Capulet is the leader of one of the oldest families in Verona. Capulet is immersed entirely in Juliet’s life as she is his only child. He does everything he can to ensure that she will be able to obtain an honourable and noble mar- riage. He wishes to wait until his thirteen year old daughter is sixteen before she is married off, but he also concedes that she too must consent to the marriage before it will go ahead. To be consist with this, he requires the suitor he has chosen for Juliet, Paris, to get to know her, in the hopes that Juliet will come to like him. Capulet is both quick tempered and honourable: al-though he calls for his sword, willing to fight in the street battle against his wife’s protests, he also refuses to eject Romeo from his house party when it is discovered that he is a Montague, due to the fact that he knows Romeo is a good child and has a generally good reputation in the town.
In his words, there is a definite undertone which demonstrates that he is deflated due to his old age. For example, he wishes at his house party that he was as young and as wild as all the men that have come to his feast. Capulet also has little patience for his hot-tempered nephew Tybalt. This is evident through his reaction when the young man is killed; he does not speak before the Prince, instead he allows his wife, Lady Capulet, to plead for vengeance.
He attempts to lighten the mood and to set the family on a happier path by moving Juliet’s wedding to Paris forward, intending it to occur within the next week. When he informs Juliet of this and she refuses, due to her secret love and marriage to Romeo, he utterly loses his temper, threatens to disown her and comes dangerously close to physically hurting his only daughter.
