Romeo And Juliet Coming Of Age Quotes

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Coming of age is a precious experience everyone goes through. It’s an event that shapes who you are, and it can’t be defined without being so broad the definition loses its significance. This experience is different for every individual, and everyone should define it differently. It isn’t possible to rationalize or categorize the way people feel about their experiences and their existence, you can only organize coming of age into broad common experiences. Everyone experiences love and grief, everyone develops some level of empathy as they age, everyone's relationship with their parents will change throughout their lifetime, and everyone struggles to know who they are. But within these concepts, there is so much emotion, change, and detail within …show more content…

That said, two of the most significant components of coming of age include loss and a sense of identity. These two experiences can have much more weight than others and are a significant part of the book Secret Life of Bees and the play Romeo and Juliet. In Secret Life of Bees, Lily struggles to find her identity and to feel safe enough to express herself. Throughout Romeo and Juliet, loss influences many of Juliet’s decisions and leads to her untimely coming of age. “I lay in bed, waiting for the bees to show up” (Kidd, pg. 2). The adage of the adage. This quote illustrates who Lily is at the beginning of the book. She was a girl who waited for things to happen because she wasn’t confident in her identity. Lily didn’t have anyone advocating for her, or anyone to tell her she was capable. As stated in the book, Lily hates waiting because all she's ever done is wait for the girls at school to invite her to a sleepover, wait for memories of her mother to come back to her, wait for the bees in her walls to swarm, and wait with her knees on grits as a punishment. This is why it is so instrumental when Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of jail. This is her first act of self-advocacy …show more content…

Throughout this play by William Shakespeare, Juliet experiences an abundance of loss. What must be remembered is that Juliet is a child, even younger than Lily, who demonstrates her youth and immaturity throughout the beginning of Secret Life of Bees. Juliet is younger than Lily and yet she is expected to be the beautiful lover of Romeo, she is expected to be clever and romantic, and she is expected to die in the end. Juliet’s story is one of tragedy, not romance. And in the short time before her death, we can see how all the loss Juliet experienced affects her coming of age. To Juliet, marriage is “an honor that I dream not of.” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 2). This demonstrates just how young Juliet is. When she learns Romeo has been banished, she is distraught and afraid of losing him. That night Romeo visits Juliet on her balcony for a last goodbye and at the beginning of the conversation, Juliet begs Romeo to stay and claims the night is still young. But soon Juliet lets go of her denial and accepts that Romeo needs to go before morning comes. She states, “O, now be gone. More light and light it grows.” (Shakespeare, Act 3, Scene 5). After Romeo has gone, Juliet goes into depression. This is a stage of grief, and it affects all her decisions from this point on in the story. When Juliet learns she is to be married to Paris, she can’t bear the thought and states, “I’ll go to the friar

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