Romeo And Juliet Make Decisions Essay

Scientific studies show that humans brains do not finish fully developing until the mid to late twenties. This means that young adults and teenagers can not always be trusted to make the best decisions for themselves. Romeo and Juliet are both very young characters who are immature and inexperienced. Juliet is merely thirteen years old and Romeo is estimated to be in his late teens. In Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” the main characters’ youthfulness causes them to make rash and immature decisions that ultimately lead to their downfall. Romeo shows how young minds are temperamental and untrustworthy when he talks to Friar Lawrence late one night. The Friar asks him if he has spent the night with Rosaline and Romeo replies by saying, “with

He attends a Capulet party with his companions and immediately spots Juliet across the room. When he sees her he exclaims, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight,/ For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (Shakespeare I.v. 54-55). The moment Romeo sees Juilet he launches into a monologue about how beautiful she is. Like many teenagers, this quote proves how Romeo bases his opinion about girls solely on how they look and lustful desires. Romeo is young and naive; he makes the decision that he is in love with Juliet after only looking at her for a brief moment. It is clear that Romeo is not old enough to understand that there's a difference between wanting someone because they are attractive on the outside and wanting someone because one loves them and their character. The critic, Bruce Young, addresses this topic by saying, “... that Romeo is still a dependent member of the Montague household. Since dependency lasted until marriage, Romeo could be twenty-something years old, but this seems not to be the case, given Friar Lawrence's emphasis on Romeo's youth and his implication that Romeo is not mature enough for marriage” (Prusko 117). Romeo and Juliets spur of the moment decision to get married the night of the party, proves that they are not ready to make big decisions yet. Romeo is young and still dependent on his family,

Lord and Lady Capulet have just informed her that she is going to be married to County Paris on Thursday. Juliet rebukes this idea because she is already married to Romeo. She immediately goes to Friar Lawrence and asks if there is any way to avoid the marriage. She goes on and on, begging him for a way out and even goes as far as to say, “And with this knife I’ll help it presently./ God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;/ And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s sealed,/ shall be the label to another deed,/ Or my true heart with treacherous revolt/ Turn to another, this shall slay them both” (IV. i. 54-59). Juliet is so committed to Romeo that she would rather kill herself than be without him. This foreshadows how Juliet will actually stab herself at the end of the play because she thinks she cannot live without her heart's true love. Juliet shows how youth are irrational and over dramatic at times. She is willing to kill herself for a boy she just met and does not even truly know. She lets her emotions in the moment influence her decisions, and this ultimately leads to her death at the end of the play. In his essay about the play Robert Smith says, “Shakespeare wrote the play to exhibit not the revenge of society but the tragic folly of youth. The lovers are not innocent sufferers, or sacrifices, but heedless and reckless