Ambiguity of Juliet's Character in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Ambiguity of Juliet's Character in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, is a story of

hatred wounds reopened through the love of between rival families,

where only death will bring a finale. This story of these town

teenagers is set in the 1500s, obviously the culture and general

behaviour was very different, and this has a significant effect on the

way the story is acted out by the characters.

Today, we expect children and teenagers to debate arguments, make

decisions for themselves, and be rebellious to their parents and

authority in general. But, in the 1500s this was far from normal

behaviour. The parents in traditional rich families would control the

children in their everyday activities – although the sons were

controlled to a lesser extent. Children and daughters especially,

would be treated like objects. Children were just obedient, there was

no real culture urged to rebel, argue or disobey with their parents.

Marriages in these families would also be initiated by the parents,

mainly for the daughters though. In fact Juliet in the play is from a

very early scene, arranged to marry Paris with Juliet herself, having

very little say. This arrangement was done in cases that would often

secure a good life for the daughter. Marrying an accomplished and

wealthy man would make life a lot better for the daughter.

The subject of love in plays previous to Romeo and Juliet had nearly

always been based around comedy. Never before had this subject of love

been seen as serious or tragic. Therefore, the creating of this new

way to look at love’s emotions was a dramatic device in its...

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...ew in the play. Going down onto knees before

your elders was seen as a mark of respect and was practised throughout

society. As the audience may be swinging in the direction of Capulet’s

view (seeing Juliet as a “disobedient wretch”) the stage direction

hesitates this. It shows to the audience that Juliet is not all bad.

She may seem disobedient, but she has respect for her parents. It

prompts the audience to see Juliet as a matured young woman who can

make her own decisions in life.

Overall the play offers a very unusual character in Juliet. Throughout

the play we can see her rebelliousness to her parents in

conversations, and the ambiguity she shows throughout these. This all

adds to an effective play that was years ahead of its current

audience, in terms of how characters act and behave around each other.