Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”¬¬ is considered to be one of the most tragic stories ever told and the most asked question is ‘What, exactly, caused their deaths?’ That question has been answered from a respected, educated literature critic to the adolescent mind of an annoyed teenager. The sources that shall be used are from professional critics, but the opinion shall lean toward more of an annoyed teen. While not exactly annoyed, more exasperated, one could say. Romeo and Juliet commit suicide because of their young age. Romeo’s impulsiveness and desperation to love mixed with Juliet’s innocence and easily influenced personality prove to be a deadly pair. Romeo and Juliet’s lack of experience for love because of their age ultimately led to their death.

Romeo shows that he is reckless with his obsession of the idea of love. Romeo Montague was just around the age of manhood when he met Rosaline. ‘She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair’/ ‘to merit bliss by making me despair.’/ ‘She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow’/ ‘Do I live dead that live to tell it now’ - (Act 1, Scene 1 L. 215-218). He goes on about her beauty and how shameful it is that someone as beautiful as she will stay a virgin for life. Ironically enough, he meets Juliet a few hours later and describes her as this ‘Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight!’/ ‘For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night’ - (Act 1, Scene 5 L. 49-50). He’s so needy for love that his affections can get replaced in a matter of hours with and pretty girl to look at. Also, it’s very obvious that through his words that Romeo is a fickle fellow bases his love on how somebody looks. His shallowness can be seen through his age by his meager knowledge and lack ...

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...f he had one, he could’ve lived with Juliet.

While Juliet is not as overzealous with love as Romeo is, his effect on her expresses a different side about herself even she did not know. Romeo’s influence on her takes a completely different direction in which she was raised. ‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore are thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name.’/ ‘or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet’ – (Act 2, Scene 2 L. 33-36). Juliet grows up in a very patriarchal society and that means the father is the head of the house. What he says, go. When Capulet, Juliet’s father, hears of her refusing to marry Paris he retorts ‘How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?’/ ‘Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,’/ ‘Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought’/ ‘So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?’ – (Act 3, Scene 5 L.142-145).