet turns to insult and threaten Juliet. He repeatedly refers to her as baggage meaning that she is unwanted rubbish. This is very derogatory and implies that he thinks he can just chuck her out. The plosive b sound demonstrates that he is trying to intimidate her with aggression and force, he is making sure that she knows hes in charge. As well as intimidation he uses language to demote her by telling her to fettle your fine joints. This is harsh and vulgar, he is telling Juliet to get her body ready and to be prepared to get married. The word fine is sarcastic, the combination of sarcasm and alliteration of the letter f hints that he is enjoying making fun of Juliet. In addition, Capulets words paints the picture that Juliet is sub-human. A stable groom would fettle horses so by saying this insulting, animalistic term to Juliet he is implying that she should be treated like an animal. At this point Capulet is furious at his daughters refusal to marry Paris, he goes on to take Juliets polite speech and twist her words saying Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds in order to prove her chop logic. By Capulet repeating the imperatives thank and proud exemplifies his subtext; he is telling Juliet that she needs to listen to him. To explore Capulets fury fully, we need to examine how 16th century fathers treated the idea of marriage. In Elizabethan times England was a hierarchical society. Everyone knew their place and were expected to defer to their superiors. It was also a patriarchal society were men held all the power. Women were viewed as inferior and were useful to their family as pawns aiding them to climb the financial and social ranks of society: this was done by marrying into a higher family. The daughter was seen as her fathers property until she was married, when she then became her husbands property. Therefore women had little choice in whom they wanted to marry as a marriage would only be arranged to best suit their fathers interests. Therefore to a Shakespearean audience Capulets behaviour would appear normal. However, this contrasts with Capulets original statements in Act 1 scene 2. In the beginning he appears to have a very atypical response to the idea of his daughter marrying Paris. He wants his daughter to marry for choice and love, not just to better the family name. He says to Paris that if Juliet agrees within her scope of choice lies my consent and fair according voice. The word choice shows just how different Capulets views are, he is a loving father who wants his daughter to be happy and marry for love. This makes it more shocking when he starts to threaten his only daughter: only in that the ground hasnt swallowed her up. His quick change from loving father to angry beast suggests that he only loves her as long she does as he says. He calls Juliet disgusting names like green-sickness carrion! This revolting metaphor describes Juliets face as dead, rotting flesh. Juliet is pale from crying and looks anaemic or like she has green sickness. It is horrible for a father to describe his daughter in such a way and completely contrasts with the way he talks about her to Paris in Act 1 scene 2 when he calls her the fruit of his life . He carries on insulting her appearance and calls her tallow face. Capulet is picking on her suffering and describing her as waxy and pale-like a candle. His aggressive tone shows he is unsympathetic and cruel. As his frustration with Juliet increases Capulet turns to threatening her. He tells her to go with Paris to Saint Peters Church and says if she doesnt he will drag thee on a hurdle thither. A hurdle is a wooden wrack that criminals were placed in and dragged throughout the streets. Its upsetting to think that her own father would be willing to publicly humiliate her like this. Capulet then extends the threat and tells her that she better get to the church on Thursday or never after look me in the face. Juliet has never refused to do anything before and Capulet explodes. He tells Juliet that if she doesnt get married he will be done with her and she will be disowned. He swears by his soul that he will not acknowledge her if she does not comply to his wishes. This is a very serious oath as Capulet believes that your soul is the purist part of your body, your immortal part, which is ironic as he is using it to promise to do such a horrible thing. The fact that he will not go back on his word is confirmed when he tells her nor what is mine shall ever do thee good this means that Juliet would inherit nothing, at this point you can tell he has gone beyond reasoning. His obvious attempts at asserting his authority by threatening his daughter shows that Capulet is feeling insecure in the situation and that nothing like this has happened before. So when the nurse intervened he loses control. She had been, up until now, trusted but as she desperately tries to stop his anger he proceeds in insulting her too. He tells her to Smatter with your gossips go. He is telling her that she is useless in this situation. The alliteration of the hard g indicates he is once again using intimidation to get what he wants. He next insults her by saying peace you mumbling fool. The onomatopoeic quality of the word mumbling makes it sound like the nurse is incoherent and sounds like an animal when talking. There are some similarities between the way he treats Juliet and the nurse. In both cases he uses language to make them feel inferior, he calls the nurse My Lady wisdom which is similar to when he called Juliet Mistress Minion. This implies that Juliet is an unwanted servant and no longer his little darling, he is showing her that he is the master. Furthermore, the alliteration suggests he is mocking her. This is the same for the nurse, he is being ironic in calling her wise and actually means the opposite. Capulet thinks that she is below him in both intellect and wisdom and by telling her so he is pointing out that she is no longer in his favour. With the absence of caring parents it was the nurse whom Juliet turned to, she was Juliets motherly figure, as was typical in the 16th century. The nurse raised the children and for Juliet she was the one person she could confide in and trust, the person she truly loved. In a world where her parents control her life and are people whom she has little contact with, Juliet became dependent on her. Therefore, when the nurse betrays her and tells her that in her opinion Romeo is a dishclout to Paris it breaks Juliets heart. It is in the lonely and isolated state that Juliet feels towards the end of the scene. Not only have her mother and father turned against her, that she could handle, but the one person she thought would always be on her side has too. It could be this that pushes Juliet into taking her own life at the end of the play as she feels like, other than Romeo, there is no one else out there for her. At the end of Act 3 scene 5, after the nurse exits leaving Juliet alone, Juliet makes a speech addressing the audience. She declares she no longer trusts anyone and insists that the nurse has given her bad advice. She can not believe that she values her getting married and living a normal life over true love. Juliet feels like she has been abandoned by both her nurse and Romeo. It is now that we see Juliet evolving from the naive girl that she was in the beginning. That innocent child who used to blindly follow the commands of her parents disappears, replaced by a strong and independent women. She makes the decision that if all else fail, myself have the power to die. meaning that should it come to it, she is prepared to kill herself. We, as an audience, admire her bravery as she takes control of her own destiny. It is this image of Juliets empowerment that we are left with at the end of the play. She is not someone to pity or sympathize with; Juliet has looked at her desperate situa tion and seen a way out. She realises that if she does end up taking her own life she will be set free; she will finally be unleashed from the chains her parents have confounded her with.