Verona: honour, the Church, and what a daughter is worth

Picture Juliet refusing to marry Paris, and staying on at home, unmarried, in her father's house. Or Romeo, once Tybalt is dead, staying put in Verona. Neither of them can, and the reason has nothing to do with the costumes.

Verona itself is the subject of this video, and if the plot is still hazy, it runs start to finish in the Overview.

In Verona, honour is a family's public reputation, and an insult to it has to be answered, usually with a sword. That is why the Prince, who rules Verona, blames the two old men for three street riots, all started by talk: Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, By thee, old Capulet, and Montague. An airy word is a word made of air, nothing solid. Three times a word has become a riot, and the state names the heads of the two families as responsible. So he sets a penalty for the next fight: If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. When Romeo kills Tybalt, why is his exile the law at work rather than bad luck? Because that sentence was fixed in Act 1. Exile is the Prince's ruling, softened from death, and it was waiting before Romeo met Juliet. Honour also explains Tybalt at the feast: Now by the stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin. He swears by his family, and in the same breath rules out sin, so honour is doing the work religion is meant to do. An insult must be answered, and that shuts the street.

In a family like the Capulets, a daughter's marriage is her father's business, because it moves money, land and alliances between houses. On Sunday, Capulet even sounds gentle about it, telling Paris: But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, My will to her consent is but a part. Woo means court her and win her over. Even this kind version makes her father's will a part of her choice, so her consent matters, but never on its own. By Tuesday she has refused Paris, and Capulet tells her what refusing costs: And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee. Why can't Juliet just refuse Paris and stay at home? Because a disowned daughter has nothing at all. Cast off, she has no income, no household and no protection, so the threat is about survival, not temper. And you be not means if you will not. Ne'er acknowledge thee means never own you as mine. Inheritance, money passed down a family, runs through the father, so that shuts the front door.

The Church shuts a third way out. A marriage made by a priest cannot be undone, and marrying again while your husband lives is bigamy, a sin. That is why the Friar's plan has to fake a death. Juliet is already married to Romeo, so her only way out of the Paris wedding is to seem to die. In Shakespeare's time it was ordinary to explain a disaster as God's plan, called providence, or as the work of the stars. When his plan fails, the Friar reaches for it: A greater power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our intents. Why is that line better evidence about the Friar than about God? Because it is his excuse. His plan failed through a letter that never arrives, and he blames heaven rather than himself. One belief, said once, is as far as the theology needs to go. One examiner's report records it like this: some strayed into complex theological territory which candidates do not fully understand and which drift from the focus of both task and text. The fix is to name the belief in a clause, then go straight back to what the character does with it, the way the Friar uses heaven as a shield.

Every one of these facts earns credit only when it explains why something happens, inside the sentence that answers the question. Two sentences about Juliet. First: In Elizabethan England, fathers chose their daughters' husbands, and girls married young. Second: Juliet cannot just refuse Paris, because a disowned daughter would have no money and no home. Which of the two uses context as a reason, rather than as background? The one about Juliet's choice. Its fact sits inside a sentence about her, and explains what she does. The other is true, and explains nothing. One examiner's report on this play noted that contextual details intruded less for this question than in recent years, and were limited to brief and reasonable mentions of Elizabethan ideas of fate and astrology. That is the habit to copy: one brief fact, joined to a character's choice by the word because. How much context is worth depends on which board you are sitting, and the video Your exam: four boards, one printed extract, four different jobs settles it.

So the context that earns credit in this play is consequence. Honour means an insult has to be answered. The Church means a marriage cannot be undone. Inheritance means a disowned daughter has no money, no house and no protection. Every way out is shut by one of those three.

Verona's rules come back now, and you supply the missing piece each time. The Prince's three civil brawls were bred of an airy what? Word. Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word. Next, Capulet's threat: hang, beg, starve, and do what in the streets? Die. Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets. Now the Friar's excuse: a greater what than we can contradict? Power. A greater power than we can contradict. Try this one: Paris is rich and related to the Prince. Which of the three makes him the match? Money, and the alliances it buys. A daughter's marriage moves wealth between houses, and a match with the Prince's own kinsman raises the Capulets.

If one sentence of yours can say why Juliet cannot just stay at home, with the fact explaining the choice, this one's sorted, and a thumbs up says so. Should it still feel loose, save the video and write that sentence about a different character, because using it once makes it settle.

Next in the chapter: Conflict: the feud, the fights, and what hate actually costs.

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