Juliet Capulet Padme Amidala

alian: *Giulietta Capuleti*) is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy *Romeo and Juliet*. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist Romeo, a member of the House of Montague, with which the Capulets have a blood feud. The story has a long history that precedes Shakespeare himself.

**Padmé Naberrie** of Naboo (publicly known by her regnal name, **Padmé Amidala**, and also known as **Her Royal Highness, Queen Amidala of Naboo** from 33 BBY to 25 BBY, as **Her Excellency, Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo** from 25 BBY until her death and as **Padmé Naberrie Skywalker** after her marriage) was the younger daughter of Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie, and the sister of Sola Naberrie. Later in her life, Amidala became the secret wife of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and the mother of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo, two of the most important figures in galactic history. She was also the grandmother of Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo, as well as Ben Skywalker. This relationship made her great-grandmother of Allana Solo, Jacen Solo's daughter, and an ancestor of Nat, Kol, Cade Skywalker, and Ania Solo.

Amidala was the democratically elected Queen of Naboo before representing the Chommell sector as a Senator in the Galactic Senate. As Queen of Naboo, Amidala fought bravely to liberate her people during the Trade Federation's invasion in 32 BBY, thus becoming one of the most respected political figures in the galaxy. In 22 BBY, following the Military Creation Act, Anakin Skywalker was assigned to protect her, and following the Battle of Geonosis, the two secretly married on Naboo after the pair fell in love.

Senator Amidala participated in many events of the Clone Wars, both political and military, while also becoming pregnant to her husband. Around the end of the war, she doubted the motives of the Galactic Republic. In 19 BBY, appalled by the dissolution of the Republic and the creation of the Galactic Empire, she signed the Delegation of 2000 along with Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and other Senators.

After Anakin slaughtered many Jedi, including younglings, Obi-Wan Kenobi came to tell Padmé about Anakin's transformation to the Sith Lord Darth Vader. She refused to believe him, and went to Mustafar to find her husband. Unknown to her, Kenobi had hidden aboard her ship in order to find his former apprentice. When Kenobi revealed himself, the newly christened Sith Lord assumed she had betrayed him, and he strangled his wife using the dark side, knocking her unconscious.

After Kenobi defeated Vader, and left him for dead, he took Amidala to a medical facility on Polis Massa, where she gave birth to fraternal twins and named them—the boy, Luke, and the girl, Leia.

But her husband's fall to the dark side had broken her heart, causing her to lose the will to live, which, coupled with the strain of giving birth to her children, resulted in her death. In her final words, she told Kenobi of her strong belief that there was still good within Anakin. At her state funeral, thousands of Naboo gathered in the streets of Theed to pay their respects to their beloved former Queen and Senator.

Throughout her relatively short life, she played a vital role in the politics and events surrounding the Clone Wars. Amidala and other Senators were responsible for creating the foundation for any chance of rebellion against the Empire. Eventually, Padmé's children would play a major role in the fragmentation of the Empire and the redemption of Anakin.

## Juliet's age[edit]

One aspect of the story which now seems problematic is Juliet's age. As the story occurs, Juliet is approaching her fourteenth birthday. She was born on "Lammas Eve at night" (1 August), so Juliet's birthday is 31 July (1.3.19). Her birthday is "a fortnight hence", putting the action of the play in mid-July (1.3.17). Her father states that she "hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (1.2.9). In many cultures and time periods, women did and do marry and bear children at an early age. *Romeo and Juliet* is a play about Italian families. Lady Capulet had given birth to her first child by the time she had reached Juliet's age: "By my count, I was your mother much upon these years that you are now a maid." (1.3.74–75).

Even Capulet tries to encourage Paris to wait a little longer before even thinking of marrying his daughter, feeling that she is still too young; "She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride". However, in the English poem the story is based on (*Romeus and Juliet* by Arthur Brooke)[1] Juliet is approaching her sixteenth birthday and Romeo is the same age whereas in the Bandello novella she is nearly eighteen with Romeo about twenty.[2] The common English people of that age were very rarely in their teens when they married and even among the nobility and gentry of the age, brides 13 years of age were rare, at about one in 1,000 brides; in that era, the vast majority of English brides were at least 19 years of age when they first married, most commonly at about 23 years, and most English noblewomen were at least 16 when they married. That the parts of young women were played by pre-adolescent boys in Shakespeare's day also cannot be overlooked; it is possible that Shakespeare had the physique of a young boy in mind during composition, in addition to the fact that Romeo and Juliet are of wealthy families and would be more likely to marry earlier than commoners.[3] At the time, English noblewomen married on average at 19–21 years (compared to 24–26 years for English noblemen) while the average marriage age in England was 25–26 years for women and 27–28 for men;[4] Sir Thomas More wrote in his *Utopia* that, in Utopia, women must be at least 18 years of age when they marry and men at least 22 years.[5][6]

The common belief in Elizabethan England was that motherhood before 16 was dangerous; popular manuals of health, as well as observations of married life, led Elizabethans to believe that early marriage and its consummation permanently damaged a young woman's health, impaired a young man's physical and mental development, and produced sickly or stunted children. Therefore, 18 came to be considered the earliest reasonable age for motherhood and 20 and 30 the ideal ages for women and men, respectively, to marry. Shakespeare might also have reduced Juliet's age from 16 to 13 to demonstrate the dangers of marriage at too young of an age; that Shakespeare himself married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 might hold some significance.[2]

## Chronological and political information

### Affiliation(s):

Galactic RepublicHouse of CapuletsHouse of Sandrone