Certainty In Romeo And Juliet

Doubt and certainty, while they appear to be two sides of the same coin, are not the opposites they appear to be. In order to have certainty, there must be a reasonable amount of doubt present first. Too much certainty leads to hubris while too much doubt brings about an impasse. However, certainty with doubt allows for a confident and educated decision to be made. Therefore, doubt is the solution to certainty while certainty is the solution to doubt. Doubt solves the problems which dogmatically following certainty brings by allowing reasoning to coexist with confidence. Certainty, like many things, is good in small amounts but can have disastrous effects in large ones. Small amounts of certainty can be thought of as confidence, while large amounts can be thought of as arrogance. They are different severities of the same concept, but with far different connotations; one beneficial, one

Hubris is a form of detrimental certainty and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a classic example of hubris. In this play, Romeo and Juliet are certain that they can continue their secret love while pleasing their family and their religion, but this is their hubris. The teenagers believed they could make the competing parts of their life coexist, when in fact, they could not. In a final act of hubris, Juliet falsifies her death because she is confident they can at least escape, but it is this exact action which causes Romeo’s suicide and then Juliet’s own. Romeo and Juliet’s confidence in themselves and the fact that they can keep their love affair a secret is exactly what causes their deaths, a perfect example of the dangers of absolute certainty. Doubt acts in much the same way: it, too, is good in small amounts but not in large ones. Small amounts of doubt lead to thought and rationalization while large amounts of doubt lead to over-thinking. Logical