How Did Romeo And Juliet Make Decisions

In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet two star crossed lovers take their lives for each other because when making decisions they chose passion over reason. One big event that occurred because of irrational thinking was when Lord Capulet, Juliet Capulet’s father forced her into marrying Paris. This forced Juliet to go to Friar Lawrence and ask him for advice even though it was not very thought out Juliet went along with it. In the end, both Romeo and Juliet killed themselves. As a result of all their spontaneous, passionate and poorly thought out decisions the play ended in tragedy.

Lord Capulet chose passion over reason multiple times when making important decisions. The biggest one is when he decided that his daughter must marry Paris.

At first he wanted Juliet to wait two years before the marriage because he thinks that “too soon marr’d are those so early made.” (I.ii.13). In that quote he states that girls who marry too young, grow up too soon. He also voices that Juliet is his pride and joy and she is his whole world and the “Earth hath swallowe’d all my hopes but she [Juliet]; she is the hopeful lady of my earth.” (I.ii.14-15). Normally after expressing this kind of affection towards someone, they would not quickly change their minds into forcing them into marrying in two days oppose to two years. He was also thinking irrationally because he wanted her to be happy, but since he thought she was depressed over her cousin Tybalt’s death, he wanted to make her feel better even though he was disregarding what she said about marriage and it being “an honour that I [Juliet] dream not of.” (I.iii.66). After hearing somebody say that usually you would respect what they said and not try and cheer them up with something they do not want, but, Capulet loved his daughter so much that he chose to do the first thing that came to mind. It was Capulet’s poor decision that started the whole tragedy ending, but he isn’t the only one to blame.

Friar Lawrence suggests a plan to Juliet to try and get her and Romeo reunited again and being desperate, despite the flaws in the plan she agreed.

Juliet was so in love with Romeo that she did not think over Friar’s plan before agreeing. Juliet’s immediate reaction to the Friar was desperate, as she demanded, “Give me Give me! O tell me not of fear!” (IV.i.121). A more intelligent person would have thought over the plan and would have looked for flaws before blindly agreeing. After agreeing an demanding the potion Juliet realized that there were some parts that would scare her as Friar Lawrence said, but since she was so desperate and madly in love she did not back out. She knew that it was difficult she begged for love to “give me [her] strength, and strength shall help afford.” (IV.i.125). Juliet sees that she will be put into the underground tomb among other dead bodies and potentially venomous snakes. A reasonable choice would have been to either back out or come up with a better plan. Since Friar Lawrence and Juliet did not recognize what they were getting into, they added to the problem rather than solving

it.

Romeo and Juliet are very passionate about each other and when they each saw the other one dead, they did not think about the consequences.

They were overwhelmed, reacted too fast and killed themselves. When Romeo first saw Juliet he was astonished, as anyone would be but he started rambling on about how much he loved her and if it was his fault. He was so flustered that when he saw the poison on the ground, he drank it without even thinking. Romeo was dying and he leaned in to Juliet “Thus with a kiss I die.” (V.iii.120). Anyone in that state would be bewildered but, they would probably have the common sense to see that you can’t bring someone back to life and killing yourself is not the answer because then you could no longer live either. Romeo was also already banished so it would not affect him as much as he would think. He most likely would be heartbroken for a while, but he would eventually get over it as he did for Rosalind. Juliet also made the same decision. When she woke up and saw Romeo dead, she became dazed and confused. When she saw the poison Romeo took on the ground, then, tried to drink some too but there was nothing left. Juliet then found Romeo’s dagger and knew what she wanted to do. She grabbed the dagger “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (V.iii.168-169). Knowing that now Romeo is dead and she can marry Paris without undoing their vows or feeling guilty it was the wrong choice to kill herself. Also her family cared about

her and she had a bright future, but she let her feelings get in the way of that. If it were not for these choices Romeo and Juliet would have still been alive.

Romeo and Juliet ended the way it did because these characters chose passion over reason. Throughout the play as more bad decisions were made, there became more problems. They all had their reasons for choosing to do what they did, but they were not always sane. Lord Capulet was overthinking the situation he and his daughter were in, Friar Lawrence and Juliet were thinking under pressure because they had a time limit to be able to put their plan into action. And finally, Romeo and Juliet loved each other so much that they did not want to live without each other and they did not think about the outcome in the long run. Passion vs reason is the soul explanation of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.