How Shakespeare Shows Juliet's Changing Emotions Through Language and Drama

How Shakespeare Shows Juliet's Changing Emotions Through Language and Drama

Introduction

Romeo and Juliet, a story of two lovers, was written by William

Shakespeare between the years of 1594 and 1596. The basic plot of the

play was discovered as early as 3 A.D. and Italian novelists of the 15th

century gave it specific features and detail. The names of Capulet and

Montague are indeed the historical names of two significant households

in ancient Italy but the character names and attitudes are all

fictional. The Italians stress that the story is indeed a factual tale

and that places such as the Capulet tomb and the Balcony of Giulietta

are the places where the tragic tale took place.

Juliet doesn't appear in the play until act one scene three where her

mother introduces the idea of marriage. This seems strange as she is

the heroine of the play yet doesn't appear for a while after most of

the others characters (Romeo appears in mid scene of Act one Scene

two). In this scene we see the strange, unfamiliar relationship shared

between Juliet and her mother we can see this clearly when lady

Capulet asks the nurse "thou knowst my daughters of a pretty age".

This shows the distant relationship as lady Capulet has to inquire

about her daughters' age, the nurse replies that she can tell her age

up until an hour, which reflects the closeness and familiarity between

the Nurse and Juliet. We can also see the literal effect of this as

the Nurse breast fed Juliet when she was new born and has been her

carer almost ever since.

Lady Capulet seems nervous to address the idea of marriage with her

daughter. We see this as she asks the Nurse to...

... middle of paper ...

...etly works out a plan with the

friar. She must drink a potion which will allow her to appear dead

before taking this potion Juliet say another soliloquy in which we see

he deepest fears and thoughts of the friar and of the vault. She

begins in a rather calm manner but as she draws nearer to taking the

potion she works up an excitement she begins to see things.

She wonders whether the friar has tricked her or whether she won't

wake up, that she will awake the wrong time or that it will just not

work at all. She fears of being alone in the vault and going crazy

from the fear. By this time she has worked up such a frenzy she thinks

that she has seen Tybalts ghost she screams "stay, Tybalt, stay!" she

believes he is out to seek revenge on Romeo and so she warns Romeo and

in doing so "drinks to thee" and takes the potion.