How Does Shakespeare Present the Relationship Between Juliet and Her Parents in Act 3 Scene 5?

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The relationship between Juliet and her mother is portrayed as strained; her mother loves her, but is distant from her. This is highlighted when Lady Capulet does not take Juliet’s side in the feud between Juliet and Lord Capulet; when Juliet pleads to her mother Lady Capulet replies ‘Talk not to me…I have done with thee’. To a modern reader of the play this would come as a great shock as in the majority of modern families the mother figure is that of warmth and comfort. However the relationship between Juliet and her mother is not unusual for the wealth of their family and the time period. However Lady Capulet does Juliet to be happy when she says that marrying Paris ‘Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride’. During Scene 5 the relationship between Juliet and Lord Capulet becomes brittle and unstable. Capulet is very dismissive of Juliet’s feelings, this is accentuated when he says; ‘how now, conduit, girl? What, still in tears?’. He does this because he wants his daughter to marry soon and to a man of wealth and high social status and is not concerned about his daughter’s happiness. Throughout the scene he continues to disparage her. Once Lady Capulet confirms Juliet will not marry Paris, he starts to refer to Juliet as ‘she’; ‘is she not proud? Doth she not count her bless’ this excludes Juliet, by referring to her in third person, and not by her name Lord Capulet is dismissing her worth as a person. Lady Capulet and Lord Capulet are very united in their belief that marrying Paris is the right thing to do for Juliet. Lady Capulet always supports Lord Capulet; when he says ‘I will have no more to do with you’ she agrees (to Juliet) ‘do as thou wilt for I have done with thee’. They stay united because during Elizabethan England, children were loyal to their parents, and they never defied them, this was called filial duty; parents and particularly fathers

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