Adolescent Brain Development In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

610 Words3 Pages

Some people say love makes people do crazy things, in this case it’s adolescent brain development. “Romeo and Juliet” is tragic drama written by William Shakespeare that tells a story about two tenneagers who met on Sunday, got married on Monday, and caused six deaths by Thursdays. The acts of the irrational teens can be explained by MRI researcher Sarah- Jayne Blakemore. As stated by Ms.Blakemore her research says that the prefrontal cortex is still growing and developing. The continued growth drives to risk taking, uncontrollable impulsive behavior, easily embarrassed, impress friends, excessive mood swings, and self-consciousness. My thesis on adolescent brain development sheds light on some of the nonsensical decision making is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as characters certainly face the impulse control, self-consciousness, and risk taking. First off, Romeo acts on how he’s feeling at that moment. “ O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.” page 1016. He was “in love” with Rosaline not to long ago and now he wants to kiss Juliet. They just met like two minutes ago and he’s already trying to kiss her. He doesn’t even know her name and he’s supposedly in love with her. Then, later on that night he found out that he’s in love with his enemy. …show more content…

First, Romeo acts on how he’s feeling at that moment. Then, Juliet is so self-conscious that she threatens to kill herself over a guy she barely knows and just met. Finally, they both take an irrational risk by going behind their parents backing by getting married, knowing the consequences. Adolescent brain development is explaining the way adolescents brains work and develop, “Romeo and Juliet” is just an example of how adolescent brain works and some of the things that it may