Male dominance against women is a big theme within the play and is seen when Capulet abuses Juliet when she refuses the marriage and the fact that Lady Montague only has two lines in the whole play as her husband is the higher status. Male dominance in the Elizabethan Era was common in society but Shakespeare has produced a play about women breaking the status que and leading her own life against the wills of society in a time where women couldn’t even perform on stage and the female roles were performed by men.
Throughout the play women as whole are portrayed as “the weaker vessels” and are objectified by men. Mercutio in particular talks about women in a purely sexual way suggesting that they serve no other purpose other than sex “An open-arse and thou a Poperin pear”. However Juliet is not portrayed in this way and there are many references to suggest that she has a higher status in society than Romeo. A suggestion of this is in 2.2 Juliet stands on the balcony whilst Romeo is admiring her from below. The proxemics of Juliet higher up on stage suggests that Juliet is of higher status in their relationship. At the beginning of the scene Romeo uses the motif of Juliet as the sun “Arise fair sun” showing Juliet as something wonderful; during Romeo’s soliloquy the audience haven’t found out weather Juliet loves Romeo yet but Romeo has shown all of his feeling for Juliet.
Juliet has much more stage time than Romeo and Romeo doesn’t feature in the whole of Act four and the focus of the action is on Juliet, therefore highlighting that her character is much more significant than Romeo hence an argument that the play should be called ‘Juliet and Romeo’. The audience sees much more of Juliet’s family life compared to Romeo. Juliet is also portrayed as a much more mature character than Romeo and this is shown in 2.2 Juliet has a more pragmatic approach to Romeo being