Lusts In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

One of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, is a story about two teenagers of rival houses that fell in love at first sight, but did they really? It seems quite odd that two literary characters as well-known as these, were amorous with one another after a brief meeting at a ball. Teenagers, since the Elizabethan era have been called impulsive, their decisions often sudden and have an unhappy ending. They have also been accused of being lustful and over-dramatic, due to their intense, temporary feelings. These beliefs apply to the two “star-crossed lovers” as well as the decisions they made, both of which caused pain and regret for both themselves and others as well, even if it wasn’t intended.

“Teenagers are stuck in a limbo, neither children nor adults,” (Parry) their minds in the process of maturing and developing. The mood swings, feelings, and emotions they have are because of the changes occurring in their heads, which is also what makes them so inconsistent. Romeo had met his wife when he was seventeen and she, thirteen, meaning that their still-growing brains inspired all the “feelings” they had for each other. This has also influenced their hasty decision to get married despite having only known each other for less than a

day. When they first saw each other, the first thing that must’ve gone through their minds were how attractive they perceived the other person to be, making them only skin-deep. They both were attracted to the other upon sight, and only that, especially Romeo.
The lover-boy, as we know, was initially “in love” with Rosaline, who did not feel the same way as him. After all, she couldn’t, since she was preparing to become a nun. Because of this, Romeo threw himself into a fit of misery, wailing and sobbing about his unrequited love to the nearest person. His emotions also caused him to criticize the religious choice she made because he believed that she was too beautiful to be vestal, completely ignoring the fact that his opinion was completely irrelevant.
However, when his eyes laid upon the young lady, Juliet, his affections immediately became attached to her. As Friar Lawrence so eloquently said after hearing of the meeting of the two lovers, “Young men's love then lies, not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” (Shakespeare) This quote relates to how Romeo truly felt about both Capulet girls; lustful. Teenage boys, like the Montague, have a hormone called testosterone, which increases a desire for sex quite often, causing their rationalization to decrease (Parry). Therefore, Romeo was only in love with what he saw, lust clouding his judgement, but the desperate need to feel love up hurting them both.
The two teenagers were both immensely over-dramatic throughout the story, especially Juliet. Her desire to do things of her own will caused her to do things that were risky and unpredictable. This was most likely caused by the stress hormone cortisol, which at a high level can cause aggression and is closely linked to depression. The stress itself, on the other hand, was caused by her parents, Lord and Lady Capulet who were going to force her to marry at 13, an extremely young age to do so. As the story went on, her stress increased, the events occurring doing nothing to console her stress. From the loss of her cousin Tybalt, to the exile of her husband, she became overwhelmed. This drove her to having thoughts of suicide, which is one of the most common forms of death for teens (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry).
Because of the haste, lust, and melodrama the Montague and the Capulet had, due to their emotions and hormones, their actions caused the conclusion of the story to have an unpleasant end.

Juliet faked her death, thinking that Romeo would know that she was alive, only to awake and find him dead by his own action. Her cortisol level became too high and she decided to follow Romeo into the after-life, neither of them thinking of how everyone else had been affected. In the words of Prince Escalus, “And I for winking at your discords too have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd” (Shakespeare). In conclusion, they did not truly love each other, for it was only the work of their growing and changing minds and

hormones.