Coming Of Age In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Tatayana A. Mackey
Mrs. Cauthen
English II
11 May 2012 Coming of Age in Romeo and Juliet “Love is too young to know what conscience is.” said by William Shakespeare. As we read in Romeo and Juliet, we saw how the young lovers went from children to mature young adults in a couple of days; all based on one thing, love. Reading this play, we learned that you can never be too young to have true love. Unfortunately at a young age lots of decisions are made for you, so your decision may not be your parents’ decision; causing a great deal of tension, frustration, and rage. Many people may know Romeo and Juliet as the “children” of literature, because of them falling in love at a young age. When they marry, Juliet was 13 and Romeo was…show more content…
The young men are not, as men, in control of themselves. “They are not in control of the project of masculine autonomy to which they understand themselves to be pledged. Masculinity is not a single thing they can get a hold of, although they are constantly under pressure to do so” (Appelbaum 70). Mercutio, Romeo’s friend, considers love as unworthy of a real man and “respects only the wounds suffered in combat (Kahn 64). Ironically, Mercutio dies of a wound “occasioned partly by Romeo’s love, while Romeo, no less a man, will die not of a wound but of the poison he voluntarily takes for love” (Kahn 64). The men in the play are viewed to be under pressure. The fathers cannot perform as fathers and the sons cannot perform as sons. “The fathers cannot enforce the law so long as they themselves are living in a self-imposed condition of ‘mutiny’ or ‘rebellion’” (Appelbaum…show more content…
Ed. Vernon Elso Johnson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. 68-74. Print.

Callaghan Dympha. “Introduction.” William Shakespeare. NewYork: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2003. 1-35. Rpt. in “Sensing the Doom of Growing Up.” Coming of Age in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Vernon Elso Johnson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. 37-43. Print.

Garber Marjorie. “Romeo and Juliet.” Patterns and Paradigrams. Ed. John F. Andrews. Danvers: Garland Publishing Inc, 1993. 119-131. Rpt. in “Growing Up in a Violent World.” Coming of Age in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Vernon Elso Johnson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. 44-50. Print.

Hamilton Sharon. “The Father as Inept or Able Mentor: Romeo and Juliet and the Tempest.” Shakespeare’s Daughter. Jefferson” McFarland & Co. 13-34. Rpt. in “A Daughter’s Rebellion.” Coming of Age in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Vernon Elso Johnson. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. 81-94. Print.

Kahn Coppelia. “Coming of Age in Verona.” The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare.