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    Youth and Age

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    jsa4ye99te
    Shakespeare uses the theme of youth and age in Romeo and Juliet to develop characters and drive the plot forward. The impulsiveness and lack of consideration for consequences displayed by the young title characters leads to their tragic deaths, disobeying the wise advice of older figures like the Friar and the Nurse. While Romeo and Juliet act on their intense passion, the older characters take a more measured approach and try to advise slowing down the hasty relationship. This highlights the differing perspectives of youthful irrationality versus experienced wisdom.

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    Youth and Age

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    jsa4ye99te
    33 views1 page
    Shakespeare uses the theme of youth and age in Romeo and Juliet to develop characters and drive the plot forward. The impulsiveness and lack of consideration for consequences displayed by the young title characters leads to their tragic deaths, disobeying the wise advice of older figures like the Friar and the Nurse. While Romeo and Juliet act on their intense passion, the older characters take a more measured approach and try to advise slowing down the hasty relationship. This highlights the differing perspectives of youthful irrationality versus experienced wisdom.

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    Shakespeare uses the theme of youth and age in Romeo and Juliet to develop characters and drive the plot forward. The impulsiveness and lack of consideration for consequences displayed by the young title characters leads to their tragic deaths, disobeying the wise advice of older figures like the Friar and the Nurse. While Romeo and Juliet act on their intense passion, the older characters take a more measured approach and try to advise slowing down the hasty relationship. This highlights the differing perspectives of youthful irrationality versus experienced wisdom.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    33 views1 page

    Youth and Age

    Uploaded by

    jsa4ye99te
    Shakespeare uses the theme of youth and age in Romeo and Juliet to develop characters and drive the plot forward. The impulsiveness and lack of consideration for consequences displayed by the young title characters leads to their tragic deaths, disobeying the wise advice of older figures like the Friar and the Nurse. While Romeo and Juliet act on their intense passion, the older characters take a more measured approach and try to advise slowing down the hasty relationship. This highlights the differing perspectives of youthful irrationality versus experienced wisdom.

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    Youth and Age – Romeo and Juliet

    Shakespeare, throughout ‘Romeo and Juliet’, uses the theme of youth and age as a
    mechanism to develop characters and through their reactions, drive forward the plot. In
    Elizabethan England, adults and the elderly – especially those of higher class- were seen as
    wise and were entitled to authority over the youth who were deemed irresponsible and
    irrational. Shakespeare presents the dangers of going against society’s expectations with the
    death of Romeo and Juliet who disobey direct commands from their parents and wise
    figures like the Friar (who also has religious wisdom).

    The most outward exemplification of irrational youth is in Romeo and Juliet’s haste and lack
    of consideration for the consequences of their actions. The impulsiveness of their
    relationship speaks to this, as the “star crossed” lovers meet on a Sunday and get married on
    a Monday. Juliet in particular displays many youthful tendencies which ironically, are also the
    reasons she matures into a woman. For example, despite her young age, she is eager to
    sexually explore and enter the world of relationships: “And learn me how to lose a winning
    match / Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods”. On the surface, “lose a winning match”
    means to “win” at a relationship and “lose” one’s virginity; however, a deeper interpretation
    could suggest that this is symbolic of their love winning as they die and live on in eternal
    unity but their loss is their lives and the negative consequences of their actions throughout
    the play: such as the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt – both of which significantly impacted
    the outcome of the play.

    Shakespeare also elucidates the theme of youth and age in the differing approaches of older
    characters compared to younger characters. For example, the Friar advises the couple that
    they should have a calm and measured approach to their relationships and that “violent
    delights have violent ends” whilst Juliet insists that they should be wed immediately. The
    Friar dispenses sage advice in this scene, their intense passion for each other is the ‘violent
    delights’ and ‘violent end’ foreshadows their deaths in act five. Similarly, the nurse wants to
    slow down the process of marriage whereas Juliet wishes to hasten the process: “fie my
    bones ache”. The nurse’s reluctance is more physical incapability as her bones “ache” whilst
    the Friar’s is from foresight and wisdom. However, the nurse also has this ‘foresight’ when in
    “she’s not fourteen” where she is able to recognise that Juliet is only a child and not ready
    for marriage.

    Finally, the older characters in the play also act as advisors and parental figures to Romeo
    and Juliet. Romeo finds a paternal companionship within the Friar who gives insightful help
    to Romeo: “philosophy, adversity’s sweet milk!”. In Elizabethan England, powerful women
    did not wean their children and so this was the job of a wet nurse. The Nurse acts as a
    maternal figure to Juliet and Juliet is able to confide in the nurse about her marriage
    because she cannot do so with her biological mother. Juliet trusts the nurse due to her
    experience and age: “Go girl seek happy nights to happy days”.

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