Many people consider teenage boys to be illogical young adults who make irrational decisions. This is seen in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet about the long feud between the Montague and Capulet families that tears apart the city of Verona and causes tragic results for the star-crossed lovers. Revenge, love, a secret marriage, and terrible decisions force the young lovers to grow up quickly due to their immaturity. This is a direct correlation to the immaturity caused by the age of Romeo and trauma throughout his life. It is common knowledge that young men have poor decision making. It is said in an article about teenage brain development, ‘’Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers might rely on a part of the brain …show more content…
Romeo's life was full of traumatizing things that happened to him that could have possibly been the reason for his impulsive decisions ‘’Trauma creates confusion, clouded judgment, the inability to perform tasks, and problems with attention and concentration. This is because trauma causes the “thinking center” or the prefrontal cortex to be under-activated. Survivors of trauma will often complain about feeling incapable of managing their emotions.’' (Fuller) Having the childhood we can assume Romeo had, with his inability to love or feel things for the opposite house, could have been an early factor in childhood trauma. In addition to this, holding Mercutio ,Romeo's best friend, in his arms while he was dying was an obvious factor in traumatic experiences held in Romeo's life. After this he Murders Tybalt, in an act of revenge for killing Mercutio, and is banished to Mantua, the reader can assume Romeo's life has forever been changed. Was this permanent life altering decision a factor that played a role in Romeo's ultimate demise., one hundred percent yes. As Fuller stated, “Survivors of trauma will often complain about feeling incapable of managing their emotions…” (Fuller) and this perfectly describes Romeo and his inability to control his impulses and emotions. This leads him to buying the poison and drinking his life