Plot in Romeo and Juliet

Here Capulet asserts that he cannot order his daughter to consent to marriage and tells Paris that he must first try to woo her. While this suggests that Capulet and his daughter have a good relationship in which Juliet is allowed to determine her own future, this benevolent behavior will be reversed when Juliet denies his wishes. This instead operates as the illusion of choice: if Paris woos her, Juliet will believe that she was able to choose her own husband. Notice that Juliet's feelings and consent are never considered by either man.

With this statement we learn that Juliet, Capulet's daughter, is only thirteen years old. Even in Shakespeare's time when girls married at a much younger age, Capulet acknowledges that more time needs to pass before he will allow Paris to marry her. He wants to wait until she is fifteen.

Lady Capulet echoes what Paris said to Juliet's father in the previous scene and uses herself as an example of a young marriage. Notice that both Lady Capulet and Paris use the example of unnamed "other women" as models of behavior in order to convince Juliet that she should get married. Only the Nurse appeals to Juliet's feelings rather than offering other women's experiences to shape her decisions.

This "he" refers to Mercutio and his jests from the previous scene. In this way Romeo links Scene II to Scene I and shows us that this break between scenes is more of a thematic break than a break between places or plot points. The action is continuous.

Juliet rationalizes Romeo's action by blaming Tybalt. In this way she is able to continue to love Romeo and forgive him for killing her cousin. Juliet's decision to stand by Romeo after Tybalt's death sets up her tragic end to come.

The Friar is referencing his knowledge of Romeo and Juliet's marriage. Juliet cannot marry Paris because she is already married to Romeo.

By this Juliet suspects that the potion that the Friar gave her is actually poison instead of a magic humor that will make her appear dead. Since the Friar is the person who married Romeo and Juliet, he could suffer grave repercussions if their union was discovered.