Romeo and Juliet Literary Essay

Rules and regulations are extremely important parts of our daily lives. They make up who we are and control everything we do, whether it’s going to the mall or eating at a restaurant. Rules can be very efficient and keep our lives stable and safe. However, not everyone agrees with every single rule in society. To some people, rules are simply barriers and restrictions that keep them from doing what they want and being free. These types of people tend to break rules and use their own principles to control their lives and others. In the play Romeo and Juliet, characters demonstrate that being obedient to one’s own conscience rather than the law or authority can lead to many consequences through misusing their authority in an attempt to solve problems, making impulsive decisions believing they are necessary amendments to the law, and abandoning others in situations they are involved in.

Initially, characters like Friar Lawrence, Capulet, and the Nurse force responsibilities onto themselves and abuse the status of their relationships with Romeo and Juliet by making decisions for them. First, Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet without thinking whether they are truly in love. He shows that he is marrying them for the wrong reasons when he says, “for this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (II, iii, 91-92), proving he thinks this marriage will solve the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. In the end, this mistake leads to the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet, and the arrest of the Friar himself, signifying that he should have kept to his duty and not attempted to solve problems that were out of his reach. Then, Capulet pressures Juliet into marrying Paris, despite the fact that she doesn’t wish to and he himself had said that it was her choice to marry whoever she desires. He declares that if Juliet doesn’t marry Paris, he will abandon her when he exclaims “graze where you will, you shall not house with me … / And you...