Discussion Topic
Ultimatums in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Summary:
Ultimatums in "Romeo and Juliet" include the Prince's decree that further public brawls will be punishable by death, and Lord Capulet's threat to disown Juliet if she refuses to marry Paris. These ultimatums drive the plot forward and contribute to the tragic outcomes by creating intense pressure on the characters, leading to desperate decisions.
In "Romeo and Juliet", Act 3, Scene 5, what is Capulet's ultimatum and Juliet's response?
In act 3, scene 5, Juliet refuses to marry Paris. Lord Capulet, her father, tells her that if she doesn't go to the church to marry Paris, he will "drag" her there himself. In fact, he says that he will drag her to the church "on a hurdle." A hurdle, in Elizabethan England, was a frame to which traitors were tied so that they could be dragged to their execution. Lord Capulet's language here implies that he thinks Juliet, by refusing to marry Paris, is a traitor to him.
The second ultimatum that Lord Capulet offers his daughter is to go to the church to marry Paris or "never after look me in the face." In other words, if Juliet refuses to marry Paris, Lord Capulet will disown her. He subsequently makes it even clearer when he says, "Graze where you will you shall not house with me."...
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He goes on to tell Juliet that if she does not go to the church to marry Paris, she will thereafter "hang, beg, starve, die in the streets." In other words, he will have nothing more to do with her and no more love to give her.
Juliet's first response is to get down on her knees to plead with her father not to be angry with her: "I beseech you on my knees, / Hear me with patience." After this, Lord Capulet doesn't give her another chance to speak until he leaves the scene, and after he has left, Juliet pleads with her mother to have pity and to "cast [her] not away." She asks her mother to "Delay this marriage for a month, a week" or else make up a death bed for her in the tomb next to her cousin Tybalt.
After also being disowned by her mother ("I have done with thee"), Juliet looks to the nurse for help, but the nurse responds by telling Juliet that she should forget Romeo and marry Paris. Desperate and almost hopeless, Juliet's next reaction is to go and see Friar Lawrence. He is her last hope, and if he too fails to help her, she will herself "have power to die." In other words, she will take her own life.
What is the prince's ultimatum in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?
The prince’s ultimatum is that anyone who fights in the streets will be put to death.
An ultimatum is an order that forces someone to do something. After the huge brawl started by Sampson and Abraham in the beginning of the play, Prince Escalus decides that he is sick of fighting in the streets. He tells Lords Capulet and Montague that enough is enough. Their feud has shed enough blood.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. (Act 1, Scene 1)
When he says that the lives of anyone who is fighting will pay the forfeit of the peace, he is basically saying that if anyone is caught fighting and lives, he will be put to death. He hopes that this sentence will cause the feuding family members to think twice before picking up swords against each other.
It doesn’t work. Tybalt still tries to fight Romeo, and Mercutio doesn’t care about the ban either when he fights in his place. Romeo didn’t want to fight, but when Tybalt killed Mercutio, he stepped in. Romeo wasn’t put to death because of his fight, but he was banished. Romeo was not pleased with the leniency.
ROMEO
What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?
FRIAR LAURENCE
A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
Not body's death, but body's banishment.ROMEO
Ha, banishment! be merciful, say 'death;'
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.' (Act 3, Scene 3)
For Romeo, any time away from his new bride Juliet was too long. He was very upset by the banishment even though the prince was trying to be “gentle.” In fact, Romeo did probably deserve a lesser sentence due to the extenuating circumstances of the duel, since he was forced into fighting in self-defense, but he was still very upset about being banished.