Essay On Social Classes In Romeo And Juliet

It is very interesting to examine how people who belong to different social classes address each other and additionally to discover the social meanings which are assigned to pronouns of address in such interactions. The most typical example of a socially unequal relationship is that between a servant and his/her master. In Romeo and Juliet (Act I, Scene Three), Lady Capulet, the mother of Juliet, addresses the nurse using the pronoun thou. She seems to be following the norms of society since she is considered to be socially superior and it is customary to use the pronoun thou to an inferior. On the other hand, the nurse, as an inferior, is obliged to show her respect towards somebody who belongs to a higher class than her and as a result, she

It is clear that they are not of equal status, however, most of the times, they address each other using the pronoun thou. The choice of thou from Juliet, who belongs to aristocracy, is regarded as being normal but the use of thou from the nurse when talking to Juliet seems unusual. The interpretation that one could assign to the choice of thou by the nurse is the intimate relationship that has been developed between the two throughout the years, a relationship which allows the nurse to use the pronoun which signals familiarity. It can further be explained by the fact that “[…] the asymmetrical power semantics in which the superior person received V and used T in return was replaced by a more symmetrical system in which a high degree of solidarity or familiarity leads to the reciprocal use of T, while social distance, unfamiliarity and politeness leads to reciprocal V” (Jucker and Taavitsainen 2013: 74-75). The nurse, only occasionally does she use the you pronoun. For example in Act II (Scene Five) the use of the you pronoun can be explained by the context of the interaction. The nurse claims to be too tired to tell Juliet what had happened during her encounter with Romeo and uses the pronoun of politeness so as to calm Juliet who seems to be frantic to learn the news and does not let her