Arranged Marriage In Romeo And Juliet

Back in history, arranged marriage was very common. People did not unusually marry for love, but for money, family names, and children. This can be seen in Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, The Marriage Portrait: A Novel, written by Maggie O’Farrel, and the movie Cathrine Called Birdy (2022). All three occurred during the periods of Renaissance and Medieval Europe. Each of these works has a young teenage girl (Juliet, Birdy, and Lucrezia) that has to deal with their parents setting up a potential arranged marriage. The three girls all have overbearing parents who care for the family's future, so they all set up a potential arranged marriage to have success. Each of them (Juliet, Birdy, and Lucrezia), has their own negative take

Lady and Lord Capulet describe it best as Juliet marrying Paris, a wealthy and strong man. Juliet does not want this for herself and would much prefer to be with Romeo for her lifetime or the other option of death. Although she doesn't want this, Juliet's parents have total control, and Lord Capulet plans for her to marry Paris. Capulet says “go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither” (3,5,159-160). This quote highlights that Juliet has basically no choice in this arranged marriage and her father, Capulet will do anything it takes to enforce it. He uses the word “hurdle” which means a wooden frame on which criminals were drawn through the streets to execution. The arranged marriage of Juliet to Paris was going to be not just traumatizing but a permanent punishment. Because she does not want this to happen and only wants freedom, Juliet takes this issue of arranged marriage into her own consideration saying, “O,bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, from off the battlements of any tower, or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk where serpents are” (4,1,78-81). Shakespeare reveals the issue is so unwanted by Juliet and uses hyperboles to over exaggerate the experiences she would rather go through to help prove how much she does not want the arranged

The main character, Birdy, is only fourteen years old and is not mentally ready for marriage. Birdy gets her period, and Morwenna, her nurse, helps give her rags to assist. Periods are considered the time a girl becomes a woman, and Bridy thought if her parents found out, marriage would occur for her sooner. After she uses them, Birdy hides the monthly rags in cracks under the floor of the outhouse for nobody to find. She thought by hiding the proof of becoming a young lady, the more spare time to not get married there will be. In this scene, the film establishes Birdy and an innocent character that is simply not ready yet to get rid of her childhood. Later on in the movie, Rollo, Birdys father, sends a potential rich suitor over for a possible marriage. The suitor comes on top of a horse looking for where the house is that the family lives in asking Birdy and Perkin where it could be. Birdy chimes in by saying how ugly and dissatisfying “ Lady Catherine” is to scare him away. The potential husband took the word and went away. This scene conveys how unready Birdy is because she pretended she was really someone she's not along with refusing to be the person she really is. By doing so, Birdy thought it would slow down the marriage process for her father, and called Birdy, not Lady Catherine, there is