Maturity In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Would killing oneself to be with his or her love be considered an act of devotion or immaturity? In the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, two children from feuding families meet and instantly fall in love. As a result of the course of events that happen throughout the drama, Juliet ends up faking her death and Romeo poisons himself. With absolutely no way of living without Romeo, Juliet stabs herself. A transition between impulsive childishness and resolute adulthood is immensely lacking between the main characters. Therefore, as a result of Romeo and Juliet’s actions, they do not mature during the play. Juliet, even though only being thirteen, makes decisions that seem adultlike, but truly are childish. For example, Juliet threatens to kill herself if Friar Lawrence could not help her. Being away from Romeo and having to marry Count Paris was too much, and Juliet would rather give up if no one could help her. Another act of immaturity portrayed by Juliet was that she, so easily, was willing to defy her parents. Not only did she fall for someone of the enemy's name, but she also continued to see Romeo even when they were going to …show more content…

In the beginning, he was in love with Rosaline, Juliet’s cousin, but could not be with her. So, at the Capulet party, he falls in love with Juliet, not based on personality, but on looks. He too defies his parents by loving the enemy, but also does not love for the right reason. Even Friar is shocked that he went from crying over Rosaline to finding a new love so quickly. Romeo also shows an act of immaturity when he plots his own suicide without consulting anyone, especially Friar. He immediately launches into despair without knowledge of what is going on and gets poison to “lie with Juliet”. His act of impulsiveness is childish. As a result, Romeo too did not mature and only made rash decisions without