Journal 6

I think Shakespeare characterizes the Capulets in a way that is more villainous than complex. In Act 4, Scene 5, Capulet says, "Death art thou, dead! alack, my child is dead, and with my child my joys are buried!" Capulet is very sad that Juliet is dead, but in the last phrase he says "MY joys are buried." He wanted Juliet to marry Paris for his joys, not hers. Friar then points out in lines 94-95 that the heavens have done this for the wrong the Capulets have done. He says, "The heavens do lower upon you for some ill; Move them no more by crossing their high will." Here, Shakespeare uses Friar to accuse the Capulets of sin against the heavens, making them villains.