Risk Taking In Romeo And Juliet Essay

Someone once said, “Life is all about risks and it requires you to jump. Don’t be a person who looks back and wonders what they could have had.” This quote means so much in the story of Romeo and Juliet and of the present day. The author seems to be saying that opportunities come, but they do not last for long and someday, regret will come. Romeo and Juliet did take a big risk for their love by marrying in secret and dying for their love. With this quote, the teenage brain makes choices with consequences, look for new sensations, and seek out social and emotional information. During the second scene of Act II, Romeo and Juliet make the decision to marry each other hours after meeting at the Capulet party. Romeo seeks out Friar Lawrence to ask, “but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us today” (Shakespeare 410). Here

Therefore, in scene i, Mercutio’s death enraged Romeo to the point of killing Tybalt, Mercutio’s murderer, “Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo that killed him, he is banished”(Shakespeare 432). Within the span of a day, Romeo married Juliet, killed her cousin, and was banished from Verona due to impulsive behavior by Mercutio’s death. Common outbursts of various emotions and impulsive behavior can be due to the urge of sensation seeking and the compulsive outrage towards others. After reading “Beautiful Brains” and The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, teenagers “hit a high in what behavioral scientist call sensation seeking: the hunt for the neural buzz, the jolt of the unusual or unexpected” (Dobbs 4). Young adults and teenagers use this time of their life to challenge themselves and push their limits. Sudden risks can be a type of “sensation seeking” by the unusual behavioral change that can be acted upon. Hence the death of Mercutio and Tybalt, readers can assume that other outrageous and rebellious actions may occur because of these “sensation seeking”