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Juliet

Literary Character
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Shakespeare’s tragic heroine whose passionate love for Romeo defies familial feud, embodying youthful idealism, loyalty, and fatal devotion.

Detailed Definition
Juliet, wise beyond her years, chooses love over family loyalty, meeting a tragic end. In poetry, she embodies youthful courage, devotion, and the transformative power of love in the face of opposition.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet," Juliet’s balcony soliloquy explores love and identity; In W.H. Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror,” Juliet symbolizes pure, tragic devotion; In T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” Juliet’s “Gallop apace” contrasts with modern sterility; In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” Juliet’s romance is subverted by darker unions; In modern feminist poetry, Juliet often signifies youthful agency cut short; In Tracy K. Smith’s “Life on Mars,” Juliet’s star-crossed fate mirrors cosmic loneliness.
Additional Notes
Juliet, Shakespeare’s young lover in Romeo and Juliet, embodies passionate devotion, the conflict between individual desire and social duty, and tragic innocence; poets reference her balcony scene as an icon of romantic idealism, while her agency (e.g., taking the potion) complicates passive readings—her name evokes youth, intensity, and the cost of feuding.
Also Known As
Star-Crossed Lover Capulet Rose Romeo’s Beloved
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