Hormonal Behavior In Romeo And Juliet

Hormonal, impulsive, influential: these are the words that have stuck with teens for hundreds of years. It’s been ingrained in human society that teenagers are supposed to be hormonal, impulsive, and easily influenced by their parents and friends. It’s seen in plays, literature, movies, and television shows. With this label, comes questions. Adults have been asking the same question for years: where does this behavior come from? Now scientists might have an answer. For years teenagers have had this stigma of being the most hormonal beings on this planet. For example, in the play, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” written by William Shakespeare, his two main characters, Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as hormonal and severely naive. In the

Both Romeo and Juliet display their impulsivity in their death scene. In this climactic scene, Romeo declares, “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (5.3.120) Minutes after Romeo’s death, Juliet awakens and states, “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” These statements verify that both Romeo and Juliet acted on impulse because they believed that they were destined for eachother. This is just one example of teens acting on their impulses without thinking about all the possible outcomes. The situation that teens get themselves into due to their impulsivity continues to baffle scientists and authors. According to the article, “Teenage Brains Are Malleable And Vulnerable, Researchers Say”, written by Jon Hamilton states, “...because the so called reward system in their brains are very sensitive while circuits involved in self control are still not fully developed.” This quote proves that Romeo and Juliet were not just acting because they loved each other deeply; they were acting on their impulses because part of their brain that dealt with self control was not developed yet. After reading Shakespeare’s tragedy some people are surprised by Romeo and Juliets lack of thought process, but now it is being discovered that it’s not all their fault. The development of their brain determined how their situation played