Character Analysis of Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

“And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.” (Juliet 3.2.61) Juliet is a loyal, heartfelt, brave, commationate, and courageous 13 year old girl in the story of Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare. In this twisted tail, Juliet falls head over heels for a 16 year old boy, Romeo. Juliet finds herself acting opton her emotions rather than her intelligence which makes some of her decisions costly to her own life. 

Juliet is found being loyal to her newlywed husband, Romeo multiple times throughout the play. 

In act 3 scene 4, Paris, Capulet, and Lady Capulet talk about Juliet’s and Paris’ relationshipin the Capulets house late during Monday night. The conversation leads the their marrage, and Capulet decides that the two of them shall get married on Thursday of that week. In the next scene, on Tuesday monring, Lady Capulet goes up to Juliet’s chamber to talk about the marriage set in place, keep in mind, that Romeo had spent the night with Juliet after they had just been married earlier that week. In the beginning of this scene, Romeo leaves Juliet’s room as he is soon to be exiled from Verona, there home. This was because he started a rite that ended up killing two epopel including Montaqure, a friend of Romeo’s and Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. Lady Capulet enters and finds Juliet weeping over Romeo’s banishment, but confuses her weeping to be tears over the loss of her cousin that had been killed by Romeo.

By this time, Juliet and Romeo were married (yet only the Friar and the Nurse knew at this time), so Juliet lead her mother to believe that she “never shall be satisfied with Romeo, till [she] behold[s] him—dead—”(3.5.93-94) to keep the act going so no one else would find out about there secret marriage. Capulet then goes on to inform Juliet that her father has “sorted out a sudden day of joy, that thou expect’st not” (3.5.109-110). This includes the marriage of young Juliet and “the gallant, young, and noble gentleman” Paris. Juliet was not excited about this arrangement due to the fact that she was already happily married and gains the courage to confront her mother about Romeo. Juliet tells her mother, “I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo” (3.5.122-123).

Juliet is faithful to Romeo in this scene because when her parents propose the idea of marriage with an eligible, high ranking bachelor, she shoots down this idea and even tells them of her strong love for Romeo. This is a big brave step on Juliet’s part as the two families of Romeo and Juliet are enemies and hate each other (for unknown reasons). This means that her parents will definitely disapprove of Romeo which shows how she lets her emotions take over. As she got angry at her mother for this marriage, she decided to drop the bomb that she was in love with Romeo. 

In the same scene, Juliet pleads Lady Capulet to “delay this marriage for a month, a week; or if [she] do[es] not, make the bridal bed in that dim monument where Tybalt lies.” (3.5.201-204). This passage is explaining how Juliet threatens to kill herself and lay in the tomb with Tyblat if she must go through with the marriage with Paris. Lady Capulet then gives Juliet tough love and tells her to do as she may as she is done worrying about her. 

Through this entire scene, Juliet demonstrates devotion towards Romeo by her powerful words. Foremost, she pressures her family into pushing the date of the arranged marriage with Paris out so she can find a way to escape with Romeo before it happens. Juliet doesn’t want to become unfaithful towards Romeo because if she gets married to Paris, it is like an act of betrayal. Juliet begs for the Nurse’s help as she states, “My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven.” (3.5.206-207) Shakespeare is trying to signify that Juliet will always be faithful and trustworthy to Romeo as long as he and she shall live as their vows are now in heaven. 

Not only does Juliet pressure people in act 3, but she seems to have similar actions in the first scene of act four when she goes up to seek advice from Friar Lawrence in the cell of the church. She threatens her own life again expressing, “Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, do thou but call my resolution wise, and with this knife I’ll help it presently.” (4.1.52-55) Juliet even shows Friar Lawrence a knife she had been stashing to show him that she would really do this terrible act if the problem was not solved. Friar then gives in and they create a plan so that Juliet can run away with Romeo far from Verona. With all of Juliet’s menacing, the readers discover that Juliet would rather end her life then marry Paris which shows just how deep her love and affection is towards Romeo. Juliet lets go of her common sense and lets her love for Romeo take over and steer the course for her decisions. 

Acknowledging this information, Juliet takes an even bigger leap of faith by letting her intense feelings for Romeo cloud her better judgement and goes through with the insane and frightening plan the Friar and her made in the cell of the church. 

Juliet is a very brave and courageous individual, as even though the odds are against her, the love she shares with Romeo is too strong to let go. 

As previously stated, in the cell Friar and Juliet decided to make a plan so Juliet and Romeo could escape the town of Verona together secretly. To do this, the night before Juliet was supposed to be wed to Paris, she had to take a potion to put her to sleep for a few hours. This would trick Juliet’s family into thinking that she had died. A service would be held for her “death” the following morning and she would be put into her family vault where Romeo would later find her and they could then escape forever. Juliet had many concerns about taking the potion. She worried that “this mixture [might] not work at all” so she might then “be married [by] tomorrow morning” (4.1.21-22) or that the mixture could be “poison which the friar subtly hath minist’red to have [her] dead” (4.1.24-25). These are very valid concerns she has. If the potion doesn’t work, then she must be married to Paris tomorrow. If the potion is poisoned, she will never get to see Romeo again on Earth.

Not only does Juliet have to stress about some of the physical effects of the mixture on her body, but she also has to think about the emotional aspects of the potion, what if she wakes up too early and is trapped in the vault! She worried she’d see hundreds of years of bones from her ancestors lying around her; she’d smell sickening, rotting odors; she’d hear screams, that will make her go mad; that she’d touch one of her ancestors bones; or be strangled to death by the horrifying atmosphere around her (4.3.33-35,40-43,46-58).With all of these dreadful and terrifying fears in mind, Juliet’s love for Romeo over takes her fears. She loves Romeo so deeply so can’t let him leave the city without her, so she ”drink[s] to thee!” (4.3.58) (also known as Romeo). This signifies that Juliet is only doing this for Romeo, and her passionate love for him. This shows how Juliet lets her emotions take over her actions as she doesn’t think rationally about the situation; she has made an entire cons list of drinking this mixture that Friar made or her yet she still does it because her emotions over take her. 

Juliet also shows loyalty, compassion, and bravery in the last scene of act 5 when she wakes up in the vault after the potion weared off and finds Romeo to be dead beside her. The Friar pleads her to get out of the vault and leave Romeo behind, but Juliet won’t listen to him and decides to follow her heart as she did in act 3 when she thought Romeo was dead once before-but this time, it was for real. Her love and loyalty towards Romeo makes her do one of the bravest actions we have see from her through the whole play-the ultimate act of one's life for love. Juliet ends her life for Romeo by “snatching” Romeo’s dagger and vocalizes, “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (5.3.189-170)