Act 3, Scene 5; Lord Capulet's Ultimatum

Prompt E:

In the beginning of the book, Lord Capulet was a gentle and understanding father. However, when Juliet refuses to marry Paris, he becomes enraged and starts to harshly chastise her. Juliet begs her father in vain to not marry Paris, but Lord Capulet has none of it and decides to lay down the law. Although we rarely see any interactions between Juliet and her father, the one time earlier in the book that we did, Lord Capulet told Paris that he would rather let Juliet decide whether she wanted to marry Paris or not, showing a lot more understanding and compassion. Lord Capulet's rage is most likely let out because after all of this time he has spent trying to find Juliet a suitor, she refuses to wed because she claims that she is too young.

"To have her matched. And having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly trained,
Stuffed, as they say, with honorable parts,
Proportioned as one’s thought would wish a man—
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender,
To answer “I’ll not wed,” “I cannot love,”
“I am too young,” “I pray you, pardon me.”—
But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you.
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me."

Lord Capulet effectively tells his daughter that Paris is a great man, who's good-looking, educated, young, and full of good qualities. He then threatens her and tells her that if she doesn't wed Paris, he will disown her and abandon her on the streets of Verona.