Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet

"Youthful rashness skips like a hare over the meshes of good counsel."

                                                    - William Shakespeare

        In the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, in act two, scenes three to six, Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to wed him to Juliet. These lines portray Romeo's conversation with Friar Lawrence, and the Friar Lawrence's doubts about Romeo truly being in love. There are many debates as to whether or not Romeo is with Juliet, or if he is only acting out of youthful rashness, which is acting out of impulse, or without a second thought. I believe that there are many reasons as to why Romeo was acting out of youthful rashness.

         

Firstly, Romeo says that he forgot Rosaline’s name and her name's woe (2.3.61-62), which means that Rosaline means nothing to him. However, I find it quite impossible that after immensely mourning for Rosaline, he completely forgot her. I believe the Romeo is not in love but he is in love with the concept of love. Which on the other hand would mean that he is using Juliet to get over Rosaline, because of his grief. In other words, Romeo is blinded by his true emotions, and sometimes that is what love does to people. You can't just forget about someone in 24 hours because they still exist, and somewhere in the back of your mind you know that they're still there. This is why I find it extremely hard to believe that Romeo is over Rosaline after about a day, when he spent so long grieving over her. Also, when Benvolio told Romeo to look for someone else, Romeo said that it was impossible and that Rosaline was basically the only one. Now, after meeting Juliet, he suddenly feels like it's time to move on, and he barely even knows Juliet. Moreover, Romeo might not have been completely in love with Juliet, in fact, Juliet could have been his way to move on.  

       

To add on, many people during the class debate stated that two people (Romeo and Juliet) were destined, by the stars, that they were to fall in love in order to end the feud between their families. However, in the prologue of the story it states, "Do with their death end their parents' strife." This contradicts to the point that many people have made. It was not their love that ended the rivalry, but the death of Romeo and Juliet. A fellow classmate also pointed out that there were two other deaths that occurred before the death of Romeo and Juliet. The death of Mercutio, who is Romeo's best friend, and the death of Tybalt, who is the cousin of Juliet. The classmate stated that after these two deaths, nothing changed to end the rivalry between the two households, so there is no clear statement that Romeo and Juliet's death is what ended it. However, the death of these two people were not as important and tragic to the two families as the death of their own children. For example, if this were to be connected to real life and your best friend or cousin were to die, you would be devastated of course. On the other hand, your parents might show some sympathy, and some sadness, but it is not moving enough for them to completely stop all their duties.  However, if it were you who died, your parents may be moved enough, and emotionally traumatized enough to discard of their duties because of sadness. When that sadness passes, they will decide on any changes, or anything that must be done differently, because they will learn a lesson. In addition, the scene in which Mercutio and Tybalt died was a dark, and more anger-filled scene rather than a sad one. Tension was already building up since the beginning, and in this scene all the tension turned into pure anger. So, no, Mercutio and Tybalt's death could not have led to the end of the feud between the two families of Romeo and Juliet. Instead, the two deaths brought forth more anger, and more tension between the families. Furthermore, I don't think that it was "written in the stars" that Romeo and Juliet were supposed to fall in love. I believe that it was "written in the stars" that the death of Romeo and Juliet is what would have ended the feud, even if they weren't in love.

       

To conclude, I strongly think that Romeo was acting out of youthful rashness when he jumped to the conclusion that he was in love with Juliet. This is because, love made him blind to the fact that Juliet isn't the only person in the world. It also made him blind to all his other emotions. As Romeo said, love is a rough thing, it is not tender, and it does not come with a tender feeling. However, I think that his grief mixed in with his love and clouded his past thoughts about love, and when he met Juliet all he was left with was this surreal image of love, that he would have denied only the day before he met Juliet. In other words, Romeo was never truly in love with Juliet, and maybe if they got to know each other more thoroughly, their beliefs on true love would have changed.