How is Romeo Impulsive? Decoding Teenage Decisions in Shakespeare

Gendered Fates: The Role of Stereotypes in Romeo and Juliet's Decisions

“I’ll solve the problem now with this knife,” proclaims Juliet. This portrays Juliet making an irrational decision, as many teenagers her age would do. This irrational decision, in technical terms, is called the psychoanalytic theory. Romeo and Juliet is a play about a guy and a girl who fall in love at first sight but soon realize they cannot be together because their families are enemies. This causes Romeo and Juliet to make unreasonable decisions and commit suicide in the end.

The death of Romeo and Juliet occurred because of the environment around them, creating the downfall of both families.

Gender stereotypes had a big impact on the suicide of Romeo and Juliet. They had their lives written out for them as soon as they were born. As a woman, Juliet was expected to be weak and dependent on others and, for that reason, was never taught to make her own decisions. In the text, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says, “My face doesn’t belong to me.” (Shakespeare) This shows how she was used to not owning herself, so when she fell in love with Romeo, she was pressured into making a life decision. Without any practice of this beforehand, she failed, and because she was then independent without Romeo and did not know what to do since, as a woman, being independent at that time was a failure, she gave up and committed suicide. In the text, Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse yells at Romeo, saying, “Oh, sweet Juliet, your beauty has made me weak like a woman, and you have softened my bravery, which before was as hard as steel” (Shakespeare). This demonstrates how Romeo feels as if he failed in manhood because he did not fight. After this moment, Romeo makes sudden rational choices based on the fact that he is a man and has to take charge later on, causing him to commit suicide. Indubitably, Romeo and Juliet were both led by their gender stereotypes, causing them to make decisions that they were told were right for their gender, finally leading them to suicide.

Romeo's Impulsiveness and Juliet's Absent Nurturing: Tragic Consequences of Parental Neglect

Nurture was a big factor in why Juliet committed suicide. Juliet’s parents were not very involved in their children’s lives, causing their children to lack decision-making skills. In the text “4 Types of Parenting Styles and Their Effects on Kids: What’s Your Parenting Style?” it states, “When parents are uninvolved, children struggle with self-esteem issues” (Murphy). This relates to Juliet because her mother was very uninvolved to the point where she could not have a conversation with her own daughter and had to call in Nurse, Juliet’s second mom, to help. This made Juliet suffer from self-esteem issues, and in order to fulfill her self-esteem, she fell in love. Because Juliet did not have an active mother in her life to depend on, she depended on Romeo and the love he gave her. When she saw Romeo dead beside her, she felt as if a part of her died; without him or her mother to fulfill her self-esteem issues, she had no one to depend on. In the text “Elizabethan Women,” it claims, “Women were regarded as 'the weaker sex,' not just in terms of physical strength, but emotionally too. It was believed that women always needed someone to look after them. If they were married, their husband was expected to look after them. If they were single, then their father, brother, or another male relative was expected to take care of them” (https://www.elizabethi.org/contents/women/). This demonstrates how, during this time period, it was crucial a woman had someone to depend on, whether that was her parents or her husband. When she feels as if she is alone, this leads her to suicidal thoughts, eventually making her commit suicide alongside Romeo. In addition, the “Nature vs. Nurture” article proclaims, “Behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement” (Mallari). This demonstrates how children’s behavior is affected by their parent’s involvement in their life. When a parent is absent in their child’s life, the child loses certain skills growing up. In the case of Juliet, her parents were busy and weren’t there to raise her. Although Nurse was there, it was still different from her biological parents because Nurse was more of a best friend to her. The loss of positive and negative reinforcement gave her weak decision-making skills, causing her to listen to Friar Lawrence, the priest who married her and Romeo, and, in the end, kill herself. All things considered, Juliet’s death was heavily affected by her parent’s parenting styles and behaviorism.

Parental Influence: How Romeo's Upbringing Contributed to His Tragic Fate

Romeo was also heavily affected by the behaviorism or Nurture of his parents. Romeo’s parents were much uninvolved and scarcely mentioned in the play. The article “How Parenting Styles Affect Teenagers” clarifies, “Teens transitioning to adulthood under this type of parenting style essentially feel unloved and unimportant and consistently perform poorly in all areas” (Murphy). This portrays how uninvolved parents make their children feel unloved, and like Juliet, Romeo felt a need to fill the loss of his parent's love with her love; when she died, he had no love and felt as if he was not important to anyone. In Romeo and Juliet, Lord Montague yells to the corpse of Romeo, “Oh, you undisciplined boy!” (Shakespeare) This shows how unclose they were and how Romeo’s dad, while falling under the uninvolved parent, also fell under the authoritarian parent, which is defined as “Overly emphasizing organization, structure, and adherence to rules, they show little warmth and are reluctant to listen effectively or engage in deep, meaningful communication with their teens,” (Murphy).” In addition, the text “4 Types of Parenting Styles and Their Effects on Kids: What’s Your Parenting Style?” states, “As a result, many adolescents reared in this type of environment learn to value the strict adherence and enforcement of set rules and learn to devalue independent and creative thinking,” (Amy Morin). This explains why Romeo made his impulsive decisions. With his parent's strict rules of hating all Capulets, he learned to “devalue independent and creative thinking” (Amy Morin) causing him to not think for himself. To sum up, Romeo and Juliet were both impacted by their parents’ parenting styles in a negative way, which in due course led to their suicide.

The Impulsive Teenage Brain: How Cognitive Development Shaped Romeo and Juliet's Decisions

Romeo and Juliet were highly affected by the psychoanalytic theory, giving rise to their death. In the text, “Developing Brain Connections Make Teenagers Impatient and Impulsive,” Hannah Osborne proclaims, 'Teenagers are impatient because developing brain connections make it difficult for them to see the benefit of waiting longer for a larger reward... this often results in them partaking in high-risk behavior,” (Osborne). This shows how Romeo and Juliet committed suicide because, with their teenage brains, they couldn’t see too far into the future. For example, Juliet is close-minded and only looks at the present when, in scene 3 of Act 5, she declares to Friar Lawrence, “I’m not going anywhere” (Shakespeare) after she sees Romeo dead. Her teenage brain made her think of all the sadness and depression she would go through, but she could not look far enough to where she would eventually become happy again, so to not go through the depression of her husband committing suicide, she ended it right there. Another example is when Romeo, in Scene 1 of Act 5, professes, “Come, bitter poison, come, unsavory guide!” (Shakespeare). At this moment, he was only thinking of the present and how bad things were and could not look so far into the future where he found someone else to love because of his teenage brain and impulsivity, so to end the ongoing pain, he was thinking of he drank poison and committed suicide. In the text “One Reason Teens Respond Differently to the World: Immature Brain Circuitry,” it notes, “The teens mostly used the amygdala, a small almond-shaped region that guides instinctual or ‘gut’ reactions, while the adults relied on the frontal cortex, which governs reason and planning... for the teens, this area wasn’t fully operating,” (Spinks). This explains how the teenage brain was affecting their decisions. Because Romeo and Juliet’s frontal cortex had not fully formed, they were making decisions based on their amygdala, which is their gut decision. Since they could not think far into the future, as “Developing Brain Connections Make Teenagers Impatient and Impulsive” stated, they only thought of the emotions they were feeling at that moment and how that would affect them, making their gut decision to end it all. All things considered, Romeo and Juliet were both teenagers, so their frontal cortex had not formed, forcing them to make decisions based on their gut. Their gut was what they could see in the present or near future; therefore, what they decided was always impulsive, which led to their suicide.

Beyond the Friar: The Multifaceted Causes of Romeo and Juliet's Demise

On the contrary, some say Romeo and Juliet’s death was due to Friar Lawrence. Friar Lawrence was close to both families, so he had the chance to manipulate them into believing and trusting him. In Romeo and Juliet, Act 4 Scene 1, Friar Lawrence proposes, “When you're in bed, take this vial, mix its contents with liquor, and drink” (Shakespeare). This is when he gives the idea of drinking a potion that makes one seem dead to Juliet; she does as he instructs and takes the vial. Accordingly, he was a friar and, as a friar, got respect and trust without question, giving him an opportunity to trick them easily without being suspected; however, Friar Lawrence could not be the only reason their death occurred because he was one person and could not force them into doing anything they did not want to do. This is where the teenage brain and Nurture come into play. Romeo and Juliet were both making impulsive decisions and agreeing with risky plans that Friar Lawrence told them because they had horrible decision-making skills due to their frontal cortex not being developed. Also gender stereotypes were also a big factor in the suicide of Romeo and Juliet because Juliet felt that, as a woman, she needed to depend on someone. Her dad thought she was dead and would be infuriated if he found out otherwise, and Romeo had just died. Hence, she felt like she was useless and unworthy of anyone, so she committed suicide alongside Romeo. Furthermore, in Romeo and Juliet Act 5 Scene 3, Friar Lawrence tells her to leave and follow him, but she replies, “I’m not going anywhere” (Shakespeare). This portrays how he had little power over her, and the teenage brain was much more powerful. In this case, she made the decision to kill herself and not leave Romeo, and at that moment, no one could change her mind. In addition, Nurture is a big factor in the reason behind their death because, with good parenting styles, they would not have felt the need to ask Friar for help in the first place. In summary, while Friar Lawrence gave Romeo and Juliet ideas, without the impact of their teenage brain, they could not have listened to him or anyone else and followed what their parents said.

Romeo and Juliet’s suicide occurred because of several factors within them and with the environment around them, thus the downfall of both families and a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet were around age 13; at this age, many teenagers make impulsive decisions. Therefore, Romeo and Juliet made many impulsive decisions that led to them committing suicide. Their death was impacted by the gender stereotypes during the period, the psychoanalytic theory, and behaviorism. However, their suicide is always seen as a negative event; it may have finally caused feuding families to come together.

References

1. Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet." 
2. Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. "The Norton Shakespeare."
3. Howard, Jean E., and Phyllis Rackin. "Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories."
4. Halio, Jay L. "Romeo and Juliet: A Guide to the Play."
5. Gill, Roma Gill. "Romeo and Juliet: A Critical Reader."

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