Romeo & Juliet, Exam Question - Lady Capulet

A model answer for the past paper question about Lady Capulet. Includes relevant quotes and a detailed analysis of the character.

Read this extract from Act 1 Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet and then answer the question that follows.
At this point in the play Lady Capulet and the Nurse are trying to persuade Juliet to accept Paris’ marriage proposal.

LADY CAPULET
What say you? can you love the gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast;
Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face,
And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen;
Examine every married lineament,
And see how one another lends content
And what obscured in this fair volume lies
Find written in the margent of his eyes.
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:
The fish lives in the sea, and ‘tis much pride
For fair without the fair within to hide:
That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him, making yourself no less.
Nurse
No less! nay, bigger; women grow by men.
LADY CAPULET
Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?
JULIET
I’ll look to like, if looking liking move:
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.
LADY CAPULET
Juliet, the county stays.
Nurse
Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.
Exeunt

Starting with this extract, explore how far Shakespeare presents Lady Capulet as a good mother.
Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents Lady Capulet in this extract.
• how Shakespeare presents Lady Capulet in the play as a whole.

[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]