Parting is such sweet sorrow?

In a horror movie, why doesn’t the girl (and it is usually a girl – perhaps because horror movie screenwriters believe that girls scream better than do boys) leave the haunted house/spooky room/ freaky cave/weird woods and so on as quickly as she possibly can?

The most obvious answer – and probably, in some cases, the true one) is that there would be no more movie if she (or, occasionally, he) left at that point.

The same sort of question must be asked of Juliet. Why, when Romeo is banished and living in the next town, does she not follow and go to live with him? After all, they are man and wife and, according to her protestations, she is deeply in love with him. Her motivation to stay must be stronger than is her desire to leave.

If that is so, and her continued stay in her father’s house is not merely a plot device, then what is the reason?

She is demonstrably and genuinely upset that Romeo has killed her cousin, Tybalt, but she recovers from this relatively rapidly even though she pretends to mourn until she has to admit to her mother that it is her separation from Romeo that is saddening her rather than grief over Tybalt. However, this state of grief over Romeo being banished can only be regarded as contributory to her inaction rather than causal.

After they spend the night together, Romeo does not suggest she comes with him, presumably because Friar Lawrence has counselled him to wait until the marriage may be announced and a pardon from the Prince obtained. She does not suggest eloping with him and, when her mother comes to her rooms to inform her of the arranged marriage to Count Paris, she no longer has the opportunity. Just prior to the meeting with her mother she even says to him, “Ohh, do you think we’ll ever meet again?”.

Once her mother has spoken to her regarding her impending second marriage and Juliet informs Lady Capulet of her love for Romeo, her father enters and, once he learns that she does not wish to marry Paris, threatens to disown her and throw her onto the streets if she does not marry Paris. Neither her mother nor her nurse offer any succour.

For a young girl of that period being disowned was very serious. Female relatives – wives, daughters, sisters and so on – were regarded as the property (goods and chattels) of the man of the household and, for him to relinquish or absolve himself of such ownership was, to say the least, undesirable. Without a dowry, Juliet would have no money of her own and, if Montague, Romeo’s father had disinherited him as well after the killing of Tybalt (or if the fines the Prince had levied had been severe), Juliet could not look forward to a life with Romeo conducted in the merchant class style she was accustomed to. Indeed, they both would have been condemned to a life of penury.

However, this is not suggested within the play itself and, unless it was generally accepted by the audience that such would be the normal consequences of a girl being disowned, it does not suffice as the answer to why she stayed.
So, the hundred pound question is – why did Juliet stay?
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