Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has definitely included hints on both Romeo and Juliet’s poor mental health, or as they say it “melancholy”. During the 21st century, people would probably call this mental illness, or more specifically, depression. It is obvious that people acted and thought differently when you compare the two times, But how different were they with people with mental disorders? During the Renaissance, people had to turn to their religious and personal beliefs to prove things. Today, the world has new technology to prove things with science. According to an article from Groovy-Historian.com, during the Renaissance, “ symptoms of both Madness and melancholy with thought to be link with passion crazed urges, obsession and foolishness”. Now, this does not sound like mental illness because the causes of it …show more content…
Having Mental illness during the Renaissance was different than having it in the 21st century in terms of causes, societal attitudes, and treatment. Mental during the Renaissance is Different from having it today in terms of what were believed to be the causes. In the book Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers show signs of depression and anxiety. During their time, people did not use the term depression; they did not even know that it was a mental illness, they just called it “melancholy.” The cause Romeo's melancholy at the beginning of the book was because Rosaline did not love him back. Then, he meets Juliet and all of it goes away. The extreme sadness comes back even more when he finds out that Juliet “died” and he even becomes suicidal. These days, if someone gets turned down by someone else, they get sad, but not extremely depressed like Romeo. Juliet gets depressed and shows signs of anxiety when her father, Lord Capulet, tells her that she must marry Paris or else he