Essay On Impulsivity In Romeo And Juliet

Most people have moments where they act without thinking about the possible outcomes. This is called impulsivity. An example of impulsivity is when a person is mad, they might say something hurtful that they may later regret. In extreme cases, impulsivity may cause death. An example of this is drunk driving or crossing a busy street without looking. Similarly, many published writings contain characters that display impulsivity resulting in negative consequences. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, extreme impulsivity, by all characters, caused the tragic deaths of the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet.
While one can infer that Romeo and Juliet’s death is caused by impulsivity, some may blame Friar Lawrence. After Romeo and Juliet meet and instantly

fall in love with each other, they both want to get married. Romeo approaches Friar Lawrence and requests for him to conduct the ceremony. At first, the Friar does not want to marry them because of their feuding families. The Friar says, “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, / For this alliance may have so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.3.90-92). Here, the Friar is agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet, not due to his ideologies, but because he hopes this will break the families’ feud. Romeo and Juliet’s marriage results in greater problems throughout the book. While the Friar may have made some bad, impulsive choices throughout play, including marrying them, impulsivity throughout all characters causes the most damage.
First, Romeo projects impulsivity when he blindly falls in love with Juliet only because of her beauty. In 1.5, Benvolio convinces Romeo to sneak into the Capulet party in order to meet other girls besides the current girl he is deeply in love with, Rosaline. While dancing at the party, Romeo sees Juliet for the first time and is instantly mesmerized by her beauty. Romeo says, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (1.5.59-60). Here, Romeo is stating that he has never been in love with anyone and has never seen anyone so beautiful, even though he was in love with Rosaline just before seeing her. This infatuation causes him to impulsively fall in love with her and forget about Rosaline. Hence, Romeo’s instant and shallow love for Juliet displays impulsivity.
A second example of impulsivity is when Juliet wants Romeo to marry her immediately after meeting. After meeting at the party, Romeo finds his way into Juliet’s backyard, where he indiscreetly listens to her confessing her love for him. When Romeo exposes himself, they engage in intimate conversations. Upon leaving, Juliet says, “Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow” (2.2.151). Here, Juliet impulsively asks him to request her hand in marriage, even though it has only been hours since they met. A few hours of interaction is not enough time to know someone well enough to get married. Therefore, Juliet wanting to marry a stranger exemplifies her impulsivity.
Third, impulsivity is displayed by both the Friar and Juliet, when the Friar offers Juliet the sleeping potion, and she accepts. After the death of Tybalt, Capulet plans to have Juliet and Paris married without Juliet’s consent. When Lady Capulet tells her of the marriage, Juliet emphatically says no. She subsequently requests the Nurse’s opinion regarding her arranged marriage to Paris. The Nurse advises Juliet to fulfill her parents’ desire. Juliet lies to the Nurse and agrees to marry Paris. After telling this lie, Juliet meets with the Friar and desperately pleads to him for his guidance regarding the arranged marriage that she does not want to uphold . The Friar comes up with a plan that involves Juliet taking a sleeping potion which has dangerous side effects, such as death. After hearing the plan and the possible side effects, Juliet says, “Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear” (4.1.123)! In this text, Juliet is accepting the Friar’s plan, despite all the possible risks. This illustrates her impulsivity because Juliet did not consider the Friar’s many warnings about using the potion. This text also shows impulsivity in the Friar because he offers Juliet a very risky plan to get out of marrying Paris without considering the possible treacherous outcome. Therefore, both Juliet and the Friar’s conjoint plan exhibits impulsivity in both characters.
Fourth, Romeo buying poison from the apothecary presents impulsivity.

In 4.5, Balthasar sees Juliet dead, even though she is not actually dead. With this false information, Balthasar rushes to Mantua to tell Romeo of her death. After hearing the news, Romeo goes to the apothecary and says, “Let me have / A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear / As will disperse itself through all the veins / That the life-weary taker may fall dead,” (5.1.61-64). Reflectively, Romeo is asking the apothecary for poison to kill himself due to hearing about Juliet’s death. Romeo buys the poison without having any physical proof that Juliet is dead, as his only source of information was Balthasar. Consequently, Romeo buying poison to kill himself from the apothecary without confirmation of Juliet’s death presents another act of

impulsivity.
Lastly, the Friar, being afraid to get caught with Juliet in the midst of the plan, leaves Juliet alone in the tomb with Romeo, who is dead.

His impulsive action was a cause of her death. Her immediate desire to kill herself after seeing Romeo dead also displays impulsivity. In 5.1, Romeo heads to Juliet’s tomb with the poison that he previously purchased in order to kill himself. When he sees Juliet lying in the tomb, he kills himself. The Friar subsequently arrives at the tomb, and Juliet wakes up from the sleeping potion soon after. While the Friar leads Juliet out of the tomb, she sees Romeo dead on the ground. After the Friar tells Juliet they have to leave, she says, “Go, get thee hence, for I will not away” (5.3.165). Juliet is saying that she will not leave the tomb because she wants to kill herself after seeing Romeo dead. The Friar displays impulsivity here because he leaves Juliet behind without thinking about the possibility that she will kill herself. Therefore, the Friar leaving Juliet behind in the tomb displays

impulsivity.
Overall, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, impulsivity is the main cause of the tragic ending. First, impulsivity caused Romeo to fall in love with Juliet the first time he saw her. Second, impulsivity caused Juliet to ask Romeo to marry her, even though they had just met. Third, the Friar’s impulsive plan, involving a dangerous sleeping potion, ends up with both characters dead. Fourth, impulsivity causes Romeo to get poison from the apothecary, even though he does not have confirmation that Juliet is dead. Last, the Friar abandoning Juliet in the tomb shows impulsivity. In Romeo and Juliet, which contains an extraordinarily impulsive ending with with grave consequences for both protagonists, impulsivity can happen in the same manner in real life.