Romeo And Juliet False Love Analysis

Toddlers often run around creating messes for others to clean up. They do not think that rules apply to them so they do practically whatever they want, the majority of it being the opposite of what their parent, or another authority, advises. Consequences arise and the child is completely baffled. When it comes down to it, Romeo and Juliet are not all that different from them. Both create issues for everyone else to fix, ignorantly believing that they may do as they please, tossing aside others’ input. And both are wildly infantry. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet has been dubbed the greatest love story of all time. However, one could hardly call this the greatest love story when their entire “romance” was built upon infatuation, impatience, and uncontrolled impulses, all resulting in their untimely deaths. The “pair of star-crossed lovers’” apparently tragic deaths were, in fact, due to their own childishness, evidenced by their haste with which to get married, their false ideas about love, and their rampant actions.

It is a popular idea, as Shakespeare is believed to have intended, that Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were ultimately due to the Capulets and Montagues relentless feud. Yes, Romeo and Juliet were forced to hide their relationship in fear of their parents’ rage, rushing into a secret marriage, and the whole idea of the ordeal involving Juliet taking a potion was so that her family would think she was dead, allowing her to live with Romeo without loose ends. And, yes, because of the long standing rivalry of the families the Friar was pressured immensely to allow the marriage between the young couple to be carried out, in hopes of bringing the two enemy houses together. But the most perplexing thing about this idea, however, is that the secret little plot between Juliet and the Friar did not go according to plan and resulted in the suicides of both Romeo and Juliet. How? Every issue in this play comes down to one common idea: childishness. Romeo was too immature to handle Juliet’s (although, staged) death, while Juliet was too foolish to realize that maybe it was not such a good idea to fake her death for a person she just met. There are other points in the play in which Romeo and Juliet prove their adolescence once again. Take, for instance, the fact that their ideas about love are completely incorrect. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time at the Capulet party, he talks about her beauty and magnificence, how she is the most amazing and wondrous sight he has ever laid eyes on. He kisses her lips with passion, and to him, in that beautiful moment, it is love. However, he did not even know her name, much less her personality. She could have been a horrible, murderous person for all he knew. She was at a Capulet party, the enemy of Romeo and his household. He did not have enough sense to realize that since he was in his enemy’s house, any woman in there was his enemy, too. There is a saying that goes something like, “The friend of my enemy is also my enemy.” Obviously, Romeo did not get the memo. And, evidenced by this scene, he got over Rosaline real quick. What if there was someone more fair and beautiful than Juliet? Would he drop her as he did Rosaline? After all, the only thing that stopped him from marrying Rosaline was that she had pledged herself to be a nun. His reckless behavior regarding the “switch” from Rosaline to Juliet was complete proof of his lustful state of mind. Their love was false, an infatuation is more the term to use, and there are many more ways that they unintentionally prove this with their absurd and careless behavior.

The uncontrolled reckless actions of both Romeo and Juliet are proof that the teenagers are too immature and less than ideal for romance. In Act III scene i, Romeo tries to prevent the fight between the Capulets, represented by his cousin-in-law Tybalt, and the Montagues, represented by his dear friend Mercutio. Unsuccessful, he tries to stop the fight, but in doing so allows an opening for Tybalt to kill Mercutio. An angry and vengeful Romeo goes to pursue Tybalt after his provocative challenge that beckoned Romeo to fight him. He kills Tybalt. It was very clear that Romeo could not control his impulses, anger blinded him to the point of murder. Though he was enticed, and though he was already emotionally unstable because of Mercutio’s death, Romeo submitted to his impulses and showed a loss of control, the act of an immature boy. A man in this situation would have taken up the role as the bigger person and left the scene to get the proper authorities. In the same Act, scene v, Capulet reveals to Juliet the arrangement for her marriage to the County Paris. Juliet is distraught and faced with a dilemma: Marry Paris and go against her disbelief in polygamy, or face her father’s rath and become disowned. Indecisive, she asks her Nurse, a very dear friend and confidant to Juliet, what she should do. The Nurse replies honestly and genuinely, telling her to forget Romeo and marry Paris. When the Nurse leaves her room, Juliet starts cursing the Nurse, calling her an “ancient damnation.” The swiftness with which Juliet betrays her proves that Juliet is not in a healthy and open state of mind, a mature mind. She does not appreciate opinions that vary from her own and considers only herself when making decisions that could affect others, making her ineligible to be distinguished as mature. Another display of their crude actions is in Act II scene vi when Romeo and Juliet arrive at Friar’s cell to get married. This occurs within twenty four hours of the couple’s meeting, and only they, the Nurse, and Friar Laurence know of this betrothal. The haste of their decided marriage was not logical or realistic, it was impulsive and adolescent. No person, no matter how lovestruck, would in their right mind marry someone within a day of knowing them, even if they declare that it is “love at first sight.” While that kind of thing might be real, it is not common sense to even hint at marriage when the couple had only really had two conversations within a twenty four hour period. Which leaves a questionable impression on audiences whether or not their love is true or simply lustful. 

The false ideas about love displayed by the main characters in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is one of the results of their immaturity and one of the causes of their suicides. Of course, no one can forget the haste of Capulet’s decision to marry Paris and Juliet. At first, he rejects the idea of his daughter marrying at such a young age. He wants to wait another year. So Paris persists, and the horrible timing of Romeo and Juliet’s marriage (another childish move) prevents Juliet from marrying Paris. Capulet, unaware of the goings-on of his daughter, declares the engagement of Paris and Juliet as official, and is so persistent that he threatens to throw Juliet in the streets and let her die. Everyone in this play is completely naive to what love actually is, and, clearly, the apple does not fall too far from the tree. This scene, just in itself, is a representation of where Juliet gets her foolishness from. Like father, like daughter. Another instance of their incorrect displayal of love is when Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulet party for the first time. His descriptions of her go something like, “As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear––/Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!” In his first glimpse of her, he describes her as though she is the most magnificent thing he has ever seen. That makes sense, but what he does afterwards does not share the same sense. He kisses her, after only nine sentences were exchanged between the two. How is that love? Romeo, only a few minutes before, was distraught over Rosaline’s rejection and then here he is, talking it up with Juliet. It does not seem practical for a couple, who get married the day after this, to start right off the bat with the physical stuff. It is irresponsible, and Romeo and Juliet both do not understand love. So, as shown by their inappropriate actions, they are not mature enough to handle a relationship like that, which is why they kill themselves.

Romeo and Juliet get married within a day of meeting, proving that they do not understand what love is, they have fatal impatience, and they can not control their impulses. Throughout the play, they both display inappropriate actions and think that they are showing love, but they are not. It is extremely childish of Romeo and Juliet to create issues all around them, such as their secret marriage─which results in numerous misunderstandings that lead to their eventual deaths─and only thinking of themselves, but expecting that everything will end up happily ever after. Does that make much sense? It sounds like toddlers that....