Capulet's Non-Traditional Female Role In Romeo And Juliet

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Recommended: Gender roles in the Renaissance

Sometimes people defy the rules because they know their hard work will pay off. In the fifteen hundreds, there was a set way a woman should behave. The feminist theory focuses on analyzing the inequality between gender roles. During the Renaissance, people expected women to need a man in their life to take care of them and to play the role of housewives and mothers. People additionally expected women to be seen and not heard. Women had many limitations and very little rights. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Juliet displays a non-traditional female role demonstrated in her connections with Romeo, Paris, and Lord Capulet.

Juliet Capulet displays her non-traditional female role in her relationship with Romeo Montague. In current times people still expect a certain gender to perform specific …show more content…

Romeo and Juliet’s undeniable love for each other leads the reader to expect a marriage. While a marriage does take place, the proposal happens in an unusual way. Directly following Juliet’s deliberate proposal, she asks Romeo to “send [her] word to-morrow [...] and all [her] fortunes at [her] foot [she will] lay” (Shakespeare. 2. 2. 150, 153). Juliet’s proposal to Romeo rolls right off her tongue like second nature. Juliet proposing to Romeo confirms that she breaks through the stereotype of how a woman should act and that she exhibits the traits of a non-traditional female. During this fast-paced action of this play, during the four days Romeo and Juliet spend with each other, Juliet partially plans her own fate. Juliet’s decision to go along with Friar Laurence’s plan caused her and Romeo’s death. Many things could have and did go wrong, which Juliet previously thought of. Juliet exemplifies the characteristics of a non-traditional female character because she and Friar decide that “Romeo [shall] by [their] letters and know [their] drift”(Shakespeare. 4. 1. 115). During the Renaissance,

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