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Essay On Rash Decisions In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Rash decisions can be made when one is in love, choices made without any complex thought. True love was put to the test in William Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet. Two teens from rival families fall in love and navigate obstacles to be together. These star-crossed lovers truly embodied the idea of loving someone so much that you couldn't possibly live without them. Some decisions made by the lovers seemed very careless, which brings the question of if there were any complex thoughts involved. Both characters displayed complex thoughts but Juliet is more complex than Romeo. They both had to make big choices but Romeo didn't think them through. He knows he shouldn't be so rash but he full-heartedly commits anyway. Whereas, Juliet will …show more content…

Friar Laurence, who is orchestrating the plan, gives Juliet fake poison so she can seem dead. Once everyone thought she was dead the plan was to sneak her out of the city to be with her lover. Juliet’s part of the plan almost did not happen. Before she took the poison she had complex thoughts about if she was doing the right thing. She questioned the motives of the friar who supplied the poison by saying “What if it be the poison which the friar Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,” (Shakespeare 4.3.26-27). This just shows her worrying about the possibility of him causing her death but then she puts reason to it by saying, “ Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored Because he married me before to Romeo?” (Shakespeare 4.3.28-29). The friar married her to Romeo and now she is supposed to be married to Count Paris on Thursday. She realizes that this is something that Friar Laurence should be against, so it would make sense for him to try and kill her before it could happen. As Juliet panics she realizes that the friar trying to kill her goes against his beliefs. She shows this by saying, “I fear it is; and yet methinks it should not, For he hath tried a holy man.” (Shakespeare 4.3.30-31). Juliet has now thought of the possibilities of her decision and still decides to make it. Even though she ends up making similar choices to Romeo she truly does think about it before she

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Juliet threatened Friar Laurence that she would commit suicide if he could not prevent her from marrying Paris. Friar Laurence gave her the vial and told Juliet to take the potion the night before the wedding to appear dead. The plan went traumatically wrong when Romeo, believing Juliet to be truly dead and Romeo kills himself out of sadness. The Nurse

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When Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for help in order to avoid marrying Paris, Friar presents a plan, in which Juliet fakes her own death. Juliet quickly decides and agrees to the plan: “Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear” (4.1.123). This line shows how Juliet will not be content with accepting her fate and marrying Paris, and tries to find a way to avoid this from happening at any cost, even going as far as tricking people into believing she is dead in order to fulfill her desire to be with Romeo. This is because by turning to Friar Lawrence for help, Juliet has taken control of her fate instead of passively accepting the way it is, and also shows that Juliet is making choices that will change the course of her own life, rather than accepting her own circumstances, which is being forced into an arranged marriage she doesn’t want to be in.

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Juliet feels as if death is her only way to go about without disappointing her parents, or breaking her vows with Romeo. She tells the Friar: “Do thou but call my resolution wise,/ And with this knife I’ll help it presently./ God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands/ And ere this hand on thee to Romeo sealed/” (4.1.53-56). Had Juliet stopped to think for a moment, she would have realized

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In the morning, the nurse discovers her and pronounces her dead. Of all the things the Friar has done so far, giving Juliet the poison is the worst of his actions. As the Friar’s plan goes, Romeo did not receive the letter from the servant describing the situation of how Juliet is not dead, only sleeping. Romeo then kills himself when he sees his ‘dead’ wife, and when Juliet rises only to see her dead husband, she ends her life with a

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Friar Laurence does not plan this out well enough because, rather than leaving Romeo to live out his sentence of banishment, the friar tries to keep Romeo connected to Verona, which allows important information to be disturbed and Romeo to be misinformed. This results in Romeo hearing that Juliet is dead, rather than alive yet unconscious. Romeo quickly returns to Verona and, upon seeing the love of his life “dead”, kills himself. Once Juliet awakens, she finds Romeo dead and takes her own life. In the beginning of Act Four, Juliet discovers that her parents are forcing her to marry County Paris, the prince’s kinsman.

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As Friar and Juliet are talking about a plan to be with Romeo he says, “I do spy a kind of hope, / Which craves as desperate an execution” (Shakespeare 4.1.68-69). Friar does have a plan for Juliet but only someone extremely desperate would do it. If he knows that it would take a desperate person to do it, he knows it is not a very good, well thought-out plan. Juliet is desperate and is willing to take risks to be with the love of her life. Before going through with the plan and taking the poison, Juliet says to herself, “What if this mixture do not work at all” (Shakespeare 4.3.21).

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However, events did not proceed as such, Romeo was not informed correctly of the plan and was simply told that his love, Juliet had died. This sent him rushing to her and for him to die with her when she had not really died. When Juliet finds Romeo dead beside her she takes her life. The unfortunate unfolding of misinterpreted events was not a complete and utter surprise to all, before Juliet had even consumed the potion that the Friar was given to her, she came up with her own doubts. More than one of the scenarios she had envisioned did end up becoming reality for her, she was able to see the gaps in the Friar's plan before even carrying it out, most thoroughly said through Juliet's own words,”What if it be a poison which the friar/Subtly hath ministered to have me dead”(Shakespeare 4.3.23-24).

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She makes it seem like she wants Romeo dead, but in context she really means her heart will be dead. This type of logic shows her quick wit. Although Juliet did show a logical side, she still is foolish. The most underlying example of this would be marrying Romeo in less than a day of even meeting him(2.2.148-154). Juliet had no knowledge of the type of person Romeo was, yet she went straight into accepting the marriage proposal.

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The famous lines "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" open William Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet. The play follows the ill-fated love story of Romeo and Juliet, two young lovers from rival families in Verona, Italy, and their tragic end. While there were many factors that contributed to Juliet's death, Romeo's impulsive behavior and rash decisions were significant factors that ultimately led to her demise.

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65-66).This reveals that Romeo’s newly acquired love for Juliet was impulsive, much like the decisions we make day to day. For example, people nowadays impulsively buy things they don’t actually need, and people make dumb decisions without thinking about the future implications. These types of actions were also what William Shakespeare wanted to develop in his tragedy. Furthermore, Shakespeare

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Poor decisions are present in many places in the play of Romeo and Juliet, especially in the role of Friar Lawrence. One of the major decisions that later prove to be of bad judgement was his choice to willingly marry Romeo and Juliet, in absolute discretion other than notifying a select few. This is not only seen as a foolish move by the audience, but also by Friar Lawrence himself as he states “These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder” (II, vi, 9-10). Here, it is shown that “like fire and powder”, Friar Lawrence himself predicts that this marriage will end in an explosion of sorts.

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460 Words | 2 Pages

We also see that she is quite rational and thinks before doing things. For example, when her father forced her to marry Paris, instead of killing herself immediately, she goes to Friar Lawrence to ask him for help which shows that she is thinking of ways to get out of this situation instead of running away. Romeo on the other hand, is quite impulsive in his decision and dramatic. For example, Romeo kills Tybalt right away without thinking it through and receives grave consequences like getting banished from mantua. The punishment he received was far better than it should be thanks to Benvolio but instead of being happy, he cried for hours in Friar Lawrence’s cell being

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832 Words | 4 Pages

Juliet has never really made her own decisions before this and she is still very naïve. Juliet proclaims, “Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use type of behavior in which an animal applies something it has already learned to a new situation, without a period of trial and error; also called reasoning in prayer.” (Shakespeare 22). She has never done or thought about any love related things, unlike Romeo. It would be hard to make future determining decisions if she is so ignorant of what love really is.

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In the play Romeo and Juliet one of the main characters, Romeo, is a rather impulsive fellow who acts on what he sees and feels. He falls in love in the blink of an eye and just as fast he can get over it. He is always impulsive but when he finds himself in love his impulsiveness doubles. Romeo’s impulsive decisions causes his love, Juliet, to ultimately get killed.

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Romeo and Juliet is a story of hasty decisions. The young couple must quickly decide to get married, how to act after Romeo is exiled, and whether or not to take their own lives. Many of these decisions are made under the guidance of the children’s mentors, Friar Laurence and the Nurse. Throughout this tragedy, Friar Laurence and the Nurse are the only adults that Romeo and Juliet seem to feel that they can trust and are in turn some of the main people that influence the outcome of the play. The Nurse and Friar Laurence play very similar roles, both in the play and the lives of the children, but the ways in which they advise and influence the children include more differences.

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