Juliet, the heroine of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet, is often noted for her maturity and wisdom beyond her years. Though only 13 years old, Juliet displays a thoughtfulness, perspicacity, and composure that surprises even some of the older characters in the play. What accounts for Juliet’s advanced emotional and intellectual development?
Juliet’s Upbringing and Education
As the only daughter of the wealthy Capulet family, Juliet would have been given the very best education and upbringing that money could buy in 16th century Italy. Though women were denied formal schooling at the time, highborn girls were still tutored in languages, music, poetry, etiquette, household management, and other refined arts at home. With no brothers to compete with, Juliet likely benefited from her parents’ undivided attention and resources when it came to her schooling.
In addition, as the sole heir to the Capulet name and fortune, great pressure would have been placed on Juliet from an early age to conduct herself with dignity and self-discipline. Unlike other girls her age from less eminent families, fun-loving irresponsibility would have been discouraged by Juliet’s parents, who had ambitious marital plans for their daughter. In many ways, Juliet would have been groomed from childhood for an advantaged marriage and trained to manage the expectations of aristocratic society.
Early Betrothal in Renaissance Society
Another aspect of Renaissance culture that contributed to Juliet’s maturity was the practice of betrothing girls at a young age, often as young as 12 or 13. Once betrothed, a girl was expected to transition swiftly from childhood to adulthood in preparation for married life. Her family would begin schooling her intensively in household affairs, proper wifely decorum, and, most importantly, childbearing.
When we first meet Juliet, she has recently become betrothed to Count Paris through an arrangement made by her father, who seeks to elevate the family’s status through the match. Thrust abruptly into womanhood by this engagement, Juliet has likely been forced to grow up quickly in the weeks and months preceding the play’s opening scenes.
Juliet’s Solitary Contemplation
Juliet’s self-possession and wisdom may also stem in part from a habit of solitude and introspection she has cultivated over the years living in the wealthy, but insular world of the Capulet estate. Without many friends her own age, Juliet would have had to find inner resources to entertain herself, becoming absorbed in private contemplation.
Used to keeping her own counsel, Juliet displays an ability to cut through superficialities and articulate profound truths – as when she says of Romeo, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet.” Her solitary background has allowed her to know her own mind, even when it defies social conventions.
The Balcony Soliloquy
Nowhere does Juliet’s inner poise and maturity shine through more radiantly than in her soliloquy from the famous balcony scene. Though only hours into her first encounter with Romeo, Juliet cogently weighs her sudden, impossible love against the dutiful course that has been charted for her life:
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father refuse thy name,
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Rather than succumbing to anguished lamentation here, Juliet calmly and pragmatically analyzes her options, demonstrating a rational mind and steady nerves. Momentarily, she does become unsettled at the conflict between passion and duty:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Yet Juliet quickly regains her composure, proposing level-headedly, “If that thy bent of love be honorable, / Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow.” Throughout this pivotal scene, Juliet exhibits a composure and clarity of mind well beyond her years.
Juliet’s Courage and Decisiveness
Juliet shows herself to be as courageous and decisive as she is contemplative. Once she commits wholeheartedly to her love for Romeo, she does not hesitate or waver. She agrees to marry Romeo even under threat of banishment, secretively celebrates their wedding night in defiance of her parents’ wishes, and remains constant even after Romeo is exiled for killing Tybalt.
When her father commands her to marry Paris, Juliet unflinchingly seeks the only avenue open to her, agreeing to take a sleeping potion that will simulate death and enable her to escape an unwanted marriage to be reunited with Romeo. Though the friar’s plan miscarries tragically, Juliet’s resolute commitment remains admiringly steadfast until the play’s catastrophic end.
Supernatural Influences
Some literary scholars have speculated that cosmic or mystical forces beyond Juliet’s mundane upbringing may have endowed her with unnatural wisdom and maturity. She and Romeo frequently invoke mythological figures of fate like Cupid, while the play’s abundant celestial imagery and portentous omens give the story an aura of otherworldly destinies and supernatural sympathies at work.
Could Juliet have been touched by divinity or fortune in the stars? While impossible to prove, hints of occult convergences just beyond the edges of the play seem to suggest unseen cosmic influences over the famed lovers.
The Power of True Love
For romantics, the explanation for Juliet’s almost ethereal poise and perception is simple – true love. The moment she encounters her soul’s match in Romeo, Juliet gains profound new insight into herself and the nature of experience. The mystical heart knowledge unlocked by soulmate love instantly invests Juliet with a gravitas far beyond her years.
Where society and circumstance have failed, love has given Juliet a wisdom not taught in any school or parent’s lecture. Through love, she grasps important existential truths that the older figures around her have yet to learn – that devotion can transcend divisions of enmity, that identity means nothing without purpose, and that life, however fleeting, is meaningless unless lived freely and fully.
Once Juliet meets Romeo, she enters willingly into the endless realm of love, which renders age and time irrelevant. Therein she discovers the eternal verities, gaining that rarest of gifts that love alone can bestow.
Conclusion
Juliet’s advanced emotional and cognitive abilities spring from a confluence of influences – an elite upbringing, the pressures of an early betrothal, a contemplative nature given to solitude, and an innate courage and decisiveness that love intensifies. But it is ultimately the power of her all-consuming passion for Romeo that makes Juliet seem so astonishingly mature and perceptive for one so young. That love awakens in her a profound understanding of the meaning of existence itself. Through loving completely, Juliet comes to live more in thirteen brief years than many do in a full lifetime. Her relationship with Romeo leads Juliet to apprehend life’s most important truths immediately and intuitively. That wisdom granted by true love makes Juliet seem superhuman in a play famous for its heart-rending humanity.
