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The Capulets are probably the best-illustrated family unit
in the entirety of Shakespeare’s theatrical canon. We have scenes between the
parents and child. We see intercessions by the household servants who are like
family. There is a variety to this family that makes them human, if not
entirely likable. How then does this environment contribute to the tragedy of
the play?
Lord Capulet speaks the first line almost every time that he
enters the scene. He comes on speaking which puts the attention on him. When
the Prince speaks privately to the fathers after the opening brawl, he takes
Capulet away with him first. Paris, the Prince’s kinsman is wooing Capulet’s
daughter. Capulet holds a feast. Capulet’s family has a large crypt. In the
context of the play the Capulet family is given importance over the Montagues.
The first words in the play are given to the Capulets. Lord Capulet is the
strong, authoritative father figure in this tragedy.
The character is not drawn as a bad father. He protects his
family. When the audience discovers that the Countie Paris wishes to marry
Juliet, we first see Lord Capulet putting him off, telling him to wait because
she is too young. At his great feast, he speaks well of the party-crashing
Romeo, the son of his great rival and is able to keep the peace when Tibalt
demands satisfaction for this insult. It is only when Tibalt is murdered that Capulet
begins to force the marriage on his only living child in order to ensure her
safety and the family’s prosperity, making him appear a monster in the eyes of
his daughter, and a villain in the hearts of the audience.
‘Mountague is bound as well as I,
/ In penalty alike, and 'tis not hard I thinke, / For men so old as wee, to
keepe the peace,’ he states. There is an acknowledgment of his role as a
leader, due to his age and authority. However, he quickly tempers this
authority with a father’s care for his daughter: ‘But wooe her gentle Paris,
get her heart, / My will to her consent, is but a part, / And shee agree,
within her scope of choise, / Lyes my consent, and faire according voice.’ He
does not treat Juliet as chattel, and shows true care and tenderness in these
lines regarding the dispensation of his daughter.
The first time we are given any
exchange between Lord and Lady Capulet is after Tibalt’s death when Lord
Capulet does an about-face and agrees to quickly marry Juliet off to Paris. He
sends his wife to their daughter to make the case. Herein we have a glimpse as
to why this concerned father is made out as the baddie in this youthful love
story. This is the first time we see Juliet and her father interacting, and he
cannot understand why his daughter is not agreeable to his plans. Of course,
she is unaware of how he has been protecting her up to this point.
How, will
she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not
proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy
as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy
a Gentleman, to be her Bridegroome
…………………………………………………………………is meant Love.
How now?
How now?
Chopt Logicke? what is this?
[…]
Gods
bread, it makes me mad:
Day,
night, houre, ride, time, worke, play,
Alone in
companie, still my care hath bin
To have
her matcht, and having now provided
A
Gentleman of Noble Parentage,
Of faire
Demeanes, Youthfull, and Nobly Allied,
Stuft as
they say with Honourable parts,
Proportion'd
as ones thought would wish a man,
And then
to have a wretched puling foole,
A whining
mammet, in her Fortunes tender,
To answer,
Ile not wed, I cannot Love:
I am too
young, I pray you pardon me.
Here is much abuse thrown at
Juliet by her father. He calls her ‘green sickness,’ ‘carrion,’ ‘baggage,’
‘tallow face,’ ‘disobedient wretch,’ ‘wretched puling foole’ and ‘whining
mammet.’ He threatens her: ‘I will drag thee, on a Hurdle thither,’ ‘My fingers
itch,’ ‘you shall not house with me,’ ‘Ile nere acknowledge thee.’ His
authority is lost with these insults and threats, showing instead a father
whose work for his child is unappreciated. In his eyes, Juliet has no idea what
machinations he has been dealing with on her behalf. Perhaps it is the very
fact that he has been working without her knowledge that has put this rift
between them. In Capulet’s next scene, this rift seems to be closed.
How now my
headstrong,
Where have
you bin gadding?
…………………………………………………………………rul'd by you.
Send for
the Countie, goe tell him of this,
Ile have
this knot knit up to morrow morning.
…………………………………………………………………bounds of modestie.
Why I am
glad on't, this is well, stand up,
This is
as't should be, let me see the County:
I marrie
go I say, and fetch him hither.
Now afore
God, this reveren'd holy Frier,
All our
whole Cittie is much bound to him.
…………………………………………………………………there's time inough.
Go Nurse,
go with her,
Weele to
Church to morrow.
…………………………………………………………………now neere night.
Tush, I
will stirre about,
And all
things shall be well, I warrant thee wife:
Go thou to
Juliet, helpe to decke up her,
Ile not to
bed to night, let me alone:
Ile play
the huswife for this once. What ho?
They are
all forth, well I will walke my selfe
To Countie
Paris, to prepare him up
Against to
morrow, my heart is wondrous light,
Since this
same way-ward Gyrle is so reclaim'd.
The cues here, ‘rul’d by you’ and ‘bounds of modestie,’
combined with Capulet’s responses show that Juliet has come to her senses and
that as far as he is concerned, ‘This is as't should
be.’ He is so happy that he offers to stay up worrying: ‘Ile not to bed to
night, let me alone: / Ile play the huswife for this once.’ Having completed
his duties has a father, he will now take on the role of the mother.
However, this joy is short-lived. After a few small
exchanges, Capulet’s cue lines tell him all he needs to know:
…………………………………………………………………helpe, call helpe.
…………………………………………………………………shee's dead.
…………………………………………………………………O wofull time.
The death of his daughter throws
him into despair, and he grieves, for his child.
Death that
hath tane her hence to make me waile,
Ties up my
tongue, and will not let me speake.
[…]
O Child, O
Child; my soule, and not my Child,
Dead art
thou, alacke my Child is dead,
And with
my Child, my joyes are buried.
In his grief he does not look for solace with his wife. His
lines are given to unspecified persons, or directed to his thwarted son-in-law,
Paris. At this most painful time for him, the death of his daughter (of course,
we in the audience have satisfaction that Juliet is not dead, and at the same
time, the knowledge that she does not see this honest tenderness that her
father expresses for her: another instance of the tragedy of miscommunication
between father and daughter), he is alone in his suffering.
In the play’s final scene, Capulet makes several
references to family. He refers to his own family by their relationship to
himself, again calling Lady Capulet ‘wife’ and referring to ‘our Daughter’ and
‘my Daughter[ ]’ rather than using their names. Then surprisingly he refers to
‘Brother Montague.’ Now, with the death of both of their children, they can be
brothers. They are of one generation and can understand each other.
By eventually forcing the issue of Juliet’s marriage to
Paris, Lord Capulet pushes the tragedy along its path. Had he continued with
the compassionate care of his daughter, letting her choose whom she liked, he
still may not have allowed the marriage of Romeo and Juliet to continue, but we
can only speculate on alternate endings. What is clear through the text is that
there is very little meaningful communication between father and daughter in
the Capulet household, a strengthening of which may have avoided quite a bit of
bloodshed.
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As work continues on the prompt book and through text
sessions with the cast of The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet for NRTC’s upcoming production as part of our
Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project’s 2016 tour, more will be unearthed regarding the
parents and parental figures in the play and how the generation gap effects the
course of the play.
-Andy Kirtland, Managing Director of The New Renaissance Theatre Company (which produces The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project)
