Hello everybody and welcome to today’s video on ‘Romeo and Juliet’,
analysing the character of Lord Capulet. Download a free worksheet to accompany
the video through following the link in the description.
Lord Capulet, like many of the characters in ‘Romeo and Juliet’,
appears to change as the play progresses. Initially, Shakespeare presents Capulet in a
positive light. In Act 1, Scene 1, Lord Capulet calls for his sword to join in the fighting.
Lady Capulet mocks her husband, saying he’d be better off calling for a ‘crutch’.
Capulet doesn’t react emotionally to this mockery, and he seems to follow his wife’s
advice by not joining in. This is the first time the audience meets Lord Capulet, and Shakespeare
presents him as passive and open to advice, even when it is presented in a mocking manner.
In Act 1, Scene 2 when Paris is requesting permission to marry Juliet, Capulet tells the
young suitor that he must woo Juliet himself, as ‘My will to her consent is but a part’.
At the time the play was set, arranged marriages, particularly in upper-class families, were common,
with parents deciding who their children would marry. Capulet’s comments here
might surprise an Elizabethan audience as being countercultural and, for the time, progressive.
In Act 1, Scene 5, when Lord Capulet is welcoming guests to his ball, he appears playful and
charming. He teases his guests that those ladies who refuse to dance with him will have ‘corns’.
He also reminisces with his cousin about how long it has been since they were in ‘masque’.
This gregarious version of Capulet suggests that he enjoys socialising and merriment,
relishing the opportunity to host the festivities.
Capulet also has nothing but nice things to say about Romeo in this scene. Tybalt spots Romeo
at the ball and is immediately angry, but Lord Capulet tells his nephew to leave Romeo alone:
Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone: A bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him To be a virtuous and well-governed youth.
We therefore see that the audience’s initial impression of Lord Capulet is of a man who
is passive, joyful, loving and calm. But, as so often happens in this play,
things change. In Act 1, Scene 2, Capulet told Paris to woo Juliet for himself but, in Act 3,
Scene 4, Capulet suddenly decides that the marriage will go ahead in a couple of days’ time:
I think she will be ruled In all respects by me: nay more, I doubt it not.
What has changed? We know for certain that Paris has not had a chance to woo
Juliet—she gave her attention to Romeo at the ball. Why has Capulet changed his mind?
Now, a point on historical context: today, we instinctively know that Capulet’s actions are
wrong. We know that Juliet should be making her own choices about whom she marries.
But in Elizabethan England, an audience would not necessarily feel the same way. As I’ve already
mentioned, arranged marriages were common for upper-class families. So, the question is this:
what does Shakespeare want his audience to think about Capulet and his patriarchal control?
Whilst an Elizabethan audience would have been familiar with Capulet’s position to choose his
daughter’s husband, what no audience would be able to understand is his sudden change of mind.
Shakespeare is implying very clearly that Capulet, and what he symbolises, is wrong.
It’s similar to Mr Birling in ‘An Inspector Calls’. The dramatic irony of him saying ‘the
Germans don’t want war’ and the Titanic is ‘unsinkable’ is used to ridicule the
character and, by extension, what he stands for as a character. And it’s the same with Capulet:
his complete change of mind ridicules him as a character
and therefore ridicules what he stands for, which is the patriarchy.
Patriarchy is a system in which men possess power, and women are excluded
from it. Patriarchy also refers specifically to a family where the father is in control.
We see both in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Juliet’s father decides whom she marries and when. Paris discusses
his marriage proposal with Lord Capulet, not with Juliet. So, is Shakespeare endorsing patriarchy
or criticising it? In one way, we can see the play as an endorsement of patriarchal control:
the two young lovers who break the rules end up dead, after all.
But Capulet’s sudden change of mind undermines his character—by extension, this undermines
what he represents about patriarchal control. Having undermined his character through the
sudden change of opinion, Shakespeare then completely vilifies him in the next scene,
Act 3, Scene 5, in which we see Capulet’s response to Juliet’s refusal to marry Paris:
How, how, how, how? Chop-logic! What is this? 'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not',
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion you? Thank me no thankings nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out,
you baggage! You tallow-face!
And
Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding! This moment is rich in
language analysis. Let’s just pick out a couple of examples. By calling Juliet ‘baggage’,
Capulet dehumanises his daughter, suggesting she is a burden who weighs him down.
When he threatens to drag Juliet to church on a hurdle, a contemporary audience would understand
that a hurdle was the frame a traitor was tied to on their way to execution.
The meaning is clear: Juliet is a traitor for refusing to obey her father’s ruling.
In just two scenes, Capulet’s character has been completely vilified by Shakespeare.
Capulet changes again when he takes on the role of organising the wedding. He tells Lady Capulet
that he will ‘play the housewife’ and then proceeds to give the servants orders about the
arrangements for the wedding. In some ways, this behaviour reveals the conditional love he has for
his daughter, but it also shows the importance he places upon impressing others. He says his
heart is ‘wondrous light’ now his ‘wayward girl is so reclaimed’. His love for Juliet is reliant
upon her obedience. Although his insistence that she marries Paris might fall within Elizabethan
social norms, it is also at odds with his earlier insistence that Paris should ‘woo’ Juliet. It
appears that Capulet’s desire for her happiness in her marriage is only important when it suits him.
When Capulet finds what he believes is Juliet’s dead body, his response seems to be the most
genuine out of all who are present. Let’s look at the responses of other characters first.
Nurse’s use of nonsensical repetition reminds us of her comedic nonsensical
repetition from earlier scenes, somewhat diminishing the impact of her grief:
O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day, Most lamentable day, most woeful day
That ever, ever, I did yet behold! O day, O day, O day, O hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this. O woeful day, O woeful day!
Lady Capulet’s response selfishly makes Juliet’s death all about herself:
O me, O me! My child, my only life! Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!
Help, help! Call help.
It is Capulet alone who responds with a poetic, moving speech:
Ha, let me see her. Out, alas! She's cold, Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff:
Life and these lips have long been separated; Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
Gone is the anger from previous scenes: Capulet, perhaps alone, seems genuinely upset about Juliet.
Finally, it is Capulet who instigates the move to friendship with Montague
upon the news of Juliet’s true death in the play’s final scene:
O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter's jointure,
for no more Can I demand.
In some ways, Capulet has come full circle,
starting and ending the play in a positive light. However, his downfall in Act 3
can be seen as Shakespeare’s way of questioning the patriarchal rule of Elizabethan England.
KEY QUOTATIONS In terms of quotations for Capulet,
it might be useful to pick two examples that clearly show his abrupt change of character:
‘My will to her consent is but a part’ and ‘I think she will be ruled / In all respects
by me’.
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Everything I go through in these videos can be found in the new third edition of
Mr Bruff’s Guide to Romeo and Juliet, available through following the links in the description.