Juliet’s Characterisation in Romeo and Juliet

Juliet’s Characterisation in Romeo and Juliet

This tragic love story of two star-crossed lovers unfolds when Juliet,

one of the two main characters, falls in love with the son of her

father’s great enemy, Romeo, the other main character. Juliet realises

her parents will not be happy as they want her to marry another.

Therefore she goes behind their backs to marry Romeo to show her

parents she’s serious about him but the play ends in tragedy.

Initially, Shakespeare presents Juliet as an innocent girl of not

quite 14 years of age. Juliet is first heard of in Act 1 Scene 2 when

we see her father –Lord Capulet- and the county Paris speaking of her.

Lord Capulet is keen to protect her since she is his only surviving

child. Paris is asking the Lord for her hand in marriage but her

father says she is too young:

“My child is yet a stranger in the world,

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;”

Shakespeare is trying to portray Juliet as not being ready to even

court. By saying she is a “stranger” to the world he is commenting

perhaps on her lack of experience. When Lord Capulet says

“Let two more summers wither in their pride”

He is telling Paris to wait for two more years and then he can “woo”

her.

In Act 1, Scene 3 we meet Juliet for the first time. Juliet is not

really considering marriage at the start of the play. We know this

because of her reaction to her parents’ proposal that she marry Paris:

“It is an honour I dream not of”. When we first meet her, she is in

the company of her mother and her nurse, so the audience is reminded

that she is a young girl, not yet making decisions for herself. This

idea is...

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and decides that, at this climax of tragedy, to chooses death in order

to be with him. Her certainty over her decision is made clear when she

says, “Yea noise? Then I’ll be brief, O happy dagger!”. Juliet’s

feelings are made clear that she has to be with Romeo because so

completely has she embraced his love.

Overall Shakespeare has presented a convincing portrait of Juliet,

maturing from girlhood to womanhood, in the space of only five days

but he still left a lot for the audience to judge. Juliet, in the end,

is seen as brave young woman for defying her parents just for her love

of Romeo. Her isolation from her friends and family and her

overpowering love for Romeo has fuelled her determination, and instead

of following orders from people she has made her own decisions and

ultimately chose to end her own life.