Count Paris

This article is about the Romeo and Juliet character Count Paris. For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation).

Count Paris
Creator	William Shakespeare
Play	Romeo and Juliet
Family	Prince Escalus

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Count Paris (or County Paris) is a suitor of Juliet Capulet. He is handsome, somewhat self-absorbed, very wealthy, and is a kinsman of Prince Escalus. However, despite his occasional arrogance, he loves Juliet dearly.

Sources

Luigi da Porto adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due Nobili Amanti published in 1530.^[1] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe and Boccacio's Decameron. He gave it much of its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti, and the location in Verona.^[2] He also introduces characters corresponding to Shakespeare's Mercutio, Tybalt, and Paris. Da Porto presents his tale as historically true and claims it took place in the days of Bartolomeo II della Scala (a century earlier than Salernitano). Montecchi and Capuleti were actual 13th-century political factions, but the only connection between them is a mention in Dante's Purgatorio as an example of civil dissention.^[3]

Role in the Play

Paris makes his first appearance in Act I, Scene II, wherein he offers to make Juliet his wife and the mother of his children. Capulet demurs, citing his daughter's young age as a reason and telling him to wait until she is more mature. Paris disagrees, however. Nevertheless, he invites Paris to attend a family ball being held that evening with permission to woo and attract Juliet. Later in the play, however, Juliet refuses to become Paris' "joyful bride" after her cousin, Tybalt, dies by her new husband Romeo's hand, proclaiming for the first time that she now despises Paris and wants nothing to do with him. Her father cannot believe his eyes and ears. Turning from shock to physically abusive rage, Capulet violently threatens for her to be hanged and then to make Juliet a lowly street urchin if she does not marry Count Paris, hitting his daughter, shoving her to the ground and screaming in her face. Juliet's mother, too, cruelly turns her back on Juliet shortly after her father storms out of the scene ("Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word; do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee"), as does the Nurse. Then, while at Lawrence's cell at the church, Paris tries to woo her by repeatedly saying that she is his wife and that they are to be married on Thursday. He kisses her and then leaves the cell, prompting Juliet to angrily threaten to kill herself with a knife. His final appearance in the play is in the cemetery where Juliet is "laid to rest" (not really being dead) in the Capulet family tomb. Believing her to be dead, Count Paris has come to mourn her death in solitude and privacy, sending his manservant away. He professes his love to Juliet saying he will nightly weep for her [Act V, Scene III]. Shortly thereafter, Romeo, deranged by grief himself, murders the Count when he tries to stop Romeo from (he believes) desecrating Juliet's tomb. Romeo drags Paris's body inside the Capulet tomb and lays him out on the floor beside Juliet's body: Count Paris' final, dying wish.

However, his is a minor role in the play itself, which often leads his importance in the play to be misunderstood. He becomes unwittingly mixed up in the drama between the two families, and in the end, he, too, is slain. Physically, he is described by the Nurse in Act I, Scene III as "a man of wax", meaning that he is extremely handsome and well-built. He is also likely considerably older than Juliet, though his age is never specifically mentioned in the play nor any modern adaptation.

Historical Context

In the text, the character is always referred to as County Paris.^[4] "County" was in common usage at the time of writing,^[5] and Shakespeare's choice was dictated by the needs of the metre.^[6]

As a father, the chief role Capulet plays in Juliet's life is that of 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, with the only available career choices for her being either wife or nun. Thus it falls upon her father and her husband to support her.

The Count Paris would be an excellent match for Juliet. He, too, is an aristocrat, and of a higher social order. He is a well-established and wealthy business/government person who could support and provide for Juliet rather well. He is also, most probably, well connected politically, making him a good family contact for Lord and Lady Capulet. This means, of course, that he is quite mature being at least twenty-five years old, while Juliet has not yet turned fourteen. Nevertheless, within the historical context of the play, there is nothing peculiar in their age difference at all. Though the typical age of marriage for Italian men in this period was 29 and women was about 25, for the higher class including the aristocracy and wealthy merchant class arranged marriage was common during the teenage years.

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 a counterpoint to Romeo's impetuous love.^[7] In Act V, Scene III, Paris visits the crypt to quietly and privately mourn the loss of his would-be fiancée. Romeo eventually kills him during a swordfight in the same scene, 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[7]

Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to offer a clearer view of the actions of the main characters. For example, when the play begins, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused all of his advances. Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline and how quickly he disavows her upon seeing Juliet serves to highlight the flightiness of Romeo's romantic interests. In a similar fashion, Paris' love for Juliet serves as a counterpoint to Romeo's love for her. He can support her and care for and about her in a mature fashion, while Romeo is but a love struck adolescent with no real job and no means of supporting his new wife. Meanwhile, Juliet clearly cares more for Romeo, as shown by the formal language she uses around Paris, as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse. Beyond this, the sub-plot of the Montague–Capulet feud overarches the whole play, providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play's tragic end.^[8]

Petrarchan sonnets were often used by men to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. This sonnet form is used by Lady Capulet 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

A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet 's final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.^[15]

In Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, he is named "Dave Paris," and is played by Paul Rudd. His familial relationship with Escalus (called "Captain Escalus Prince") is removed entirely from the film, and Dave Paris is not stated as being a nobleman, but is rather a wealthy business magnate and a governor's son; throughout the film, he speaks in a conceited and pompous manner around Juliet and her father implying that (since the movie's setting is in modern times) he also wants to marry Juliet secondarily to further inflate his already-large ego. After her parents threaten to disown her and the Nurse turns her back on her, Juliet's threat to kill herself is instead exclaimed while she brandishes a gun to her head and then at Friar Lawrence, rather than a knife as in the original story.

References

1. ^ Moore (1937: 38–44).
2. ^ Hosley (1965: 168).
3. ^ Moore (1930: 264–277)
4. ^ Grey, Zachary (1754). Critical, historical, and explanatory notes on Shakespeare. 2. London: Richard Manby. p. 265. OCLC 3788825.  Grey lists ten scenes where County is used, but a wordcount using Kindle results in a total of nineteen individual deployments
5. ^ "county, n²". Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). 1989. 
6. ^ de Somogyi, Nick (2001). Twelfth Night. London: Nick Hern Books. p. 160. 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’" 
7. ^ ^{a b} Nevo, Ruth. "Tragic Form in Romeo and Juliet". Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 9.2 (April 1969): 241-258.
8. ^ Halio (1998: 20–30).
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. ^ Edgar (1982: 162).

Bibliography

• Edgar, David (1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0822208172. 
• Halio, Jay (1998). Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313300895. 
• Hosley, Richard (1965). Romeo and Juliet. New Haven: Yale University Press. 
• Levin, Harry (1960). "Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly (Folger Shakespeare Library) 11 (1): 3–11. doi:10.2307/2867423. JSTOR 2867423. 
• Moore, Olin H. (1930). "The Origins of the Legend of Romeo and Juliet in Italy". Speculum (Medieval Academy of America) 5 (3): 264–277. doi:10.2307/2848744. ISSN 00387134. JSTOR 2848744. 
• Moore, Olin H. (1937). "Bandello and “Clizia”". Modern Language Notes (Johns Hopkins University Press) 52 (1): 38–44. doi:10.2307/2912314. ISSN 01496611. JSTOR 2912314. 

External links

• The Four Leaves of the Truelove - Rossell Hope Robbins Library, Medieval collection.