The World of Arts:

The many faces of Juliet

Gwen Herat

Juliet has been reared by her faithful Nurse and she reciprocate with trust, love and faith. We do not come across of any motherly love from Lady Capulet. Shakespeare reveals her as a beautiful teenager trapped in her mansion and its orchard and unexposed to suitors.

The character of Juliet has been portrayed in different ways in performing and visual arts. Historians and Shakespeare literati found her only as an embodiment of unspoilt youth.

Some film directors made her look older than her thirteen years while many painters found it difficult to put a face of thirteen on canvas. Many historians thought a girl as young as she was, could not impart such dialogue.

In the ballet of Romeo and Juliet, Margot Fonteyn was fifty six when she danced Juliet while Rudolf Nureyev was thirty six. But in all fairness to Fonteyn, she looked sweetly innocent and bubbly like the thirteen year old capulet Shakespeare raved about.

Nurse - ‘She’s not fourteen. How long is it now to Lammas-tide.
Lady Capulet - A fortnight and odd days.
Nurse - Even or odd, of all days in the year. Lammas eve at night, she shall be fourteen.

ACT. I Scene III.

A play in what Bernard Shaw, unassailable for once, tagged it ‘an irresistibly impetuous march of music through the ‘two hours of traffic on our stage’, cannot be taken literally.

This was a phrase from the Prologue. She sensed it as a tragedy of youth and ‘a tale of star-crossed lovers’ he was vague about his homage to Juliet or for that matter, even the teen aged Romeo. Clearly, Shaw was disappointed.

In all her innocence, Juliet agrees to marry Paris and her mother, Lady Capulet assures she would behold him at the ball that night.

But tragedy strikes. It is Romeo she meets at the ball and falls in love. The play moves dramatically with Juliet as the central figure. Every move she makes and every word she utters, revolves tragically around the chief characters. When Romeo leaves the ball, she moves on to the balcony in expectation;

Romeo - ‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright
It seems she hang upon the cheek of night.
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear
Beauty too rich for use, for Earth’s too dear
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows...

ACT. 1 Scene V.

After the ball, Juliet forgets her promise to her parents. She is obsessed with the young Montague and throws caution to the winds;

Juliet - O’Romeo, Romeo; Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse thy name
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll be no longer a Capulet.

ACT. II Scene II

Juliet, who until now, never chose to do anything on her own, turns stubborn. Desperation grips her as she becomes reckless. After her secret marriage vows to Romeo, she defies her father and refuse to marry Paris. With the help of her ever-faithful nurse, Juliet plans to free herself from the situation. She begs her father;

The Lammas Day has arrived.
Juliet - ‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees
Hear me with patience but to speak a word
Lord Capulet - Hang thee, young baggage: disobedient wretch
I tell thee what, get thee to church on Thursday
Or never after look me in the face..

Act. III Scene V.

Soon after her faked death, she must come from the right latitude; no hint of northern skies and she needs far more child’s experience experiments with very young actresses who have failed. The balcony scene remains poignant prelude to tragedy. She appears on it many times;

Juliet - ‘Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone
And yet no further than a wanton’s bird
That lets it hop a little from her hand.

ACT. II Scene. III

And so the tragedy rolls on with Juliet set to sacrifice her life for Romeo. The play was written in 1595-6 and set in Verona, Mantua with the Houses of Capulets and Montagues as bitter rivals. The tragic and see them united over their children’ bodies.

The play has been acted so often but it had much ado to find itself., Romeo And Juliet still remain the most acted play to date with its ups and down. The sequence of revivals continue down the centuries.

In the 1748 version David Garrick made an obligatory farewell dialogue that was enormously successful and gave the impetus for others to take the cue. Garrick acted Romeo for fifteen years from 1750.

Juliet was the star character in the play as actresses competed with each other to outshine. Eliza O’Neil in 1814 while Fanny Kemble was nineteen when she played Juliet in 1829.

Helen Faucit in 1836 mesmerised the audience with her spectacular dialogue. They were and others were historic Juliets. For fifteen years, Adelaid Neilson acted Julia in England and the United States from 1865.

Jean Forbs-Robertson was a tantalising Juliet at the Old Vic in 1828 while seven years later, an exciting, beautiful Juliet saw the light through magically right Peggy Ashcroft opposite Sir Laurence Olivier.

Little later, once again Adelaide Neilson and Mary Anderson were the American Juliets in the nineteenth century. On their footsteps, Julia Marlowe was brilliantly ardent as the young Capulet. In Black/White films, Olivia de Havillind and Norma Shearer gave life to Juliet.

In 1968, a fresh young fifteen year old, Olivia Hussey played Juliet opposite sixteen year old Leonard Whitney and the film was readily received for its contemporary handling.

There were opera and musical renderings apart from the stage but youth and innocence remained her key signature while everyone bestowed Shakespeare’s glowing tribute upon her.

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