I’ve received an e-mail from a Shakespeare scholar of the highest caliber, questioning my treatment of Juliet in my recent book, Shakespeare on Love. This scholar, whose judgment is not to be dismissed or taken lightly, suggested that Juliet is much more pious and holy than my book suggests. Here’s my response:
My position regarding Juliet is not two-dimensional. She begins as a pious child and is confused and confounded by Romeo’s seductive charm. I pay a lot of attention to her immaturity, stressing that she is only a child, and emphasizing her immaturity in relation to the older and manipulative Romeo. Although I agree that she’s a victim of parental neglect and abuse, and of Romeo’s seduction, she becomes a willing victim by the end of the play and is therefore at least partially culpable for her fate.
Shakespeare does not always paint his female characters as chivalrously as you intimate. Apart from Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth, whom you mention, there are also Regan and Goneril in King Lear and Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. The closest parallel that I see to Juliet’s role is that of Ophelia in Hamlet, a character whose fatal flaw is the weakness of her will in the face of unscrupulous manipulation by those she loved.
There is an element of femininity that is almost always overlooked (not to say, avoided) by both men and women. It’s easier to say that it’s overlooked than it is to say WHY it’s overlooked: the superiority of male authority. Neither men nor women want to acknowledge that. Both deny it.
Women are subject to the authority of men. Period. Most significantly, this authority is *interior*, not just superficial. Juliet’s mother demonstrates (and models) that interior subjection perfectly, just as the nurse demonstrates her own subjection to the authority of her “betters.”
Juliet’s dilemma lies in determining which male–her father or her husband–“owns” her heart, which means, which one to obey. It’s her choice that sets in motion the tragic outcome of the play. Once that choice is made, everything else becomes inevitable. In desperation, she seeks the friar’s advice, and it’s wrong–because it is deception and not truth.
Bacchus rules Romeo when he permits himself to love her, but Juliet has no such choice. Men have the power to let head rule heart, women have no such power. They choose only their “master.”
It’s as breathtakingly simple as that. Juliet belonged to Romeo for better or worse; thenceforth, her fate lay in his hands.