Juliet's Emotional Currency in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In an attempt to push away from medieval love conventions and her father's authority, Shakespeare's
Juliet asserts sovereignty over her sexuality. She removes it from her father's domain and uses it to
capture Romeo's love. Critic Mary Bly argues that sexual puns color Juliet's language. These innuendoes
were common in Renaissance literature and would have been recognized by an Elizabethan audience.
Arguably,Juliet uses sexual terms when speaking to Romeo in order to make him aware of her sexuality.
When he comes to her balcony, she asks him, "What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?" (2.1.167). Bly
asserts that "satisfaction in her hands, becomes a demure play on the sating of desire" (108). Following
this pun, Juliet proposes marriage. She teases Romeo with sexual thoughts and then stipulates that
marriage must precede the consummation of their love. Juliet uses "death" in a similar sense. She asks
night to "Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die / Take him and cut him out in little stars" (3.2.21-22).
Death holds a double meaning in these lines. It connotes both "ceasing to be and erotic ecstasy" (Bly 98).
Based upon this double meaning, one can infer that "she sweetly asks 'civil night' to teach her how to lose
the game of love she is about to play for her virginity" (Wells 921). She tells her nurse, "I'll to my wedding
bed, / And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!" (3.2.136-137). Placing death opposite Romeo
highlights the irony of the situation; both death and Romeo should claim her maidenhead together. These
sexual puns reveal Juliet's awareness of her sexuality. She entices Romeo, forcing her sexuality to act as
emotional currency.



After her marriage to Romeo, Juliet speaks about her virginity in objective terms: "O, I have bought the
mansion of a love / But not possessed it, and though I am sold, / Not yet enjoyed" (3.2.26-28). In line 26,
love is an object to be bought and sold. In the next line, she recognizes that she sold herself. Juliet
understands that she sold her virginity for Romeo's love.



Juliet rejects all previous standards for women. She will not be confined to a relationship with Romeo that
adheres to the courtly love tradition. She does not accept her father's mastery over her sexuality, and she
does not allow her virginity to be her father's commodity. She attempts to reclaim autonomy, but she does
so in order to be with Romeo. Each rejection of tradition ends blindly. Juliet surrenders her virginity to
Romeo in exchange for marriage. Her father's commodity becomes emotional currency in Juliet's hands;
her assertion of female sovereignty simply transfers her sexuality from one lord to another.




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MLA Citation:
"Juliet's Emotional Currency in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." 123HelpMe.com. 29 Sep 2014
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