Shakespeare Takes: Juliet’s Defense
by Taylor Dressler

     Your honor, my story has always been described as “the greatest love story ever told.” That Romeo and I found the love that everyone dreams of and died for that love. But in reality, I died seeking any love at all. From the very beginning, I did not stand a chance.
     Growing up, my parents were only concerned about societal standards. So much, in fact, that they cared about it more than me. They knew not of my first steps, my kind heart, or even my age. The only thing that mattered to them was that I stayed a perfect innocent flower that would one day be given to a suitor of their choice. Not my feelings, not my safety, nor that I felt trapped and suffocated within the Capulet home. They only cared that I stayed obedient and innocent. But how much can you truly learn about life if you are taught to be perfectly obedient? I was not even given the chance to grow up, as at thirteen years old, my father and mother decided to give me away to a man named Paris. My mother told me that “this precious book of love, this unbound lover, / To beautify him, only lacks a cover”—that if I were to teach myself to love Paris, I would complete him. I was the cover that he was missing. Then I realized, not my father, nor my mother, nor this Paris that I had never met before wanted to love me; they just wanted someone to fit into their perfect world and eventually “complete” someone, when I did not even understand who I was or what that meant. Did it have something to do with these “birds and the bees” that people talk about? People mention it when they speak of love sometimes, so I always assumed that that was the way to finally feel loved, though I never knew what woodland creatures had to do with anything.
     From that moment on I felt suffocated. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to besides my nurse, and no knowledge of the outside world. Then, I met Romeo. It was not two seconds of our first interaction before he spoke of “two blushing pilgrims” and letting “lips do what hands do.” Not knowing how to react or what to do, I gave in to his endless persistence. To me, this was the closest thing to love I had ever experienced. I thought it was my chance to finally feel loved and truly. feel seen. I mean, why else would he be kissing me besides that he realized that he truly loves me and only me? His heart must have ached as much as mine waiting patiently and faithfully to find me, his first love . . . right?
     So, we married immediately. My nurse and Friar Laurence aided us, and before even a day had passed Romeo had taught me about the “birds and the bees.” Whether I liked it or not, I was no longer an innocent flower. I thought that I was finally blooming, becoming a much more beautiful and stronger flower, when in reality I was starting to let people trample me. Then, Romeo killed my cousin Tybalt—and a petal flew off. To which the Prince replied, “and for that offence / Immediately we do exile him hence”—another petal gone. My love banished, my cousin gone, and rather than letting me grieve for a few days or seeing if his daughter will recover, my father calls me “a wretched puling fool, / A whining mammet” and threatens to disown me if I do not obey—petals gone. Romeo is banished, my fate sealed, and my Nurse, the only person in which I have ever truly trusted, tells me, “I think it best you married with the County. / . . . Romeo’ a dishclout to him”—flower crushed. So I turn to the only other person I think can help me: Friar Lawrence. He gives me the potion to fake my death, as I feel it is the only chance I have to escape. So, I take it. And did it help me escape? No. Romeo, my last chance at a happy life, freedom, or any chance at feeling love, kills himself, thinking I am dead. So, rather than live a life without love, I choose to take my life. So yes, your honor. I did deny my parents. I did attempt to find love with Romeo. But if you had felt as neglected, as unlovable, as trapped as I had felt, what would you have done?