Hasty Romeo

Rash Decisions, Regrettable Results

Rash Decisions, Regrettable Results

“Jumping to conclusions seldom leads to happy landings” (“Landings”). Unfortunately for Romeo, his landing wasn’t just bad; it was fatal and also led to the death of another. In the play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Juliet makes many hasty decisions, but Romeo ends up making even more rash choices that leads to both their deaths. Some irrational choices Juliet makes are when she agrees to marry Romeo after only knowing him for one day, and also when she doesn’t tell her father about her marriage to Romeo. On the other hand, Romeo kills Tybalt only an hour after his marriage to Juliet, and also acts impulsively and is too quick to kill himself when he hears Juliet is dead, which then leads to Juliet’s suicide. Juliet does act hastily, but Romeo is the more rash of the two.

Juliet makes many reckless decisions throughout the play. One of her worst decisions is when she decided to marry Romeo after only knowing him for one day. When Romeo first asks her to marry him, Juliet rejects him, saying, “Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” (2.2.116-118). Juliet knows that is too soon, but later on she lets Romeo convince her to marry him because she does not want to upset him. She should have stood her ground and told Romeo that it was too early to get married, but instead she acted hastily and decided to marry him. This decision led the disasters that followed and shows that she is too immature to make the right choices.

Another irrational decision she made is when she doesn’t tell her father about her marriage to Romeo. Since Juliet is already married to Romeo, she cannot marry Paris. When Juliet tells Lord Capulet that she will not marry Paris, he went on a diatribe, screaming, “How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest, Unworthy as she is, that...