Romeo & Juliet Scene IV and V

First thoughts

Now that I have finished reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time, I am surprisingly pleased. At first, I believed Romeo and Juliet to be some cliche and overdone story of two hormonal and angsty kids running around France and dying because of their own stupidity. That was the main reason why I never wanted to read Romeo and Juliet, but there was so much more in the book than people don’t know about. There was much more to the story than just an angsty love story and their deaths were not even their fault, in my opinion. The plot point that really turned the story around for me was “The two lords resolve to abandon their feud and vow to erect golden statues in memory of their two children” (12), which gave the story closure and a full arc. The story was much better than I originally thought and I still think it is timeless, but I did not necessarily enjoy it. The story is not something I would normally read, I am a romantic and love a happy ending, but still managed to impress me and change my opinion on the play.

In terms of love at first sight, I find it hard to believe Romeo and Juliet were not in love. Although, they may be in love with the idea of their significant other, the thought of love, or who they think the other person is, not who they are. They were indeed in love, but not in love with each other, just who they thought the other person was. That is what most likely happens in today's society when people say love at first sight. In other words, love at first sight is not real, but falling in love with who they think that person is, is real.

Who Killed R&J

I still stand by the hypothesis that Friar Lawrence is the reason why everyone is dead. Throughout the whole play, Friar Lawrence has been scheming and trying to decide fate. Although, he had good intentions, it was not his duty or job to pry and try to set two people up and caused a lot of collateral damage. He agreed to marry Romeo and Juliet to resolve the conflict between the families, but decided to keep it a secret. The wedding was immediately followed by the death of Tybalt and Mercutio, which could have been prevented if Romeo and Juliet were not married. Tybalt did not intened on killing Mercutio until Romeo told him he was married to Juliet. After Mercutio was killed, Romeo killed Tybalt, causing the first two deaths in the play. He also made up the plan for Romeo and Juliet to end up together, which ended horribly. His plan was good, but not well thought out. There were too many factors that could have gone wrong and he mismanaged the information and his whole plan. Tyler Rath has a fairly good explanation of how Friar Lawrence caused the death of Romeo and Juliet. Overall, Friar Lawrence had good intentions, but was not able to manage the situation well, which eventually leads to the death of six people.

What would Helen Fisher say?

Helen Fisher is a neurologist that focuses her research on the brain when it is in love. She has a TED Talk where she discusses what happens to the brain when it is in love and touches on some other neurological aspects of love.

In terms of LAFS, Helen would say, “And we tend to fall in love with someone from the same socioeconomic background, the same general level of intelligence, of good looks, the same religious values.” Although, there is no definite research concluding why two personalities fit together and make a good relationship,but biology may determine which person is best suit for each other. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, both characters grew up in similar situations with almost the exact same socioeconomic background, level of intelligence, level of good looks, and cultural background. A perfect example of Helen Fisher’s conclusion, Although, there is no definite research concluding why two personalities fit together and make a good relationship. On the other hand, biology may determine which person is best suit for each other and that is what Helen Fisher focuses her research on.