Juliet's Role and Transformation in the Play

Juliet is a young, innocent girl born into the Capulet household. We first hear about Juliet in act1 scene2 when Juliet’s father, Capulet, is talking to Paris about marriage with Juliet. Paris is asking for permission to marry Juliet, but Capulet is unsure of this for he fears Juliet may be too young for marriage. He says to Paris ‘Too soon marr’d are those so early made’ suggesting he is saying Juliet has only just been born and so marriage is much too early for Juliet.

I think Capulet is suggesting not only he is not ready for Juliet to marry, but she herself is not ready. The conversation with Capulet and Paris ends with Capulet organising a masque that night. Capulet says ‘And she agreed, within her scope of choice, Lies my consent and fair according voice,’ which implies.

Paris may have Capulet’s permission to marry Juliet if she is willing to consider Paris as her husband.

In act1 scene3, we meet Juliet for the first time. She is portrayed as a young, inexperienced girl. Lady Capulet, her mother and the Nurse who has looked after Juliet nearly all her life is talking about Juliet and marriage to Paris. Juliet’s mother says ‘marry is the very theme I come to talk of,’ which suggests she has come to talk to Juliet of only this matter. Here, Juliet is seen as a happy individual and has never even thought about marriage. Lady Capulet is keen for her daughter to marry Paris who is young and very wealthy but Juliet firmly says ‘it is an honour I dream not of,’ and this suggests she has not and does not want to think about marriage which is most probably to do with her age.

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Capulet has organised a ‘masque’ for the Capulet’s to attend in order for Paris to meet Juliet and discuss a possible marriage. The Capulet servant has been asked to inform everybody on the guess list to attend. He comes across Romeo, incidentally who helps him read the guest list. This bit of the play in Romeo and Juliet is he first signs of fate. It is by chance that Peter, the Capulet servant cannot read and accidentally bumps into Romeo who helps him read and is soon to be Juliet’s love.On the night of the ball, Romeo has decided, along with a few of his friends to attend the Capulet ball even though he is a Montague, rivals of the Capulet’s. Juliet first sees Romeo in the middle of act1 scene5, and Romeo has already noticed her. He is amazed by her beauty and we know this because when he first sees Juliet he says ‘For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’

Romeo has never even spoken to Juliet before and the first thing he says is ‘Did my heart love till now?’ He is already talking about his love to Juliet. As soon as their eyes meet they are both immediately overwhelmed by each other and this is very surprising with Juliet because as far as we know, she has never experienced love before. They are infatuated with each other and they touch hands with each other which is called ‘a holy palmers kiss.’Romeo has to leave and Juliet asks the nurse to find out information about the man she has us kissed. She says that ‘if he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed.’ She is truly going to be devastated if she finds out if Romeo is married because she obviously has plans of her own to marry him. She realises that Romeo is from the Montague household they happen to be enemies.

She is confounded and she says ‘my only love sprung from my only hate.’ She is also saying that she loves Romeo. This is a shock to us as she has only just told her mother that she has never thought about marriage in any sort because she is too young and now she is saying that she loves Romeo.That night Romeo climbs over the wall to the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet talking about him. She is saying ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo.’ She is asking why his name is Romeo. Undoubtedly, Romeo is pleased that his love is talking about him. When they eventually begin to speak they are already talking about marriage with one another. By this time we have seen a significant change in Juliet. She is feeling love and passion and she has never felt any of this before. This change in Juliet makes her seem more grown up and mature because this change in her life has nothing to do with her parents’ decision.

By act2, Juliet is certain Romeo is the one for her. She wants to marry him immediately and so she tells the nurse to arrange to meet Romeo the next day and find out his plans for the upcoming and secret marriage. This shows Juliet’s love and eagerness to marry Romeo as soon as possible. Juliet has changed dramatically since we first met her. She spoke to her mother about not wishing to marry Paris as she has never thought of such things and now, suddenly she is desperate to marry Romeo.We see that Juliet has not fully thought of the consequences of marrying Romeo. The Capulet’s and Montague’s absolutely despise each other and both Romeo and Juliet’s parents would be appalled if they found out that they wanted to marry each other. They also have not thought of what is going to happen after they have married.

Even though we see a side to Juliet we have never seen before, we still see that she till has a brain of a child as she has not thought things out properly or in the way an adult would have.Juliet finally marries Romeo that day and arrange for a step ladder to be lowered for Romeo to enter and spend their wedding night together. After the wedding, things do not go so smoothly for the couple. Romeo comes across Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, and havoc breaks out. Romeo’s best friend, Mercutio is accidentally killed by Tybalt and out of rage, Romeo kills Tybalt. The Capulet’s are devastated by this and Prince Escales has told Romeo to leave Verona or else he will be executed.In this part of the play we see that Juliet is very confused about her feeling for Romeo.

She begins to accuse Romeo of seeming beautiful but acting vile. She says ‘a damned saint, an honourable villain,’ which suggests she feels like she hate Romeo at this time for killing her cousin but she loves him as much. Juliet is miserable and depressed. She feels like the whole world is against her. She has lost her cousin in death and the man she married only 3hours ago has been exiled from Verona.In act 3 scene 5, Juliet tells Romeo she has a vision of seeing someone lying dead in the bottom of a tomb. This is ironic as Juliet says exactly what is going to happen by the ends of the play. Romeo leaves for Mantua and Juliet is distraught. Lady Capulet enters Juliets room and tells her she is going to get someone to poison Romeo because she thinks she is crying for Tybalt.

Juliet says ‘Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.’ This is clever because we know she is really talking about the loss of Romeo but her mother thinks she is talking about the loss of her cousin. She pretends that she is talking about Tyblat and this is very grown up of Juliet as she appears to be talking more like an adult.Juliet has just lost the love of her life. Capulet and Lady Capulet notice Juliet’s misery and assume she is upset because of her cousin’s death. They want to cheer their daughter up, and so they announce to Juliet that she will marry Paris. Juliet refuses to marry him and her Capulet tells her if she doesn’t do as she is told she will be thrown out of the house. Juliet has definitely changed by this part of the play.

At the beginning of the play, she a loyal daughter that would have done anything her parents wished her to. She has now transformed into a matured adult that speaks her mind to what she thinks, even to her parents.Juliet is totally distressed. She doesn’t know what to do as she is already married to Romeo. This part of the play is where Juliet realises the mess she has got herself into. She was so in love in love with Romeo and desperate to marry him that she didn’t think of the consequences. She asks the nurse for advice and she simply tells Juliet the only thing she can do is marry Paris.Juliet goes to the friar Lawrence for advice on what to do now that she has been forced to marry Paris even though she is already married to Romeo. She threatens to kill herself and this shows how much she loves Romeo as she is willing to kill herself for him.

Instead, Friar Lawrence offers her a remedy that makes her seem like she is dead. Juliet accepts and says she would do anything not to marry Paris when she says, ‘where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears.’ She also says ‘O’ercover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones.’ She is saying here that she would rather get into a grave with dead mans grave or be covered by serpents, and this shows how desperate she is to be with Romeo and not marry Paris.

That night, Juliet prepares to take the remedy and also puts a dagger underneath her pillow just in case the remedy doesn’t work.Juliet is buried as everyone thinks that she is dead. She wakes up to find Romeo lying next to her dead. She is devastated and tries to take the poison that her used from his lips to kill herself but it does not work so she stabs herself with a dagger.At the beginning of the play Juliet was a loyal, obedient and quiet girl. She had not experienced love or pain of this sort before. When she meets Romeo she then suddenly transforms into a young adult. She is still young but she starts to think more like an adult even though some of the decisions she makes does not entirely show this.