The Development of Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Development of Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

One of the most interesting things about this character is the way

Shakespeare shows her development from a young, rather childlike girl

to a mature and independent woman who takes full control of her life.

Romeo and Juliet is a love story and it is the power of love that

propels this change in Juliet.

The first time you see Juliet is when her mother, Lady Capulet, wants

to talk to her. This is the first time you see the relationship

between mother and daughter is different to a normal mother and

daughter relationship today. “Nurse, where is my daughter? Call her

forth to me”. This shows Lady Capulet doesn’t want to get Juliet

herself. This could be because Lady Capulet and Juliet rarely talk

resulting in them feeling uncomfortable around each other. “Madam, I

am here, what is your will”. This is the response Juliet uses when

talking to her mother. Using the word madam instead of mother shows

the relationship is formal between mother and daughter. Also using the

phrase “what is your will” shows Juliet is expecting her mother to

give her a command as she is used to getting told what to do. This

shows the relationship between Lady Capulet and her daughter Juliet

treat each other like they have just met and as Juliet is the younger

she gets bossed around.

When Lady Capulet gets to speak to Juliet the conversation is about

Paris and Juliet getting married. “Speak briefly, can you like of

Paris’ love?” Lady Capulet is saying in a polite way, don’t waste my

time, will you like or even love Paris. “Speak briefly” shows Lady

Capulet has better things to do than be ar...

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realise what happened. These all show despite Juliet making big

decisions in previous scenes she still is scared about making big

decisions. She thinks like this because if any do happen then she

would have to live life without Romeo. All of this shows Juliet is

brave and runs the risk of all kind of problems occurring instead of

marring Paris and giving up Romeo.

Overall I believe Shakespeare has shown Juliet as an interesting

character as she has different styles of relationships with different

people. The change in character shows the different styles of

relationships as she acts differently around different people. For

example around her mother she acts like a grown woman who speaks very

well but when with Romeo she acts rather childish and I believe she

acts older than she is at times.