Romeo and Juliet experts....?

Question:I got this assignment and I don't know what to write!

Why does Lord Capulet take such a hard stance in Act IV? Compare to his actions in Act I.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I got this assignment and I don't know what to write!

Why does Lord Capulet take such a hard stance in Act IV? Compare to his actions in Act I.

Okay, first it is necessary to have read & understood the action of the play. Your teacher will skin you alive if you cannot answer questions about this off the cuff. But, to sum up, in Act I Capulet is telling Paris that Juliet is too young to marry just yet. In Act III, Capulet is enraged because Juliet is refusing to marry Paris. And it's barely three days later. What has changed in that time?

First there's the obvious. "I don't want to marry him" or "I don't love him" are just not going to be considered valid excuses at that time, when marriages were still arranged and love was not ever a primary consideration among wealthy families. From Lord and Lady Capulet's perspective, their daughter has lost their mind, or they are doubting that they ever really knew her. THAT is how strange her refusal appears to them. They've done their duty in arranging the best possible match for her, and it's her duty to accept it. There is more than just HER well-being involved, after all, more on that later. Paris is rich, handsome, related to the Prince, and completly besotted with Juliet. They could not have come up with a better husband. They don't know about Romeo, and she can't tell them. So their attitude is something like "You'll never get a better offer in your life, who are you holding out for, an Emperor?" They expected her to be grateful.

The less obvious thing that's changed. Tybalt is dead. Capulet is an old man who has just buried his nephew. He feels his mortality. There is no other male heir of the House of Capulet. Capulet now feels it is urgent to get Juliet settled, for her sake and for her mother's sake, because he now realizes he may not have time to do everything as slowly as he might have wished three days ago. He might die. If Juliet is married to a wealthy man who loves her, both she and her mother will be well cared for, no matter what happens.

Now we get to the really un-obvious. Possible subtexts, possible motives, etc. Stuff that isn't really stated out loud in the script, but that might be used by an actor portraying the part of Capulet. The basis for this one is the line by Paris to Friar Lawrence in Act IV Scene I, "Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt." Ostensibly Capulet wants to hurry up the wedding just to cheer up poor Juliet. The word "immoderately" conjures up a slightly different meaning for me and a possible motive for the sudden haste to get Juliet married---that her parents saw her grieving "immoderately" for Tybalt (again, they don't know about Romeo, and she can't tell them why she's "grieving her cousin" to such excess) and began to suspect that there might have been something going on between Juliet and Tybalt. If there were even the slightest chance of that being true, they couldn't afford to wait a day longer than necessary to marry her off. If a baby should happen to be born afterwards, it would be assumed by everybody to be Paris' child.

Capulet's threat to turn Juliet out into the streets takes on a whole new color in this light.

he takes such a hard stance on juliet because he does not know why she is refusing to marry paris, disobeying him and it is an ideal match and it is what he thinks is best. He also changes his mind on marrage because early in the story he thinks she is too young but later he thinks that she needs some protection because of tybalts death or something like that i am not exactly sure. to give you a better answer i would have to read it again and i just finished it friday so i really dont want to