Youthfulness and Impulsiveness in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

619 Words2 Pages

Written in the 16th century, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is still the foundations of classic literature today. Although this text is almost four centuries old, what keeps us interested is Romeo and Juliet’s tragic story of youthfulness and impulsiveness. It follows the protagonists’ progression into mature adults; overcoming the obstacles of authority along the way. The idea of a passionate, youthful love is something many of us relate to, furthermore, the audience can comprehend the emotions that these characters feel because we recognise them as emotions of the youth. Three key scenes that highlight youthfulness and its consequences are Scene one of Act one, Scene two of Act two, Scene five of Act three. These three scenes represent youthful love, hate induced by youth and impulsiveness, and Juliet’s youthful but naïve perception and what she makes of a difficult situation when she is placed under the abusive authority of her father. In act One, the play immediately begins with young servants of the Montague and Capulet house fighting; though it is not their brawl, but their mas...

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