At the beginning of the play, Juliet comes across as a typical thirteen-year-old daughter of an upper-class family. She is quiet and obedient and speaks only when spoken to. In the first scene in which she appears (act 1, scene 3), she only speaks eight lines, and most of those lines are spoken in response to questions she is asked by either the nurse or Lady Capulet. That she has only eight lines is particularly important when you remember that, for most of the scene, her mother and the nurse are talking about marrying her off to Paris. This is something that a young daughter in this era would have little say in. Legally, the daughter was the property of the father and would do as the father and mother asked without question. The other time we meet Juliet in act 1 (in scene 5) is at the party, where she is idolized by Romeo. He talks about her hand as a "holy shrine" and addresses her as "dear saint."
In act 2, this idolized version of Juliet is presented again. She appears at the balcony (which is the only really private space she has), and Romeo (who, at this point, is hidden below in the garden) calls her "the sun" and "bright angel" and describes her eyes as "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven." The staging here also contributes to her presentation as an idolized object of love. She is above Romeo, as an angel would be, with the light from her bedroom behind her. In this scene, Juliet is also presented as somewhat lovesick: "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
By the time we get to act 3, Juliet is no longer quite the typical, respectable daughter that we met in act 1. Her soliloquy when waiting anxiously for Romeo to come to her bedroom (act 3, scene 2) was deemed so controversial when the play was later staged in the nineteenth century that many lines were routinely cut from performances, owing to their overtly sexual nature. She uses what must have been in the Elizabethan period rather crude sexual language when, for example, she anticipates "love-performing night" and the "amorous rites." She speaks also of losing her virginity with Romeo:
a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmanned blood bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love, grow bold
Toward the end of act 3, Juliet has changed completely. When her parents ask her to marry Paris now, she responds not with the passive, indifferent acceptance with which she responded in act 1, but with willful defiance. She tells her father outright that she will not marry Paris, insisting that he, Paris, "shall not make me . . . a joyful bride." Her father responds angrily and lays down the law in a manner which must seem very cruel to modern audiences:
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!
For an Elizabethan audience, Juliet's change between act 1 and act 3 of the play must have seemed rather dramatic. Her defiance of her parents' wishes, and her growing independence and willfulness, was not at all consistent with the behavior expected of a daughter at this time. To a modern audience, however, this growing independence in the name of love might produce a somewhat more sympathetic response.
Juliet changes considerably from act 1 to act 3. In act 1, for example, Shakespeare emphasizes her innocence, youth, and immaturity. Her marriage to Paris is negotiated without her involvement, her age of thirteen is frequently mentioned, and in a conversation with her mother she claims to have not even thought about getting married.
Compare this with Juliet's portrayal in act 3 as we see that she has quickly matured into an assertive and independent young woman. This is shown most clearly through her secret marriage to Romeo, which takes place in act 3, scene 5. Instead of playing a passive role in the direction of her life, she disobeys her parents (by ignoring the fact that she is betrothed to Paris) and sets herself up for a new life with the man she truly loves. Juliet has, therefore, grown up between acts 1 and 3.
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