#lady capulet

12+ hours of pain and suffering and (i think??) its done

yes and pepper spray is as far as we got

immediately after meeting Romeo, Juliet whispers to the nurse, “If he be marrièd / my grave is like to be my wedding bed.” (I.V.148-9)

this echoes later in the play, when she learns Romeo is banished. she takes the cords (presumably to hang herself), and once more tells the nurse, “I’ll to my wedding bed, / and death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!” (III.II.149-50)

fast-forward. Juliet is begging her mother to delay her marriage to Paris, if even for a few days, “Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed / in that dim monument where Tybalt lies.” (III.V. 212-13)

but where are we getting this motif from? death and weddings? why would a thirteen-year-old girl talk so freely about her own death, and equate it to love and marriage? it’s almost as if her fate is already decided.

because it is. that’s where Lady Capulet comes in. in the same scene as above, Juliet’s mother tells her father, in front of Juliet, “I would the fool [Juliet] were married to her grave.” (III.V.145)

no wonder Juliet is so ready to end her life in all of these scenes throughout the play. how often has her mother told her, in different words, that she wishes Juliet were dead? and how many more times has Juliet’s pain gone unnoticed by the adults in her care?

that’s the beauty of this tragedy. there’s no prophecy. there’s no oracle. there’s no drawing of straws, but each character’s fate has already been sealed before the play even begins. no adult in Verona will offer help to Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, or Tybalt. they all go practically unnoticed until after their deaths.

things you will regret having said to your daughter