“Wisely and slow – they stumble that run fast” a wise priest warns one passionate lover, Romeo as he stumbles to share the news of the accepted marriage. Unfortunately for the characters, none of them seem to take these wise words in consideration. Passionate love and passionate hate propel the characters to immediate, and irrational actions. A perfect example of impatience in this play is when Romeo comes to the conclusion that his lover Juliet is lifeless. He hastily takes his life without stopping to think of the consequences.
If he had been patient, and rational he and his love could have been together on earth. But because of his drastic measures, when Juliet awoke seeing Romeo partly dead she kills her self as well. The most traumatic scene in the play is because of the young lovers impatience. The second example of impatience is the fact that Romeo is eager to marry Juliet the evening that they meet. He does not think about Rosaline and the connection that they had made, according to Friar Lawrence.
He almost seems quite selfish to let himself fall in love with a Capulet knowing that his family detests them immensely. Romeo is too impatient to give the situation a second thought. “Three words, dear Romeo, and goodnight indeed. If that thy dent of love be honorable, they purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow. By one that I’ll procure to come to thee. Where and hat time thou wilt preform the rite, and all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay and follow thee my lord throughout the world”. This quote by Juliet is also an example of how the young lovers do not think before they speak.
This quote was said the night they had first encountered each other at the party. This proves that Romeo is not the only impatient one in the relationship, but Juliet is as well. She also did not think to ask for her parents’ approval or get to really know Romeo for who he is before enchanting her self within his love. Characters in this play show a grand sense of impatience when it comes to making decisions and having to wait a moment and think, most acted with haste and tragedy occurred because of it.
The second theme that I find matches Romeo and Juliet well is Foolishness. Foolishness seems to be a very common theme in all stories about young lovers. It is proof that love can drive people to do maniacal things. An example of this is when the supposedly wiser Friar Lawrence comes up with the disastrous plan that causes the great tragedy in the first place. “Hold daughter, I do spy a kind of hope, as that is desperate which we would prevent. If rather than to marry county Paris.
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, then it is likely thou wilt undertake a thing like death to chide away this shame, that cop’st with death himself, to ‘scape from it: And if thou dar’st ill give thee remedy. ” This quote is when Friar Lawrence gives Juliet a small vile containing a potion that will put her to sleep and make her appear dead for 48 hours. I believe that this was a foolish plan because Friar Lawrence made it himself and had not seemed to test it before giving it to her. There could have also been a more rational and sensible plan that he could have though of before jumping straight to a dangerous potion.
He encouraged Juliet to temporally kill her self instead of giving her advice on working it out with her parents and talking to Romeo about another way they could be together. A second example of foolishness is when Romeo demonstrates a great sense of immaturity, when he foolishly kills Tybalt knowing that he is Juliet’s cousin. This not only brought great suffering to his lover, it also ruined all chances of Juliet’s parents liking him because he killed Tybalt, and is banished from Verona.
“O, I am fortune’s fool!” spoken by Romeo is proof that he did act foolish and knew it by not taking a moment to think like an adult about another way to approach the situation. Instead he acted on his rage and did end up having to pay for it, by not being able to show his face anywhere in Verona. And by causing much grief to Juliet (his future wife), and her family. Overall the theme of foolishness is a large one in Romeo and Juliet because it did lead to many unfortunate moments in their short lifetime, but it also proves a point that things can change with a little patience and a sense of maturity.
