The Capulet family is one of pride and high
social standing. It consists of
Lord and Lady
Capulet, their young daughter Juliet, and their kinsman Tybalt.
They have a
nurse, as well, who has taken care if Juliet since she was born.
They get along
quite well, yet, like all families they have their differences.
However, one thing that happens frequently when
two members of the
family disagree
on something, is that usually someone gives in to their
"superior,"
regardless if they agree or not. One
example is when Romeo shows
up at the
Capulets' party uninvited and Tybalt wants to throw him out. Lord
Capulet objects
to this by saying, "He shall be endured...I say he shall...Am I the
master here or
you?" For a little bit, Tybalt
argues, but he very soon backs
down and lets
Capulet have his way.
Perhaps the reason why this happens is because
the "inferior" person is
somewhat
intimidated by the "superior."
This intimidation that some of the
characters
produce on each other shows that there is not a great deal of
communication in
the family. Throughout Act I, there were
several more
examples of
characters yielding to others and not standing up for what they
believe. For instance, when Lady Capulet brought up
the idea of Juliet marrying
Paris, Juliet
just went along with the concept , even though that was possibly not
what she
wanted.
An even
more significant instance of such a thing occurring is the fact
that Juliet
feared to tell her parents that she had fallen in love with Romeo, a
Montague. She knew that if she informed them of how she
felt, they would get
angry and maybe
disown her, just because of their hate for all Montagues.
That is another of the Capulet family's
flaws. They are rather
narrow-minded
because of their continuing, senseless conflict with the
Montagues. Both households are of equal fault in this
case, but that only
proves that the
two families are alike in that way. Even
still, if the Capulets
believe that they
truly are the more dignified, they should have ceased their
dispute earlier
and prevented their daughter's unhappiness (and eventually
death). Instead, they decided to keep the feud going
and believe that all
Montagues are the
same and that ll should be despised.
As head of the family, Lord Capulet is largely
responsible for everything
that has been
going on, but despite his closed-mindedness he is still a pretty
admirable
man. He is a good father who only wants
the best for his daughter.
He doesn't
realize though, that marrying Romeo is what really is best for Juliet.
It is what she
truly wants and it is the only thing that will make her happy.
Capu1et exposes a different side of himself in
the first scene than in most
of the rest of
the play. In Scene I, he only says a few
lines but he still
communicates the
fact that he is angry at Montague and he wants to fight.
Later in Scene II
he says,
"But Montague is bound as well
as I,
In penalty alike and 'tis not hard,
I think,
For men so old as we to keep the
peace."
This verse
displays his more compassionate side; the part of him who is tired of
fighting and who
just wants it all to stop.
The Capulets are a lot like all other
families. Obviously, the problems and
fights that
normal families have aren't as extreme as the Capulets', but
everyone has
obstacles to get though and the Capulets are no different in this
manner. Of course they lack some communication, and
they should have been
more open-minded,
but they were pretty functional. Maybe
that's the way most
families were in
Verona so long ago.
--------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment