"Two households, both alike in dignity."
Romeo and Juliet’s two feuding families are members of Italy’s elite upperclass. Neither family has noble blood, but both are wealthy and powerful. Each member of an upper class household had their own specific roles. The husband’s job was to see that the family maintained and expanded their social, political, and economic positions. The characters old Montague and old Capulet clearly follow this model: each man is the head of his family, speaking for all his kin when making public appearances. A wife’s most important job was to oversee the raising of the children. Some women were content to leave their children in the hand of nannies and tutors, rarely seeing their own offspring. Others took a more active role, often keeping company with their children.
Children were generally not seen or heard until they reached adolescence. Upper class women were discouraged from breastfeeding, so a wet nurse was employed to feed the children. Generally, this woman would also act as a nanny to the children, watching over them and doing the day-to-day child wrangling. Boys and girls were raised together until the age of size or so, when education started. Girls like Juliet were kept in seclusion, protected from the outside world. Unlike their walled-in female counterparts, rich young men were free to roam about town. Romeo and his friends would have been free to spend their days ambling about Verona, looking for entertainment.
When young men hit their early twenties, their search for a bride began. Starting around age fourteen, girls were available for marriage. Once a match was secured, the bride's family paid a dowry to the groom's family: money used to offset the cost of adding another member to the household. The newlywed couple would move into their own residence, often near to the groom's family's house.