Title: Romeo and Juliet: Act I Scene 3 Summary & Analysis | Shakespeare | CliffsNotes
Headings: Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Summary and Analysis Act I:  Scene 3

Content: Lady Capulet considers Juliet to be old enough for marriage: Besides, a marriage to Paris would bring increased social status and wealth for the Capulets, as Lady Capulet observes: " So shall you share all that he doth possess." While Lady Capulet sees Paris as the chance to make a socially advantageous match for the family, rather than considering Juliet's feelings, the Nurse regards marriage as a purely physical relationship, almost a burden women simply must bear. She reinterprets Lady Capulet's line that marriage increases a woman's wealth and status as referring instead to the way in which marriage increases a woman through pregnancy. Thus, neither her mother nor her Nurse addresses the romantic concept of love that Juliet harbors. In fact, each identifies a distinct aspect of female oppression — social and physical. Juliet's response to her mother's wish for her to agree to the marriage is clever and evasive: " I'll look to like, if looking liking move / But no more deep will I endart my eye." This answer indicates Juliet's emotional maturity because she has made up her own mind that she cannot marry someone whom she does not love, rejecting both her mother's and the Nurse's materialistic and sexual views of love.