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

Show More
Related
468 Words | 2 Pages

“Romeo and Juliet The mysterious working of the adolescent brain’ Now and days love makes people do crazy things in life like in william shakespeare Romeo and Juliet,”The mysterious working on the adolescent brain” by Sarah Blakemore.some background information for romeo and juliet is that their young love and mood swings caused 6 deaths in the story .The background information from the Neuroscientist is that Sarah Blakemore is talking about the prefrontal cortex is still developing around your 20’s or below that affected Romeo and Juliet that could be why some of the deaths happened. In Romeo and Julliet due to the fact to the adolescent brain development caused mood swings and self consioucones,unncessary risk Romeo mood swings are what ultimately led to suicide.

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

Romeo, an overly dramatic character, is one who does not think things through. Romeo’s death was caused due to Friar Laurence, who failed to send a letter informing Romeo that Juliet was simply in a death like sleep. Romeo, being one to jump to solutions stated, ‘Noting this penury, to myself I said, “ An if a man did need a poison now”… (Shakespeare 5:1 Lines 51-52)’.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

(V.iii) Even though this book contains scenes of suicide, it does not glorify or sensationalize it like it is something people should do but instead shows readers the reality of what their actions could result in. When readers see that the highly impromptu actions performed by Romeo and Juliet can lead to events like

Read More
724 Words | 3 Pages

Romeo and Juliet Essay Warning signs of mental illness can foreshadow events such as suicide. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers from different houses fall in love. Romeo and Juliet struggle with keeping their relationship secret while their families feud. Their love for each other causes multiple deaths and raises tensions throughout the two houses.

Read More
1033 Words | 5 Pages

Juliet’s brashness also resulted in her suicide. She shows her happiness to die when she says, “This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (5.III.170). Juliet’s immediate suicide shows how brash she is and her inability to think before she acts. Their conjoined flaws led to Romeo and Juliet’s ultimate demise, the defining factor of their

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a timeless love story about two teenagers who fall in love, get married, and eventually kill themselves. Throughout history, mental health has not been as acknowledged as it is today, though the signs were still there. Throughout Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, both Romeo and Juliet exhibit warning signs of their mental health that will eventually lead to their mutual demise. Romeo exhibits a warning sign about wanting to kill himself which could lead to their mutual demise. Romeo has just recently killed Tybalt in retaliation for Tybalt killing Mercutio.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

This is one of the main causes that made Juliet kill herself, because before

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

No matter the situation, every time something excessively bad happened, both Romeo and Juliet threatened to kill themselves. For example, Juliet is forced to get married to Count Paris but before Juliet agrees, she runs to Friar Lawrence's cell and proclaims: "I'd soon rather die then to marry again. " The very first thought to run through Juliet's empty head, was to commit suicide. Of course, that's not when she did eventually commit suicide.

Read More
396 Words | 2 Pages

The theme of love is often associated with peace and kindness. However, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers’ suicidal impulse shows love as a cause of self-destructive violence, as seen through their thoughts, words and actions. Firstly, Romeo and Juliet’s suicidal thoughts reveal the violence caused by their love. In other words, it is their intense passion for each other that leads to their contemplation of suicide. For instance, when Romeo is told of Juliet’s supposed death, he immediately thinks of killing himself and begins to plan his suicide, as demonstrated by the following quote: “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Read More
710 Words | 3 Pages

Till Death Do Us Part Young love torn away piece by piece, yet not restored. Romeo showed multiple signs of depression and many of them went unnoticed, or overlooked. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo, a young teen becomes depressed, when the women he loves does not love him back.

Read More
1289 Words | 6 Pages

Four hundred thousand deaths, six hundred thousand attempts, and two hundred thousand considerations in a single year. The seeming epidemic that is teen suicide plagues the minds of teachers, students, friends, neighbors, and parents. Despite this wide range of victims, teenage suicide most directly affects the parents of these children, who commonly feel an overwhelming sense of guilt due to their inability to help their children. However, to many it appears obvious that there are not many things parents can do to prevent suicide, for many reasons. Furthermore, William Shakespeare proves this with his tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” in which two teenagers take their lives.

Read More
581 Words | 3 Pages

Professional American football player Lou Holtz once said, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” In other words, it is necessary to respond in the best way possible. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo was doing things that the average person wouldn’t have done if they chose to think things out before they do them. All of his actions lead to him ultimately being the reason for Juliet dying and for himself taking his own life. In this case, this shows that everything should be thought out before happening.

Read More
790 Words | 4 Pages

Depression is becoming more common in younger people than ever before. The issue of depression in Romeo and Juliet is shown in the articles, "Global Economic Depression." and "Don't Let Politics Cloud Your View of Teen Depression." In, Romeo and Juliet, depression is present throughout the entire play. But it is most prevalent in the first

Read More
1733 Words | 7 Pages

“Oh, Romeo! Oh, Juliet” they shout in the highly adored play “Romeo & Juliet” by writer William Shakespeare. The play discloses the tale of the romantic affiliation between two Italian teenagers(ages 13 & 17) that got easily ruined by their feuding families and the impulsive actions for the need of love that was taken by both main characters who ended up committing suicide after a serious misfortunate event. Although others may believe that the story of Romeo & Juliet is a love story, I believe that it is a story that discusses the impulsivity that can ruin teenage love. When it came to the main characters, I believed that their impulsivity came from their toxic family members who wanted a different path for them.

Read More
1161 Words | 5 Pages

Hook: Merriam Webster Dictionary describes Mental Illness as, Evidence: “any of a broad range of medical conditions that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning” Commentary: In both Romeo and Juliet and Speak, Melinda and Romeo show signs of having a mental illness. They both showed symptoms of the mental illness called bipolar disorder, however they didn’t show it in the same way. In Speak, Melinda showed more signs of depressive episodes. While in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo shows more signs of having manic depression.

Read More

More about Mental Illness In Romeo And Juliet Essay

Related Topics

Open Document