Lady Capulet

• Juliet's mum
• stereotypical Elizabethan women :

  • belonged to her husband
  • no education
  • can't own anything
  • can't vote
  • wife - obey husband, no voice
• Shakespeare = proto-feminist - empowered women in his writing when they were seen as inferior in the Elizabethan Era - his female characters are strong minded, dominant and decisive
• A1, S3 - tells Juliet to marry Paris; 'think of marriage now' then praises Paris - she goes along with the Patriarchal society (marriage is best)
• other occasions when Lady Capulet visits Juliet - Lord Capulet tells her too;

  • A3,S4 'Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed; Prepare her, wife against this wedding day'
  • A4S2 ' I warrant thee wife go thou to Juliet'

  she obeys
• Lady Capulet does have independent opinions - A4S2, wedding day brought forward by Lord Capulet - Lady Capulet says 'no not till Thursday; there is time enough' - she gets ignored - what Juliet wanted to avoid, women had no right/choices
• After Romeo kills Tybalt, Lady Capulet says - 'Romeo slaw Tybalt; Romeo must not live' demanding, she is the only person to do this (Lord Capulet is mute)
• Only female character to survive to the last scene (alive) - surrounded by men her fine balance between accepting and dismissing stereotypes means she survived - suggests Elizabethan women should do the same
• Juliet dies - 'O me', 'My child my only life', 'look up or I will die with thee' - self centred but also sentimental
• she mocks Lord Capulet in A1,S1 when he is trying to join the fight - 'a crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?'