Importance Of Decisions In Romeo And Juliet

Benjamin Larsen
MS. FELDMANN
ENGLISH 9
11 February 2023
Age in Romeo and Juliet Are Romeo and Juliet old enough and responsible enough to make important decisions? The decisions they make throughout the play show they have no idea what the consequences of their actions will be and how to even make good decisions in the first place. They are not alone in this, with many terrible decisions being made by teenagers today. The brains of teenagers are usually less developed, and young people are confronted with many life changing decisions, many of which their brains are not prepared for. Romeo and Juliet should definitely not be making their own decisions in the play due to their young ages and lack of critical thinking skills, as well as being

They barely knew each other, and knew almost nothing about each other's personality. Almost all of their decisions are rushed and done very quickly, while they should have stepped back and thought this through. Juliet is immediately fine with abandoning her entire family just to go off with some guy she just met. Juilet even says during the balcony scene where they agree to get married, ¨Deny thy father and refuse thy name, Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.¨(Shakespeare Act 2). This shows that she is not thinking clearly at all and that she is “caught in the moment”. This is just the first of many bad decisions made by the both of them, because of their less developed brains as younger

“Why teenagers make terrible decisions). Romeo and Juliet both fall into these categories, with both of them not being mature at all. Their parents were completely irresponsible for not helping either of their children with being ready for the world and just letting them go off on their own. Romeo is prone to rash decisions and is around 18, which means he is not as mature as an actual adult would be, but is old enough to make decisions on his own. Juliet is, on the other hand, very underaged, only being 14 years old and marrying someone much older than her. This was normal in that era but with them just meeting and not knowing if they had anything in common, still being a rash decision. They made common mistakes of young minds throughout their story, like impulse choices, failure to foresee consequences of their actions, and seeking risk-taking behavior, with nobody around them being a good influence, with the friar even enabling them to get married and continue this behavior. Towards the end of the play, Romeo is so blinded with rage that he kills Paris, while they were both at the tomb of the not so dead Juliet, after Romeo says, ““Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!” (Shakespeare Act 5). The choices they had to make were very important, and had lasting impacts on their lives, but they had nobody