Romeo And Juliet Women Character Analysis

Female Characters in Romeo and Juliet

Strong:

/strôNG/

adjective

◆ Not easily affected by disease or hardship

◆ Showing determination, self control, and good judgement

Weak:

/wēk/

adjective

◆liable to break or give way under pressure; easily damaged

◆lacking the force of character to hold to one 's own decisions, beliefs, or principles; irresolute.

Throughout Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet, the definitions of weak and strong connect in many different ways. In a revolutionary tale, among the weak female characters, there are a few women who define what it means to be strong in an era where men ruled.

Lady Montague (Romeo’s mother) is the epitome of a weak character. Throughout the whole play, she is rarely mentioned, despite the fact that

For the majority of the story, she just abided Lord Capulet 's rule. For example, when Lord Capulet tried to force Juliet to marry Paris, she didn’t do anything to try and change his mind, even though she could clearly see how much it was hurting Juliet. In fact, Juliet even turns to her mother and asks for her help to delay the wedding a month, or even a week, or she’ll need to prepare Juliet a grave next to Tybalt. Her mom simply replies by saying, “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee,” (5.3.114) and leaves the room. And what makes this scenario even worse is that Lady Capulet was in a similar situation when she married Lord Capulet. From the knowledge given in the book, it is estimated that Lady Capulet had Juliet at age 14. Even the Lord mentions how marrying young can “marr” young women. He says, “And too soon marr 'd are those so early made.” (1.2.283) He mentions this while talking to Paris when Paris asked for Juliet 's hand in marriage. It can be inferenced that he is talking about his own experiences with his wife. Lady Capulet was also forced into an arranged marriage, so she knows how Juliet felt, and probably went through her own struggles with that. Overall, Lady Capulet was unable to hold her own ground for the sake of her daughter therefore, being

Before this story takes place, she suffered through the heartbreak of losing a child, and then raised Juliet, watching her parents abuse and neglect her. In fact, she can’t even stand to watch Lord Capulet speak to Juliet so harshly about marrying Paris. She steps in between the 2 of them and first accuses the Lord of being the one to blame for Juliet not wanting to marry Paris. (3.5.177) And when Lord Capulet tells the Nurse to hold her tongue she replies, “May one not speak?” (3.5.181) The Nurses love for Juliet made her brave enough to stand up to a man in power in a time where she could have been fired, or worse, for speaking back to her boss. When she saw a young girl who she basically raised as her daughter be attacked like that, she stood up for what she believed in and held her ground. This proves that the Nurse was strong in ways other characters were