The Portrayal of Love in 'Romeo and Juliet'

In the years 1594-1596 the author, William Shakespeare, was able to portray a beautiful love story through his talent in writing. Due to his old fashioned writing style, today’s readers find themselves confused and misunderstanding the story line. This brilliant man was the author of the world famous play Romeo and Juliet; a spinoff of the poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet written by Arthur Brooke in 1562. What people don’t realize is that we understand his poetry better than we think, by exercising different aspects of it in our everyday lives, especially our youth. Teens today demonstrate the roles of Romeo and Juliet by the rash decisions they make, the emotions they feel, and the choices they make which ultimately become the underlying reasons for their depression.

If you have watched a movie adaption or read the play, Romeo and Juliet, you will know that it progresses at an extremely fast pace and some of the decisions are very impulsive and not thought through properly. Reflecting back on the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, Tybalt ended up killing Mercutio leading Romeo to instantly challenge Tybalt to a fight to avenge Mercutio’s death. He was looking to kill and was blinded by his rage. This is reinforced by the following quote by Romeo in Act III Scene I, “Either thou, or I, or both must go with him.” Meaning that he, Tybalt, or both of them would have to die and join Mercutio. Foolishly fighting like this resulted in Romeo being banished from Verona, and led to being one of the essential reasons he died. Romeo wasn’t thinking clearly about the consequences he would have to pay when the fight was over. The fight was very unnecessary and started over something so small it could have easily been ignored or straightened out by talking. Impulsive decision making, like in the scene described above, still occurs today. Both Romeo and Juliet as well as teenagers today seldom think about the consequences their actions will have on those around them, including themselves. Modern day teenagers often jump to life changing decisions, just as Romeo did. Teenagers today are easily infuriated and are quick to argue or fist fight over something small just as referred to in the play.

The strong emotions used to portray love towards another person in the play are also evident in today’s youth. Romeo and Juliet, along with today’s teenagers, experience strong emotions that they feel are supposed to portray love towards another person. In William Shakespeare’s play, the very first time Romeo and Juliet met they believed they were in love with each other instantly. The definition of love is to be patient and forgiving, and it is a choice not a feeling. In Romeo and Juliet’s case they were just experiencing a very strong physical attraction towards each other; it was not love at all. This is supported in the play in the following acts. Act I Scene I where it focuses on Romeo, who is in love with this girl named Rosaline, but she doesn’t share these feelings with him. Act I Scene V also mentions that Romeo sees Juliet for the first time and falls in love with her just one day after he claimed to be in love with Rosaline. These two scenes show that Romeo was only attracted to the beauty of the women, not anything else. Friar Laurence supports this in Act II Scene III by saying, “Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” If Romeo and Juliet had survived, it’s fair to assume their marriage wouldn’t have lasted very long because they never truly loved each other. Romeo would have found another woman that he found attractive, and he would have forgotten about Juliet as fast as he forgot Rosaline. This also stands true for teenagers today. They too mistake feelings like these for love, but just as Romeo and Juliet, they are just having a very strong attraction to another person that they will find fading away after a short time. More often than not they will soon find themselves feeling attractions toward a different person shortly after. Present teenagers, just as Romeo and Juliet, are neither old, nor experienced enough to make meaningful commitments and stick to them for the rest of their lives.

When teenagers today think there could be love between them and another person, they often take what that other person says to them or about them very seriously, only to find themselves overinterpret everything the other person says. When they find that the other person doesn’t share mutual feelings or wants to end the relationship with them, sometimes it will cause the rejected person to react poorly and even possibly lead. to depression. In Romeo and Julilet, Romeo’s parents, the Montague’s, found that Romeo’s depressed state had lasted many days. He would wander around in the forest at night and during the day he would lock himself up in his room in the dark. One morning Romeo’s cousin, Benvolio, found Romeo and questioned him about his odd behavior. He asked Romeo if he was in love. In Act I Scene I Romeo replied “Out. Out of her favour where I am in love.” Romeo claimed to be in love with this girl named Rosaline, but she didn’t return his feelings. This caused him to fall into a depression. Events similar to Romeo’s can cause today’s teenagers to also fall into a depression just as Romeo did.

Teenagers are continuously demonstrating the way we experience “love” today very similarly to the way Romeo and Juliet portrayed “love” in Shakespeare’s play. This is because teenagers today also make impulsive decisions, mistake their attractions and emotions for love, and suffer from depression over their choices of love. These are all just vital aspects of learning what love really is, to be patient and forgiving. Romeo and Juliet is a play that has been studied for hundreds of years and although we may not always understand what is going on in it, almost every teenager can still relate to it today.