Romeo And Juliet Teenage Brain Development Essay

The brain is still at a critical stage of development in the teen years. The brain doesn’t stop growing until the mid-twenties. This explains why Romeo and Juliet were so inexperienced and immature when they fell in love. An example of this is when Romeo goes up to Juliet’s balcony after the Capulet party and Juliet says, “Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say ‘Ay,’ And I will take thee at thy word: yet if thou swear’st, Thou mayst prove false” (2.1.95-97). Here, Juliet’s mind is racing between thinking that Romeo loves her and that he does not. She’s still inexperienced in life and doesn’t know what to do in this situation. This may also be because her brain is immature; “[t]he [teenage] brain seems to undergo a growth spurt of its own” (“Are Teenage Brains Really Different From Adult Brains?” by Molly Edmonds).

As such, the brain couldn’t possibly have been fully developed at their ages. The adolescent brain’s undeveloped state is something that plenty of neurologists agree on. In an article from The Washington Post by Meeri Kim says, “Although the brain doesn't grow in size much after a certain age, structural MRI studies have shown continuing neuroanatomical development in gray and white matter into adulthood” (“The Teenage Brain: There May Be a Silver Lining To All That Misbehavior” 23 February 2016). Scientists used to think the human brain mostly stopped growing at a young age because it didn’t grow in size. However, they didn’t see the internal development it undergoes. Grey matter is where all the synapses are located, while white matter is what connects the grey matter together. During adolescence, there is more white matter in the brain than there is grey matter. “At a synapse, one neuron sends a message to a target neuron—another cell” (“The Synapse.” Khan