How does Juliet react when her father wnats her to marry Paris?

Answer 1

In Act 1 Scene 2, he says that Juliet should not be married until she is sixteen. "Let two more summers wither in their pride ere we may think her ripe to be a bride." But by Act 3 Scene 4, he can barely wait a day. On finding out that it is Monday night, he says "Well, Wednesday is too soon. A Thursday let it be--a Thursday, tell her, she shall be married to this noble earl. Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?" By Act IV Scene II he cannot even wait until Thursday: "I'll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning" He doesn't even have time to invite guests to the wedding.

There is also this change. In 1,2 Capulet says, "Woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart. My will to her consent is but a part." It is important to him that Juliet should approve of her husband. But by 3,4 he says "I think she will be ruled in all respects by me--nay, more, I doubt it not." He no longer bothers to ask Juliet whether she approves of Paris as a husband, and when she doesn't, he gets furiously angry and violent.

It is really difficult to know what causes this change in attitude in Capulet. For some reason, he gets the impression that Paris is impatient to get on with the marriage, a marriage which Capulet wants because it will bring social status and prestige to the family. (Paris is a "County", a close relative of the Prince, and Capulet, though he has "the chinks", is just plain Capulet, not "Lord Capulet" as he is frequently erroneously called.) Paris himself does not express this impatience. But Scene 3,4 starts off with a conversation between Capulet and Paris in which Capulet apologises for "not having time to move our daughter", and then says, "'Tis very late; she'll not come down tonight. I promise you, but for your company, I would have been abed an hour ago." This passage suggests that Paris came early in the evening, hoping to have some conversation with Juliet, and he has been sitting there with Capulet for hours, all evening and well into the night, and Juliet is a no-show. Paris's response is polite, but the actor playing Paris could deliver it so that it is just barely polite, barely concealing Paris's anger and frustration. This would give Capulet the incentive to try to avoid offending this important nobleman and avoid losing him as a potential son-in-law, so, in a panic, he impulsively promises that Juliet will consent to an early marriage. Paris accepts this with such eagerness that Capulet cannot now welch on his promise.

Answer 2

Juliet is distressed and upset when her father insists on her marrying Paris because she is already secretly married to Romeo. She feels conflicted between her loyalty to her family and her love for Romeo. Ultimately, she goes to great lengths to avoid the marriage to Paris, even resorting to faking her death.

Answer 3

Capulet has already pledged Juliet's word to Paris. "I will make a desperate tender of my child's love. I think she will be ruled by me, nay I doubt it not." Having said this to Paris, he will look a right chump if he goes back to Paris and has to say "You know how I said Juliet would be ruled by me? Well, I was wrong and I have no control over her." Although he does not usually want to control Juliet, he does not want to look like he cannot control her. Likewise, he knows he was wrong to agree to Paris's suit without consulting Juliet first, but like most people, he turns his anger at himself towards Juliet.

Both Capulet and Lady Capulet really want the wedding with Paris to go ahead. They want Juliet to be set up with a good husband because they care for her. If Juliet had advanced a coherent reason why she doesn't want Paris, they might have accepted it, but she advances no such reason, because she doesn't dare (not around her mother anyway). Juliet's refusal seems to them childish and irrational which frustrates and angers them.

Answer 4

Capulet is angry because Paris is a suitable husband, and girls in Juliet's day and age did not defy their parents.