Immaturity in Romeo & Juliet

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is intelligent, handsome, impulsive, immature, moody, and intense, He chooses his emotions over his responsibility to be loyal to his family. Though Romeo’s decision is ultimately ineffective, it helps with the play’s development of tragedy and the illustration of Romeo as a tragic hero, Being immature and impulsive, Romeo lacks moderation in any and all aspects of life, but particularly love. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is deeply in love with Rosalinei As he professes to Benvolio, “She hath forsworn to love, and in that vowDo I live dead that will tell it now” (1,1231).

However, as soon as he lays eyes on Juliet, without even meeting her makes the abrupt switch to being deeply and madly in love with her instead. Perhaps if he had been able to wait on falling in love and try being infatuated or flirty or some other less daunting adjective, the story may not have been so tragic, In addition, his falling full tilt in love with Juliet compelled him to have a secret wedding for the two less than twenty-four hours latei: Romeo‘s immaturity is on full display here.

As opposed to taking a few days to think through possible consequences and make a more rational decision about this marriage, he is hurried to make their love official and this decision greatly affects the rest of the star-crossed lovers short livesi Romeo is obviously very intense when it comes to love, however, one should not forget other emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger, For example, after he and Juliet profess their love to one another on the balcony, Romeo forgoes sleep in his happiness and runs to Friar Lawrence in order to tell him of the wonderful things that have just happened and to propose a marriage for the two.

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In addition, despair compels Romeo to take his own life after hearing of Juliet’s death, Immediately upon hearing the news, he says “Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Let’s see for means, 0 mischief, thou art swiftTo enter in the thoughts of desperate men” (5.1.37). He knows that he will kill himself that night, not allowing himself any time to grieve Juliet, or time to rationalize his decision Finally, he exhibits intense anger over the death of Mercutio. Anger so intense, in fact, that it is enough to kill another man, which is not an emotionally or physically easy feati After Tybalt falls, Romeo declares that he is “Fortune’s fool” (3.1,142), implying that fate is toying with him, However, this is not an example of fate. Romeo made the conscious decision to kill Tybalt, and it was completely under his own controli Romeo is so blinded by the intensity of his emotions, he cannot see past them enough to consider the potential consequences of his actions All of these instances show intensity in every emotion Romeo has, One might say that Romeo never does anything halfway, and, in this instance, that is not necessarily a good thing Romeo has a responsibility to be loyal to his own family, the Montagues, and not to associate with their only enemies, the Capuletsi.

He has one job, and when it becomes clear that he is unable to do that job, Romeo thinks that the best way to deal with that is to sneak around behind his parents’ back, and to have Juliet do the same. How, one may ask, does this sound like a good idea? There are a plethora of better solutions Romeo could have chosen, for example, to talk to his parents despite possible banishment, or to simply flee with his lover and make a new life somewhere far away from Veronar Romeo’s impulsivity comes into play here, as well, as he does not take time to think through possible solutions to his predicament, he simply chooses the most obvious one without stopping to think of consequences Shakespeare furthers the development of Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy by using Romeo as a tragic hero, According to Aristotle’s definition, a tragic hero is a great man (Romeo comes from a high class family in Verona), who has a fatal flaw (impulsivity, immaturity, intensity). His misfortune must not be deserved, but he must cause it in some way through a decision or choice, Romeo surely does not deserve his misfortune , while immature, he‘s not a terribly malicious seventeen-year-old.

However, he does cause some of his misfortune, both through the decision to marry Juliet secretively, and through his decision to kill Tybalt for killing Mercutio, resulting in his banishment from Verona, In addition, according to Aristotle, a tragedy must be a mix of fate and character in order to evoke feelings of both pity and terror in the audience, While his immaturity and impulsivity are part of his character, his inability to know of the plan surrounding Juliet‘s fake death and their subsequent fleeing to Mantua is not his own fault, there employing fate to evoke pityr Romeo lacks moderation in all of his emotions: throughout the play he experiences intense love, happiness, despair, and angen All of these emotions lead him to impulsive decisions, For example, marrying Juliet secretly and quickly, taking his own life upon hearing of Juliet’s death, and killing Juliet‘s cousin Tybaltr These decisions help develop him as a tragic hero, which, when intertwined with his tragic flaw of impulsivity and the fatality of his situation, create a tragedy according to Aristotle’s definition. He chooses to pursue his emotions over his moral responsibility, and it is this decision that leads to his demise.