The Behavior of Juliet's Father in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we are introduced to “a pair of star-cross’d lovers” and both of their families who are at conflict with each other. Capulet, Juliet’s father, is the central character in this piece of work and numerous times throughout the course of the play we notice his conduct and approach towards his daughter differs immensely. At times he can be seen as a caring and loving father and at other times he is perceived as being insensitive and selfish. The differences between Capulet’s behaviour can be said to be normal for the time period the play was set in and also in Verona’s culture it may have been acceptable. However in present times, we would cast negative judgement over Capulet and his actions because in our culture we would see them as appalling.

Act 3 Scene 5 shows the reader that Capulet wants the best for his daughter but does not go about his arrangements in the best of ways to please her. We first witness him in this scene becoming bad-tempered over the fact that Juliet has expressed to her mother that she will not marry Paris. Capulet states that the marriage is a “decree” which means that it is an order which Juliet is being expected to fulfil. It takes Capulet a while to grasp the fact that Juliet will not marry Paris, most likely as he is surprised at the fact that she would even consider disobeying him. Capulet’s astonishment may be due to the fact that as Juliet is only thirteen, he assumed that she would automatically do as he told her, as this was the normal thing for a girl of her age to do in Verona in the 1590’s. I would interpret Capulet’s attitude as that of an uncaring father who was forcing his thirteen year old child into a marriage where she was unlikely to be happy. This...

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...Verona, which is to care and protect her and also find a suitable marriage partner for her. He does this and has fulfilled his role as a father and so it is a little understandable when he reacts the way he does but it may be a little eccentric. Overall I feel Capulet shows that he really does love his daughter and he does this better when he is with other people and not when he is with Juliet. He may find it hard expressing his love for Juliet to her face or in her presence but he does it extremely well when with his friends or others. Capulet’s unloving behaviour would have been acceptable in Verona in the 1590’s, so he would not have been seen as a cruel father and Juliet would have probably accepted this behaviour also because this was the normal thing to happen in her society.

Works Cited

Penguin Popular Classics - William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet

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