ipl-logo

Mental Illness In Romeo And Juliet Essay

1162 Words5 Pages

Romeo and Juliet Analytical Essay Many people throughout the years have struggled with mental health and suicide. More and more people have come out to talk about their struggles and talk about their signs and symptoms. This has not always been the case though. In the 1500s if someone is showing these symptoms they were often overlooked or were deemed as “abnormal”. For as long as we know people have used suicide as an unhealthy coping mechanism. This was very apparent in Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet two young teenagers meet at a party and think they are “in love”. As the play proceeds the love between the two grows stronger and they get married and want to spend the rest of their lives together. When a conflict causes …show more content…

The symptoms they are showing would not be overlooked today, but back in the time of this play, it was very uncommon for people to have a mental illness or even know what a mental illness is. After Juliet saw Romeo’s dead body she was pressured to also kill herself because she thought that meant that they would be together forever. After seeing Romeo Juliet says, “Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end./ O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop” (Shakespeare 5.3.162-163). Juliet sees the “love of her life” lying dead next to her she feels that she has no other choice but to kill herself as well. When Juliet notices that Romeo drank all the poison she is mad because she wanted to use the same thing so she could continue to be with him. This is known as peer pressure now and peer pressure can lead to many difficult mental stages and illnesses. According to an article by Children’s Health on the negative effect on a person's mental status. “Negative peer pressure can also affect mental health. It can decrease self-confidence and lead to poor academic performance, distancing from family members and friends, or an increase in depression and anxiety. Left untreated, this could eventually lead teens to engage in self-harm or have suicidal thoughts.” In Romeo and Juliet, there are a lot of peer pressure cases but they went overlooked because that was not a normal thing back

Open Document