her own desires. Further, by marrying the son of her father's enemy, Juliet exposes her family to potential dishonor and ridicule. Thus, she's taking a considerable risk. Her father would disown her if he knew she married Romeo. As is, he threatens to disown her when she rejects the prospect of marryingParis. It is in this scene, act 3, scene 5 (lines 147–152), when we see Juliet's rebelliousness come to the fore.

Capulet: Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worth a gentleman to be her pride?

Juliet: Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. Proud can I never be of what I hate...

Teenagers talk back, I know. But in the context of Juliet's position as the daughter of an Italian nobleman during the Middle Ages, to so brazenly defy her father's wishes and to spurn the marriage he has arranged is an extreme act of rebellion. Juliet's family and Verona society expect her to be dutiful, modest, virtuous, and, most of all, silent.

Second, when she chooses to speak, Juliet is candid with her feelings. On numerous occasions, Juliet expresses her feelings for Romeo plainly and without exaggeration. During the balcony scene, Juliet declares her love for Romeo without knowing he is there, but she doesn't retract it once he speaks out.

Juliet: In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond And therefore thou mayst think my behavior light; But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true Than those that have more cunning to be strange. (Act 2, scene 2, lines 102–105)

Third, Juliet is impatient. We can attribute this early on to the fact that she is young and sheltered, but as the play goes on, Shakespeare gives the impression that it's part of her character—a heroic flaw that contributes directly to her death. She is the first to suggest marriage and the first to contemplate suicide. Her quick marriage to Romeo is not the best evidence, since Romeo is also in a rush and the two adults in the know, Friar Laurence and the Nurse, fail to prevail on the young lovers to be more careful.

Rather, Juliet's impatience is best revealed in two other scenes. First, her banter with the nurse in act 2, scene 5, lines 31–32: "How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath / To tell me thou are out of breath?" After the nurse comes back from meeting with Romeo to arrange the secret wedding, Juliet literally will not let the nurse catch her breath after walking through the city, so impatient is she to hear about Romeo.

Second, we see Juliet's rashness raised to a fever pitch when she comes to the priest looking to prevent her marriage to Paris in act 4, scene 1, line 67: "Be not so long to speak, I long to die!" Juliet is threatening suicide in front of the priest unless he finds a way to prevent her marriage to Paris. She doesn't balk at the rather far-fetched and drastic scheme of faking her own death, but instead clutches at the sleeping potion like a child trying to snatch away a toy (line 122): Give me, give me! O tell me not of fear!

While Juliet possesses the tragic impulsiveness of Romeo in Shakespeare’s play, she has the sterling traits of caution and loyalty. In addition, she is of a passionate nature, which while good, does at times work to her detriment.

CAUTIOUSIn the first act when her Lady Capulet asks Juliet to consider Paris as a husband, Juliet wisely exerts, caution; she merely promises to look at the man:

I'll look to like, if looking liking move;But no more deep will I endart mine eyeThan your consent gives strength to make it fly.

She also urges Romeo to not to swear his love by something so fickle as the moon:

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. (2.2.113-115)

Do not swear at all; Or if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, Which is the god of my idolatry, And I'll believe thee.  (2.2.118-120

Then, in last scene of this act, Juliet asks Romeo not to kiss her, but exert more restraint and merely touch hands; she is seemingly wary of rushing into a relationship with him:

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,Which mannerly devotion shows in this;For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. (105)

LOYALTYAfter the Nurse returns from the streets of Verona where she has learned of the death of Tybalt, she cries out both Tybalt’s and Romeo’s names, confusing Juliet. Finally when Juliet learns the truth, she chides the Nurse for saying “Shame come to Romeo":

Blister'd be thy tongue (95) For such a wish! He was not born to shame. Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit; For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd Sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him! (100)

When Lady Capulet calls Romeo a villain, Juliet says in an aside,

Villain and he be many miles asunder.God pardon him! I do, with all my heart;And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.  (3.2.84-86)

Finally in this scene, the Nurse urges Juliet to marry Paris even though she knows that Juliet is already married. Juliet retorts,

Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongueWhich she hath prais'd him with above compareSo many thousand times? Go, counsellor!Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.I'll to the friar to know his remedy.If all else fail, myself have power to die. (3.5.246-253)

PASSIONATEJuliet displays her passionate nature in these passages:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,My love as deep; the more I give to thee,The more I have, for both are infinite.I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu!  (2.2.139-142)

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,From off the battlements of yonder tower,Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurkWhere serpents are; chain me with roaring bears,Or shut me nightly in a charnel house,O'ercover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;Or bid me go into a new-made grave (85)And hide me with a dead man in his shroud —Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble —And I will do it without fear or doubt,To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.   (4.1.78-89)

Juliet demonstrates many character and personality traits throughout Romeo and Juliet. When we first meet her, Juliet is a docile, dutiful child, but upon meeting Romeo, her life is redefined. She realizes deep love for Romeo in a short time and speaks to him with great naturalness, insight and understanding about love. Juliet also becomes suddenly resourceful and secretive and develops the ability to honestly expresses herself, giving her a quite practical side in contrast to Romeo. She is concerned about Romeo's safety, yet she is practical as demonstrated in the planning of the wedding, instructing Romeo to send her word about where and when the event will take place (II.ii.144-46). Juliet demonstrates herself to be focused on her husband and her love for him and willing to do whatever it takes for the two of them to be together. She is passionate, as is demonstrated in her impatience for her wedding night. Juliet’s most obvious character trait is her selfless dedication to her husband to the point that she chooses death rather than living in a world without Romeo.

Shakespeare's Juliet is a multi-faceted and interesting character. Though she is young, she brings significant depth to The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Here are some examples of her character traits and quotes that support them:

Juliet is a strong-minded young woman, and when she makes up her mind about something, she expresses herself with determination. This quote from Act 3, scene 5 is complete with exclamatory punctuation to enhance the forcefulness of her tone as Juliet communicates her refusal to marry Paris now that she loves Romeo:

He shall not make me there a joyful bride!

Juliet is also a thoughtful and cautious person, unlike her beloved, the rash and impulsive Romeo. She expresses her careful thinking in Act 2, scene 2, when she uses lightning as a metaphor for a too-quick decision:

Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say 'It lightens.'

Juliet is also passionate, as her romantic words in Act 3, scene 2 reveal. She employs an apostrophe to talk directly to the night about her anticipation of spending time with Romeo. The poetic quality of her language enhances the passionate message of her words:

Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen.

In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, there are many traits one could assign to Juliet. The three I would choose are loyalty, a willingness to take risks, and complete love and devotion.

We see Juliet practicing loyalty when she defends Romeo against blame for Tybalt's death, when Romeo has killed Tybalt because he murdered Mercutio.

JUL:

Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name

When I, thy three-hours’ wife, have mangled it?

But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?(105)

That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband. (III.ii.102-106)

When Juliet learns that she will be forced to marry Paris, and because she is already married—and loves another—Juliet goes to the Friar to see if he can help. He has a potion that will make her look dead so that she could not marry Paris. He asks if she is willing to try it; it will seem like death, but he expects she would try to kill herself anyway rather than marry Paris, and so this plan should not seem too dangerous to her.

FRIAR:

Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,

Which craves as desperate an execution

As that is desperate which we would prevent.

If, rather than to marry County Paris,

Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,

Then is it likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,

That cop’st with death himself to scape from it;

And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy. (IV.i.69-77)

Juliet answers that she would jump off the battlements, place herself in the company of snakes, or be locked up in a place with dead bodies every night (foreshadowing), rather than marry Paris. She would lie in a grave, covered with a corpse's shroud, or anything that might otherwise make her tremble; anything she will do without fear for the love she bears Romeo.

JULIET:

…tell me to get into a new-made grave,

And hide myself with a dead man in his shroud,

Things that, when I heard about them, made me tremble,

And I will do it without fear or doubt,

To live an pure wife to my sweet love. (IV.i.85-90)

When Juliet discovers that Romeo is dead, we see how completely she loves him—she cannot live without him, so she kills herself.

JULIET:

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away…

What's here? A cup, clos'd in my true love's hand?

Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.

O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop

To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.

Haply some poison yet doth hang on them

To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm! …

…Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!

This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.

(V.iii.165-175)