Juliet

Juliet Capulet (Italian: Giulietta Capuleti) is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist Romeo, a member of the House of Montague, with which the Capulets have a blood feud. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself.

Juliet by Philip H. Calderon (1888)
For other uses, see Juliet (disambiguation).

Juliet Capulet
Romeo and Juliet character
The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet as depicted by Frank Dicksee (1884)
First appearance
Created byWilliam Shakespeare
Based onJuliet from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1561)
In-universe information
Family
SpouseRomeo Montague
NationalityItalian

Juliet's age

As the story occurs, Juliet is approaching her fourteenth birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (1 August), so Juliet's birthday is 31 July (1.3.19). Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July (1.3.17). Her father states that she "hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (1.2.9). In many cultures and time periods, women married and had children at a young age. Lady Capulet had given birth to her first child by the time she had reached Juliet's age: "By my count, I was your mother much upon these years that you are now a maid." (1.3.74–75).

Even Capulet tries to encourage Count Paris, a wealthy suitor, to wait a little longer before even thinking of marrying his daughter, feeling that she is still too young; "She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride". However, in the English poem the story is based on (Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke)[1] Juliet is approaching her sixteenth birthday and Romeo is the same age whereas in the Bandello novella she is nearly eighteen with Romeo about twenty.[2] The common English people of that age were very rarely in their teens when they married and even among the nobility and gentry of the age, brides 13 years of age were rare, at about one in 1,000 brides; in that era, the vast majority of English brides were at least 19 years of age when they first married, most commonly at about 23 years, and most English noblewomen were at least 16 when they married. That the parts of young women were played by pre-adolescent boys in Shakespeare's day also cannot be overlooked; it is possible that Shakespeare had the physique of a young boy in mind during composition, in addition to the fact that Romeo and Juliet are of wealthy families and would be more likely to marry earlier than commoners.[3] At the time, English noblewomen married on average at 19–21 years (compared to 24–26 years for English noblemen) while the average marriage age in England was 25–26 years for women and 27–28 for men.[4]

The common belief in Elizabethan England was that motherhood before 16 was dangerous; popular manuals of health, as well as observations of married life, led Elizabethans to believe that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, impaired a young man's physical and mental development, and produced sickly or stunted children. Therefore, 18 came to be considered the earliest reasonable age for motherhood and 20 and 30 the ideal ages for women and men, respectively, to marry. Shakespeare might also have reduced Juliet's age from 16 to 13 to demonstrate the dangers of marriage at too young an age; that Shakespeare himself married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 might hold some significance.[2]

In modern-day Verona

Casa di Giulietta
Bronze statue of Juliet in Verona
The entrance wall known as Juliet's wall

In Verona, an early 14th-century house at Via Cappello no. 23, claiming to be the Capulets' has been turned into a tourist attraction. It is, however, mostly empty. The actual family name in Italian was Cappelletti, a noble family, and not Capuleti. Cappelletti had in the past been members of the light cavalry of the Republic of Venice and had fought for it since the 13th century. They were originally from Dalmatia and Albania. The house, with its distinctive balcony, is one of the most visited sites in Verona. In its small courtyard is a bronze statue of Juliet. The metal surface across its chest is polished from constant handling, due to a legend stating that if a person strokes the right breast of the statue, they will have good fortune and luck in love.[5]

Many people write their names and the names of loved ones on the walls of the entrance, known as Juliet's wall. In 2019,[6] after a restoration and cleaning of the building, it was intended that further writing should be on replaceable panels[7] or white sheets[8] placed outside the wall.

It is also a tradition to put small love letters on the walls (which is done by the thousands each year), which are regularly taken down by employees to keep the courtyard clean.[9]

Another tradition that occurs in Juliet's courtyard is writing one's name and that of a loved one on a lock and attaching it to a large ornamental gate in the back left.

Club di Giulietta

Since the 1930s, letters addressed to Juliet have arrived in Verona. As of 2010, more than 5,000 letters were received annually, three-quarters of which were from women. The largest single group of senders was American teenagers.[10] The letters are read and replied to by local volunteers, organised since the 1980s in the Club di Giulietta (Juliet Club), which is financed by the City of Verona.[10] The club has been the subject of a book by Lise and Ceil Friedman and is the setting for a 2010 American film, Letters to Juliet.

  • Juliet's purported balcony, in Verona. Beneath it, on the walls, there are love letters.
    Juliet's purported balcony, in Verona. Beneath it, on the walls, there are love letters.
  • Love letter wall, Verona
    Love letter wall, Verona
  • Love locket wall beneath the balcony, Verona
    Love locket wall beneath the balcony, Verona

Performers
George Dawe's 1816's Study for Miss O'Neill as Juliet

A number of famous actresses and some actors have portrayed the role of Juliet:

Animation

Fictional performers

See also

Notes
  1. The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke.
  2. Franson, J. Karl (Summer 1996). ""Too Soon Marr'd": Juliet's Age as Symbol in 'Romeo and Juliet.'". Papers on Language & Literature. 32 (3).
  3. Laslett, Peter (1965). The World We Have Lost. New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 82–86. ISBN 978-0415315272.
  4. Young, Bruce W. (2008). Family Life in the Age of Shakespeare. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0313342394.
  5. "Vacation and Hotel Reviews, Travel Photos and Pictures, Travel Deals - IgoUgo". Booked.net. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  6. Renato Groppo. "Casa di Giulietta". Verona.com. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  7. Veronissima. "Veronissima – Juliet's Wall Graffiti". Veronissima.com. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  8. "Terna02 – Juliet's graffiti at the D'Orsay Museum in Paris". PremioTerna.it. 4 September 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  9. "Desenzano Lake Garda Italy – Verona – Romeo and Juliet". DesenzanoItaly.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  10. Hooper, John (19 May 2010). "Dear Juliet: the fans who write to Shakespeare's heroine". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  11. Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-313-30089-5.
  12. Sneider, Jeff (21 June 2011). "Douglas Booth, thou art 'Romeo'". Variety. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  13. "Miriam-Teak Lee to star as Juliet in new West End musical about Shakespeare's character". Whatsonstage.com. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  14. "& Juliet Announces Full Broadway Cast". Playbill.com. 11 October 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2023.

References
  • Bevington, David, Ed. Romeo and Juliet, The Bantam Shakespeare (New York, 1988)
  • Levenson, Jill L., Ed. Romeo and Juliet, The Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford, 2000)

Further reading
  • "Juliet's Taming of Romeo" Carolyn E. Brown; SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, Vol. 36, 1996
  • "A Psychological Profile of Shakespeare's Juliet: Or Was It Merely Hormones?" Nancy Compton Warmbrod The English Journal, Vol. 69, No. 9 (Dec. 1980), p. 29

Media related to Juliet at Wikimedia Commons

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