Count Paris

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Romeo and Juliet character Count Paris. For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Count of Paris.

Count Paris
Prince Escalus, Mercutio

Count Paris (

Prince Escalus
.

His name comes from the Prince of Troy,

Illiad
.

Sources

Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissension.[3] The name Paris was first given to il conte di Lodrone by Matteo Bandello, whose novella on the tragedy was first published in Lucca in 1554. Paris, or Paride, was the name of several of the historical Counts of Lodron, a minor noble family from Trentino
.

Role in the play

Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, where he offers to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Juliet's father,

Friar Lawrence
's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo Juliet by addressing her as his wife and saying they are to be married on Thursday. As he leaves at the Friar's request, he kisses her. When he has gone, Juliet threatens to kill herself if the Friar cannot help her avoid this impending marriage.

Paris's final appearance in the play is in the cemetery where Juliet, who has taken something to put her in a deathlike state, has been laid to rest in the Capulet family tomb. Believing her to be dead, Paris has come to mourn her in solitude and privacy and sends his manservant away. He professes his love to Juliet, saying he will weep for her nightly.[4] Shortly thereafter, Romeo, deranged by grief himself, also goes to the Capulet's tomb and is confronted by Count Paris, who believes Romeo came to desecrate Juliet's tomb. A duel ensues and Paris is killed. Romeo drags Paris's body inside the Capulet tomb and lays him out on the floor beside Juliet's body, fulfilling Paris's dying wish.

Historical context

The earliest versions of the text (First Quarto, Second Quarto and First Folio) all call him "Countie Paris". Some versions of the text call him "County Paris".

metre.[7]

As a father, the chief role Capulet plays in Juliet's life is that of a matchmaker. He has raised and cared for Juliet for nearly fourteen years, but he must find a suitable husband who will care for her for the remainder of her life. Juliet, as a young woman and as an aristocrat in general, cannot support herself in the society of her day, her only available career choices are either wife or nun. Thus it falls upon her father and her husband to support her.

Analysis

Although Paris is not as developed as other characters in the play, he stands as a complication in the development of Romeo and Juliet's relationship. His love of Juliet stands as he overthrows Romeo's impetuous love.[8] In Act V, Scene III, Paris visits the crypt to quietly and privately mourn the loss of his would-be fiancée, before approaching Romeo whom he thinks has returned to Verona to vandalise the Capulet tomb. After refusing Romeo's pleas for him to leave, Paris and Romeo draw their swords and fight. Romeo eventually kills him during the sword fight, and his dying wish is for Romeo to lay him next to Juliet, which Romeo does. This scene is often omitted from modern stage and screen performances as it complicates what would otherwise be a simple love story between the title characters.

"Rosaline and Paris...are the subtlest reflectors of all...they are cast like a snake's skin by the more robust reality of Romeo and Juliet."

—Ruth Nevo, on the Rosaline-Juliet, Paris-Romeo comparison[8]

Men often used Petrarchan sonnets to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. Capulet's wife uses this sonnet form to describe Count Paris to Juliet as a handsome man.[9] When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes from the Petrarchan (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's day) to a then more contemporary sonnet form, using "pilgrims" and "saints" as metaphors.[10] Finally, when the two meet on the balcony, Romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love, but Juliet breaks it by saying, "Dost thou love me?"[11] By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love.[12] Juliet uses monosyllabic words with Romeo, but uses formal language with Paris.[13] Other forms in the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris.[14]

Performances

References

  1. ^ Moore (1937: 38–44).
  2. ^ Hosley (1965: 168).
  3. ^ Moore (1930: 264–277)
  4. ^ Act V, Scene III
  5. OCLC 3788825. Grey lists ten scenes where "County" is used, but a wordcount using Kindle
    results in a total of nineteen individual deployments
  6. ^ "county, n2". Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). 1989.
  7. ISBN 1-85459-622-5
    . 'County', an alternative form of 'count', to restore the metre, … as for example in Romeo and Juliet 'Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris'
  8. ^ a b Nevo, Ruth. "Tragic Form in Romeo and Juliet". Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 9.2 (April 1969): 241–258.
  9. ^ Halio (1998: 47–48).
  10. ^ Halio (1998: 48–49).
  11. ^ Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.90.
  12. ^ Halio (1998: 49–50).
  13. ^ Levin (1960: 3–11).
  14. ^ Halio (1998: 51–52).
  15. ^ Loney, Glenn (1990). Staging Shakespeare – Seminars on Production Problems. New York: Garland Press.
  16. ^ Edgar (1982: 162).

Bibliography

External links
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