Romeo, by contrast, is a typical teenager. He probably loves his parents but does not give the relationship much thought or consider their feelings. As a typical teenager, he is self-involved.
B.
Juliet's parents care about her, but in the way that would have been typical ob
Elizabethan nobility. That is, Juliet loves her parents and respects them as a dutiful daughter should, but her relationship with her nurse is much closer. Since the nurse raised
Juliet, this is not surprising.
V. Relationships outside the immediate family are also important in Romeo and Juliet.
A.
Because of relatively short life expectancy in Elizabethan times as well as high infant mortality rates and mortality rates in general, extended families were not large. The play features several minor characters, men and women who are related in various ways to the Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare's purpose in putting them in the play was to populate the houses of Montague and Capulet, thus underscoring the feud.
B.
Benvolio is Montague's nephew and a loyal friend to Romeo. Tybalt is the hotheaded nephew of Lady Capulet who is always ready for a right.
VI. The family relationships change during the course of the play.
A. Juliet, at the beginning of the play, is girlish and subservient. She speaks formally to her parents and has a closer relationship to her nurse than to her own mother. Near the end of the play, Juliet becomes more womanly and more resolute in her own ideas. She feels betrayed by her nurse when the nurse tells her to forget Romeo and marry Paris. Juliet feels she is alone in the world but also capable of being along and making her own decision to marry.
B. With the death of the children, Montague and Capulet both realize the foolhardiness of the families' feud. The final handshake at the end of the play signals that the feud is over, although it took a terrible tragedy to effect the change of heart between the two men and the warring members of their families.
