Romeo and Juliet: The Worst Week Ever

We are currently reading Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare. It is a story a young boy (Romeo) and a young girl (Juliet) who are madly in love, but their families have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember. There are several themes in the story, but I think that the main message Shakespeare is trying to convey is about young love; teenagers may think they are meant to be together forever, but they are really not mature enough, they have not had enough life experiences to fully understand what it is to truly love another.

When we first looked at the story’s plot line, I thought that Shakespeare was trying to tell his audience the opposite; that there is such thing as love at first sight, and that teenagers are capable of falling in love. When I began to read the story however, my first reaction was whoa, slow down there lover boy! It appears that Romeo is desperately in love with a girl named Rosaline, who, unfortunately, does not return his feelings.

”One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun

Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun.” he tells his cousin Benvolio (There has never been such a beautiful woman since the world began.)

He then goes to the party were he sees Juliet.

“So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows. As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows... Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.” So now he has gone from Rosaline being the only women he will ever love, to thinking that Juliet is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and falling head over heels for her. They meet and fall in love all in one day. They get married by the next day, and they have both committed suicide for each other within three days.

I think that Shakespeare is trying to show how young love rarely works out. For all we know, Juliet was just the modern equivalent of a rebound from being rejected by Rosaline. I think that Romeo might have married Juliet because he wanted subconsciously to show Rosaline that he was over her, and maybe make her jealous. I do not believe that you can fall in love with somebody without even speaking to them first. If that does happen, it shows that you are basing your feeling purely on the surface, and that they have absolutely no real substance. I think that if Romeo was able to go from being in love with one person, to loving another person, all in the course of a day, then he was never actually in love in the first place. Romeo and Juliet were not even 14 years old. They had nothing to compare their feelings to. I don’t even think you are capable of falling in love that young. People change so much in their teen years that for all we know, they might have broken up after three weeks.

I think that teenagers are capable of falling in love, but they are also capable of falling out of love. That is why it is so important not to rush things. Shakespeare was trying to say that there is nothing wrong with going slowly, and taking the time to know your partner before you do anything serious. I think that it is much better to take the time and be sure you love somebody, then to rush and then have a sad ending.