Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by Shakespeare during the Early Modern period with the tragic ending among two “star-crossed lovers”. The love story between Romeo and Juliet arise the sympathy from the audience. It is impossible for Romeo and Juliet to stay together due to the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Juliet is led to death because she is forced to get married to Paris who she does not love. She commits suicide with desperation under the patriarchal family. However, Marjorie Kolb Cox claimed that the tragedy and death of Romeo and Juliet are due to the effect of adolescence, Romeo and Juliet fall in love impulsively without consideration of consequences as well as the lack of parenthood during the adolescence.
Get Help With Your Essay
If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Essay Writing Service
There are several scenes in the play describing the fight on the street in Verona. Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio are three adolescents who are easy to be impulsive. The Montagues and the Capulets start to fight due to the provocation. After Mercutio died, Romeo kills Tybalt as the revenge. Adolescents advocate violence rather than peace to solve the conflict. It is an immature way to solve the conflict and argument by adolescents. Violence is an issue among adolescents. They ignore consequences, social rules and laws to fight in the public space (Cox, 1967). The consequence is both Mercutio and Tybalt died in the fighting. Romeo is banished from Verona because he disobeys the law. Characters in the play pay the price for their impulsive fighting. Their impulsive behaviours lead to more tragedies.
Another feature for adolescents is love. Adolescents are curious about love and sex. Boys and girls are easily attracted to each other. Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. Romeo forgets Rosaline immediately. Juliet is also a young girl at the age that expects love. They fall in love impulsively and get married secretly in a very short time, in which is hard to know each other well. Adolescents are at the age that wants to be independent and have the desire for the opposite sex. They want to be independent of their families and parents. They spend more times with peers than parents (Cox, 1967). The power of love among two young adolescents makes Juliet refuse the arranged marriage and commit suicide due to the immature love.
Adolescents are rebellious, and they are less immature than adults. Therefore, parents play important roles to guide and protect their children. Both Romeo and Juliet are a lack of parenthood that has weak relationships with their parents. They do not get support and understandings from their families (Cox, 1967). When Romeo feels painful towards Rosaline, he would rather find his friends and Friar Laurence rather than his father. He asks for help from Friar Laurence to hold a wedding. Friar Laurence is more like Romeo’s father, and he understands Romeo’s emotions. Friar Laurence is a reliable person for Romeo when he feels desperate. Montague knows nothing about Juliet until the end of the play. There is a gap between Montague and Romeo.
There are not too many scenes about Lady Capulet as well. Lady Capulet follows her husband to prepare the wedding for Juliet and Paris regardless of Juliet’s intentions. When Juliet shows her attitudes towards the marriage, Lady Capulet ignores Juliet and refuses to talk to her. Juliet would rather share her secrets with the Nurse rather than Lady Capulet. As Cox argued, Juliet is not close to her mother. Juliet does not feel the love from her mother when she is desperate. Lady Capulet is absent when Juliet needs her. She ignores Juliet’s emotions towards the marriage no matter how Juliet is begging. The unconcern from Lady Capulet and cold mother-daughter relationship leads the suicide. It is obvious that Romeo is closer to Friar Lawrence and Juliet is closer to the Nurse than their biological parents. Adolescents are sensitive, in which they need more concerns from their parents. Parents should protect their children falling into a wrong path. Montague and Capulet are regretful for Romeo and Juliet. If they could concern more about children’s emotions during the adolescence instead of feud and power, perhaps death would not happen.
Marjorie Kolb Cox analysed Romeo and Juliet from a psychological aspect. Romeo and Juliet are at adolescence period. The audience is convinced why some impulsive behaviours occur, why there are many fighting scenes in the play and why Romeo and Juliet fall in love so quickly. The death of Romeo and Juliet, as well as other characters, is a consequence of the effect from adolescence. There is no careful consideration for adolescents, and they are not aware of the responsibility. Cox makes readers focus on reasons behind the tragedy instead of a love story.
Bibliography
Belsey, Catherine. Romeo and Juliet: language and writing. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2014. Print.
Clark, Glenn. “The Civil Mutinies of Romeo and Juliet.”English Literary Renaissance. vol. 41, no. 2, 2011, pp. 280-300.Wiley Online Library. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Cox, Majorie Kolb. “Adolescence Process in Romeo and Juliet”. Psychoanalytic review. vol. 63. no.3, 1976, pp. 379-392. ProQuest. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Fletcher, George. Studies of Shakespeare in the Plays of King John, Cymbeline, Macbeth, As you like it, Much ado about nothing, Romeo and Juliet: with Observations on the Criticism and the Acting of Those Plays. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1847. Archive. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Jeffery, Chris. “What Kinds of play is Romeo and Juliet?”Shakespeare in Southern Africa. vol. 28, 2016, pp. 51-72.EBSCO host. Web.29 Jan. 2017.
Hager, Alan. Understanding Romeo and Juliet: a student casebook to issues, sources, and historical documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Google Book. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Halio, Jay L. Romeo and Juliet: a guide to the play. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. Print.
Hartmann, Von. “Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” (Book Review). “The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. vol. 10, 1876, pp. 216-222. JSTOR. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Herman, Peter C. “Tragedy and the Crisis of Authority in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” Intertexts. vol. 12, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 89-109. EBSCO Host. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Karaman, Hatice. “The Mother, Who Is Not One: Reflections Of Motherhood in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew.” Gender Studies. Vol.13, no. 1, 2014, pp. 37-47. Research Gate. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
Hoppe, H. R.The bad quarto of Romeo and Juliet; a bibliographical and textual study. Ithaca: Cornell U Press, 1948. Print.
Kakkonen, Gordana Galić, and Ana Penjak. “The Nature of Gender: Are Juliet, Desdemona and Cordelia to their Fathers as Nature is to Culture?”Critical Survey. vol. 27, no. 1, 2015, pp. 18-35.EBSCO host. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Kottman, Paul A. “Defying the Stars: Tragic Love as the Struggle for Freedom inRomeo and Juliet.”Shakespeare Quarterly. vol. 63, no.1, 2012, pp. 1-38. Project Muse. Web. 29 Jan. 2017
Lupton, Julia Reinhard. “Response to Paul A. Kottman, “Defying the Stars: Tragic Love as the Struggle for Freedom inRomeo and Juliet“.”Shakespeare Quarterly. vol. 63, no. 1, 2012, pp. 39-45. Project Muse. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Lupton, Julia Reinhard. Romeo and Juliet: a critical reader. London: Bloomsbury, 2016. Print.
Minutella, Vincenza.Reclaiming Romeo and Juliet: Italian translations for page, stage and screen. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Mujahid, Maryam F. “Romeo and Juliet – a Tragedy of Love by Text: Why Targeted Penalties that Offer Front-end Severity and Back-end Leniency are Necessary to Remedy the Teenage Mass-Sexting Dilemma.” Howard Law Journal. vol. 55, no. 1, 2011, pp. 173-204. HeinOnline. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Sánchez, Antonio Barcelona. “Metaphorical models of romantic love in Romeo and Juliet.”Journal of Pragmatics. vol. 24, no. 6, 1995, pp. 667-88. Science Direct. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Sause, Birte. Love, death, and fortune: central concepts in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2013. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.
Targoff, Ramie. “Mortal Love: Shakespeare’sRomeo and Julietand the Practice of Joint Burial.”Representations. vol. 120, no. 1, 2012, pp. 17-38. JSTOR. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download