Skip to main content

If you were Juliet, how would you have reacted to Capulet's plan for your marriage with Paris?

If I was Juliet, I would have acted exactly as Juliet did act upon receiving the news that Capulet has schedule her wedding to Paris: with great grief and desperation. That being said, I probably wouldn't have been wise enough to escape the situation like she does.


When Juliet learns from her mother that she is to marry Paris "early next Thursday morn," Juliet begs her to tell Lord Capulet that she will not marry him.  Lady Capulet tells Juliet to tell her father herself; Capulet enters and reacts with tremendous anger when he learns of his daughter's disobedience. He threatens Juliet and gives her an ultimatum:



I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,


Or never after look me in the face...


... I'll give you to my friend;


And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,


For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee...



Juliet, however, responds to these threats with a more level-headed approach than I could ever manage. She calmly asks her father for patience and acknowledges her gratefulness for him so that she may "speak a word." I would have behaved in a much more reckless manner--screaming, crying, or trying to manipulate my way out of the situation.


Juliet doesn't show any real signs of emotional breakdown until after her parents have left the room; still, she is considering how to get out of this mess rather than completely losing herself in the devastation of this news. By the end of this scene, Juliet has wisely acquiesced (or rather, pretended to) to her father's demands and sends the Nurse to tell him of this... secretly knowing that this is the safest thing to say until she can meet with Friar Laurence to develop a plan. Again, this is an impressively savvy maneuver for a girl of her age, and I'm not sure I would have thought to take such an approach.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more