romeo and juliet - juliet Flashcards
“I’ll look to like, if looking liking move”
Dialogue indicates her emotional maturity and headstrong nature she rejects the ideals that society propagates. Shakespeare uses half-rhyme to reply to Lady Capulet’s question, which illustrates Juliet’s dissidence. It also foreshadows her future rebellion against her family and society. Active verbs used with prominent first-person pronoun, “I’ll look to like…”, conveys an assertion of agency. Juliet makes her own decision, thus opposing the forces of oppression- her family, and the patriarchy. This means Juliet is atypical for her time, where women were conditioned into subjugation and submission.
“Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical” “Dove-feather’d raven”
The sequential use of oxymorons for example “Beautiful tyrant”, “fiend angelical”, conveys the conflict that plagues Juliet. Echoes Romeo’s Petrarchan suffering; in this instance Juliet laments thee opposing familial and romantic love. Revolutionary for the Elizabethan era- Juliet is a complex character like Romeo. She is able to use oxymorons attributed to Romeo, and is able to use language to invert Romeo’s imagery, “Dove-feather’d raven”. This shows her proficiency in language that educated men had. In order to purportedly hurt Romeo, she uses his language against him. Broken syntax evokes the violence of this turmoil- makes the dialogue more potent, and expresses her anger.
“O happy dagger” “This is thy sheath”
Uses inverted metaphors; the dagger is personified as “happy”, whereas her body becomes its “sheath”. This shows the idea that love and death are inextricably linked. Shakespeare lexically cohesively phrases Juliet’s dialogue with monosyllables, which highlights her affirmative and assertive quality.
“Deny thy father, and refuse thy name”
Juliet reveals the futile and trivial nature of the feud that separates them by acknowledging that is only due to a name. This demonstrates her wisdom and shows a more spiritual and wise understanding of the cogs of Veronian society. “Deny”, and “…refuse” are imperatives, which suggests a conflict with fate: she wants Romeo to take action. When she asks Romeo to “refuse [his] name”, it indicates a youthful sense of idealism and naivety. This highlights two sides of her character, her wisdom and her youthfulness; she is intelligent but naive.
context
Shakespeare conveys a dynamic between men and women within the play which could be considered feminist. Although Mercutio finishes Romeo’s rhymes with elaborate misogynistic lines, Juliet completes his rhymes with wit and intelligence, contrary to the sexist attitudes of the time. Therefore Juliet is an atypical portrayal of an Elizabethan woman, as she transcends the cultural and societal boundaries of her time. Refusing to be subjected or reduced to her circumstances, modern critics may even argue that Juliet is a proto-feminist character, that attempts to break down the patriarchy, and reclaim her own fate.
