The Responsibility Of Teenagers In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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In society, teenagers are perceived as people who make illogical and dangerous decisions. William Shakespeare’s tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet, focuses on the choices made by the two lovers that leads to their deaths. Poor mentorship, fate and the anatomy of the teenage brain are held accountable for the deaths of the young lovers, demonstrating that the decisions that teenagers make are influenced by factors other than themselves.

The first factor affecting the two deaths is poor mentorship. Friar Lawrence is seen to be the only adult that supports the love of Romeo and Juliet throughout the whole story. The reason the Friar is a poor mentor to the teens is because he did not take a stand against the two, even though he knows they were …show more content…
The teenage years are a point in one’s life where the body and brain go through changes that affect the way one thinks and acts. Before Romeo kills himself, he says “Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide…Thus with a kiss I die.” (5.3.116-120). Romeo does not care about the consequences of his rash decision and seems to be welcoming death. This is mainly due to his undeveloped prefrontal cortex, overactive nucleus accumbens and dopamine system. The prefrontal cortex is the part in the brain which gives a person a sense of the consequence of a certain action. The nucleus accumbens as well as the dopamine system are the parts of the brain that seek thrill and risk. This part in one’s mind is especially overactive during its teen years, and can overpower a rational reason for a making a choice. This shows why teens seem to make such unjustifiable conclusions. Romeo being an adolescent, only knows that Juliet makes him feel excited, and that he would do anything to keep that feeling of excitement, even die, not thinking about future consequences of his death wish. This portrays that the brain during the teenage years can also be held responsible for the two
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