R&J - Lord Capulet Quotes Flashcards
“My child is yet a _____…
in the world”
Lord Capulet’s initial concern for Juliet’s young age and inexperience in the world. It reveals his protective nature demonstrating his genuine paternal care unlike other fathers at this time, and even Juliet’s own mother. Sets up a contrast with his later insistence that Juliet marry Paris, showing a shift in his character and revealing the inescapable nature of societal expectations of all members of a family.
Metaphorical ‘stranger; emphasises Juliet’s lack of experience and innocence which arguably leads her to make rash decisions later in the play and lead to her untimely death.
“my” indicates his possessiveness or in contrast, his protectiveness of Juliet.
“child” she is nameless in this instance. Perhaps this is indicative of the fact that women were objectified and their personalities or feelings were not valued. In this case, Paris simply wants to marry another wealthy family’s daughter, not Juliet specifically. This is also highlighting Juliet’s youth, and innocence.
Act 1 Scene 2
“But woo her, ______ ______…
get her heart”
Here, Capulet suggests that Paris should win Juliet’s love, indicating that he values her consent and happiness. This shows a more progressive attitude for the time where marriages were arranged. Underscores the tension between personal desire and social duty in the play.
Tender words such as ‘woo’ and ‘gentle’ implies a considerate and loving approach, perhaps hinting that Paris truly does care for winning Juliet’s affection.
Act 1 Scene 2
“Hang thee, young baggage!…
Disobedient wretch!”
Exclamatory sentences convey his impatience towards Juliet’s disobedience, proving that fathers, or men in general at this time were not used to being confronted by women, even when it came to matters that truly concerned them.
Derogatory language: dehumanises Juliet highlighting the patriarchal views on women.
Capulet’s volatile temper and authoritarian nature is on show, revealing the harsh consequences of disobedience for women.
The epithet created through the adjective ‘disobedient’ illuminates how cruelly Juliet is treated at this point by her father \z
Act 3 Scene 5
“Death lies on her like an _____ ________”
This simile highlights the sudden and unnatural nature of Juliet’s death. To amplify the grief and darkness of the parents, in this case Capulet feel due to the loss of their children, Shakespeare personifies death. This gives the impression that death is a present figure in the play, whose presence was hinted at through foreshadowing previously persistently in the play. This makes the subject matter of the play a lot grimmer since it is hinted that all through their passionate love affair, death was looming in the near-future, waiting.
Like the frost that kills flowers in a field, death has engulfed Juliet.
Act 4 Scene 5
“She hath not seen the change of fourteen years:(…) Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride”
Although as a modern audience we may think this age conventional for the Elizabethan era for women to get married, it actually was not that way at all.
The average age for Elizabethan women to get married was between sixteen to her mid-twenties.
Since Shakespeare is utilising Capulet’s character as an embodiment of the Patriarchal male society of the Elizabethan era, and thus wants to present him as villainous and unreasonable, to his audience in the 16th century, he chooses Juliet to be 14 years old. This sets up Capulet to be terrible father and showcase the evil of Patriarchal society when he changes his mind and forces 13 year old Juliet to marry Paris. Although women were married at a younger age at this time, this would still have been seen as quite outrageous and condemnable by the 16th century audience.
“ripe” - commodity and objectified like a fruit that he can trade once ‘ripe’ for Paris’s hand in marriage. This also has sexual undertones to it, as ‘ripe’ suggests a certain flavourfullness of fruit and is perhaps even used here as tactile imagery. This is not entirely disturbing to the audience as women in the Elizabethan era were treated as commodities whose purpose was to be a sexual object to men, although it certainly displays Capulet as a terrible father, prepared to sell her daughter’s sexuality for his own benefit socially and economically.
The fact that Capulet and Paris are discussing Juliet’s suitability to be married accentuates women’s lack of power within society and their families, as it is ultimately men who decide their fates, even if that means they have no say in who or when they marry.
Act 1 Scene 2
“And too soon marr’d are those so early made”
When Capulet tells Paris to wait for Juliet to ‘ripen’, Paris replies that younger than Juliet, are happy mothers made. Capulet replies with this.
Capulet is suggesting that women who are married off, have sex and are made mothers too soon, are ultimately ruined and damaged, although he contradicts this himself later on in the play by forcing Juliet to marry Paris, which shows that no matter how good a father he may have seemed, protecting and wishing the best for Juliet, Patriarchal values that were taught to men from a young age, ultimately lie at the heart of their decisions.
Furthermore, soon after this, we find out that Juliet’s own mother, Lady Capulet fell pregnant with Juliet at a similar age as Juliet is at now. This quotation is perhaps hinting that Capulet is talking from experience and is aware that Lady Capulet’s fate was perhaps twisted and that she was ultimately ‘marred’ by becoming a mother at such a young age.
Did he ruin Lady Capulet, by forcing her to become a mother at such a young age? We see this underlying unhappiness in Lady Capulet’s relationship with her daughter as they are cold and distant suggesting that the Capulet’s are both bad parents to Juliet due to the Patriarchal society that they live in: Lord Capulet forces her daughter into a marriage, and Lady Capulet is unable to be a good mother because she was never able to bond with Juliet or accept responsibility of the daughter that she didn’t want, and had at too young an age to be a sufficient mother.
Act 1 Scene 2
“Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither…
Out, you green-sickness carrion? Out you baggage!”
“green-sickness carrion” - rotting meat. At the start of the play, Juliet wasn’t ripe for marriage and now she’s ‘expired’: Her only purpose is marriage, and her marriage status is her definition. His opinion of her appears to have changed very quickly as soon as she defies him and refuses to marry proving that no matter what, Capulet will always comply to the stereotypes and expectations of Patriarchal society.
“baggage” - children are commodities and once her usefulness to her family is gone, she can leave… if she doesn’t she is simply unwanted baggage. This also alludes to the idea that women are objects for their fathers to carry until they pass them onto their husbands - in this case, Juliet is unwilling to marry Paris, and has thus become extra baggage, and unwanted by Capulet.
Act 3 Scene 5
“Flowered as she was, deflowered by him”
Juliet’s virginity, to the Patriarchal father figure that Capulet is, is treasureable - he wants to ensure that she remains a virgin so that he can sell her to Paris - now that she’s dead, her virginity that was so valueable to Capulet, and ultimately to Paris or any other suitor, has been wasted.
Metaphorically he personifies death indicating that it was death that took her virginity, elaborating on the idea that Juliet is married to ‘death’.
Act 5 Scene 3
“O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s ____”
[jointure] = dowry
Even though Veronsese society is likely to evolve to be better with the end of the feud, Shakespeare hints that Capulet hasn’t learned his lesson - his Patriarchal views on his daughter and family gave Juliet no way out, and contributed to her suicide - if Juliet hadn’t been forced to marry Paris, she would never have planned to fake her own death. However, Capulet who is wed with Patriarchal views on women, still speaks in terms of arranged marriages and bases his daughter’s worth on the money that he’d pay his son-in-law. This does not inherently make him evil, or insensitive towards his daughter’s death, but could be Shakespeare’s way of proving that the Patriarchy was deeply embedded in the character’s lives (and Elizabethan society) and despite the death of the families’ children, they still cannot realise the harm that Patriarchal beliefs cause.
