Sneeeky* Juliet

Everything a friend or family member does impacts your impression of them and you understand that person better, so what would happen if they lied about everything?  You would be getting to know a different person. William Shakespeare creates a character like this in the play “Romeo and Juliet”, where a dispute between families causes a secret love resulting in both lovers’ death. One of these lovers is Juliet (the other being Romeo), a seemingly innocent and sweet 14-year-old who is really quite naughty and mischievous. She manipulates her family throughout the play to get what would benefit her. Juliet uses society’s expectations of her to her own advantage to change her reputation for the purpose of spending more time with Romeo, and meanwhile covering her tracks. By doing this, she misleads her family to believe her to be a different person than she truly is.

Juliet alters her reputation in order to spend more time with her true love, Romeo. Her actions in the story cause her loved ones to think of her contrary to who she is and she is able to gain more time to spend with Romeo. In the play, Juliet drinks a poison that causes her body to appear dead when she is really alive. She intends to later wake up and escape with Romeo by her side. When her mother, Lady Capulet, sees her laying cold and limp in bed, she shouts “O me! O me! My child, my only life.” (4.5, 24). Lady Capulet has altered her opinion of Juliet -- earlier she felt controlling and gave Juliet no say in her own affairs, while now she unexpectedly seems so caring. Yet she is not so changed as she may seem. By using “me” and my” repetitively, she emphasizes her superiority over Juliet yet again. She, though, has no idea that Juliet has been manipulating her to not notice her time spent with Romeo. Lady Capulet knows that she has authority over Juliet, but still is kinder to her here. Lady Capulet will, because of Juliet, be a more positive person, especially towards Juliet When Lady Capulet says that she is her “only life”, she realizes not only that Juliet should not have died, but that she mistreated her in her only life. If she and Romeo were to survive everything and escape together, and Lady Capulet were to discover their trick, she would at first be angry, but in the long run she might act more compassionate towards and protective of Juliet. Friar Lawrence has this in mind when he describes to her the result of the poison he gives her. He says “Each part, deprived of supple government” (4.1, 104). He literally means that her body will be stripped of flexibility, but his word choice implies governmental or societal roles in her “death”. She has, ever since she met Romeo, been losing authority from her life. Juliet has been disobeying almost every rule she could. No one had real power over her, not even her beloved nurse who tells her to marry Paris in the end. Juliet went to extreme measures and changes her innocent reputation for the purpose of getting more time with Romeo.

Juliet uses society’s expectations for her to cover her tracks. Throughout the play, she does naughty and drastic things to be with Romeo. A fight breaks out between the Montague and Capulet families which kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. When she discovers that Romeo is banished from Verona because he is the cause of Tybalt’s death, she is even more upset about Romeo’s punishment than she is about Tybalt. When her mother asks her if she is “Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?” (3.5, 71), she replies with not only with little emotion, but sarcasm as well, “Yet let me weep for such a feeling of loss.” (3.5, 77).  Juliet is expected by her mother, family, and society to be agitated over Tybalt’s death (especially when few are aware of her secret love life with Romeo), so she acts as if that is her reasoning. She uses society’s expectations to hide her true obsession. Another example of this manipulation happens to prove a major obstacle for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Lady Capulet informs Juliet that she will be marrying Paris. At first, she expresses anger and dissatisfaction, but later apologizes for her disobedient ways. She is expected by everyone to marry whomever her parents decide upon, so she switches her reaction to keep her secret with Romeo steadfast. When she first learns of her marriage she exclaims, “He shall not make me there a joyful bride!” (3.5, 122), most likely causing suspicion about her reasoning. Such emphasis on the sentence shows she really means it, but Juliet is sneaky and actually does agree to the marriage. She says “he” in reference to Paris, not hinting that it is Lord and Lady Capulet who are forcing the marriage upon her. This, then, creates no problem with her parents over their parenting and therefore covering her tracks.

Juliet uses expectations to mislead her family about who she truly is. To them, she is young, and innocent. But in the story, she is really quite mischievous, tricky, and in love, yet this is the side of her hidden from peoples’ view. When Juliet apologizes to her Lord Capulet saying, “I have learned me to repent the sin/of disobedient disposition,” (4.2, 18-19), She also states that “Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.” (4.2, 23) She says “henceforward”, or from now on, a word used often in past legal documents, to make it official for her father when she knows she is going to “die”. Juliet misleads Lord Capulet to happily believe she has changed, when she is really being just as secretive and disobedient as ever. Juliet also uses her language to mislead people about who she really is.  Her language is especially crafted to have a double meaning. This occurs when she talks with her mother over how sad she is about Tybalt, but is really most sorrowful over Romeo’s banishment. She creates a sentence that says how sad she is about Tybalt, but doubling up so she could also be talking about Romeo. She simply states that she will always be upset with such a feeling of loss, yet she never states for whom her sorrow is directed to. This blanks spot is what not only protects her true secret, but it does not show her parents who she truly is and who she truly loves. Juliet misleads her family about who she actually is, and it harms them.

Juliet uses society’s expectations to gain more time to spend with Romeo, all the while covering her tracks, resulting in a family who is unaware of her true personality. She marvels at Romeo, ignoring the harm being done to her family who think she is a drastically different person. Do modern day people do this too? Do we concentrate on something important to us and not notice what is important to others? Do we shy away when family or friends attempt to get to know us? Just remember how everything turns out for Juliet who does these same things (I am not saying that this results in death, merely that there can be consequences).

*This is spelled wrong on purpose, for effect.