Romeo and Juliet: Why Youthful Rashness is completely evident

     Throughout the play of Romeo and Juliet, there are many instances of young love. Many will argue that the Romeo and Juliet loved each other so much, it has to be true love, but it is quite evident that their love is in fact youthful rashness. These two sides of the debate both pose an interesting point on how lines 3-5 in act 2, scene 3: "Come what sorrow can, it can not countervail the exchange of joy that one short minute gives me in her sight." This line, although possibly translated as a mutual joy, hence exchange, is, even if mutual, a mutual superficiality.

      In the play, Romeo falls in love with Juliet at first sight. What is a fact, and not all that true love mumbo jumbo, is that when you fall for someone without getting to know them is because they are handsome or pretty. Also, both Romeo and Juliet are so blinded by their irrational love that they can not see its consequences to other people. It indirectly killed both Tybalt and Mercutio, and banished Romeo from Verona as a result. Everybody around them that knows about their love seems to think it is rash too. Friar Lawrence sincerely believed that Romeo and Juliet were not truly in love, but in love with the thought of love. When one is too blinded by love to see that there is nothing blinding them, they are not being truly in love.

     In response to this incident, I am shocked by the gross misinterpretation of the love that Romeo and Juliet feel for each other. Romeo clearly only likes and wants Juliet because he needs to have a pretty face to take his mind off Rosaline, and Juliet only likes Romeo because she wants the side of him that looks and acts overly romantic. This is because both are in love with the illusion of their love, but will not give up this illusion for the sake of sense. This is all too present in our world, where all many teenagers care about in someone is their body, and Romeo and Juliet provides us a cautionary tale.Youthful love taken seriously is a harm to not only yourself, but others, and, will most likely not end well.