Romeo and Juliet Strengths and Weaknesses

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a play that is titled after the two characters in the play, and the success or failure of the tragedy lies in the believability of the characters. The two have been a symbol of innocence and undaunting faith for ages. At the same time, many have deemed them to be silly, immature teenagers whose own actions caused their own demise. The two perspectives need to be in a just evaluation. Both Romeo and Juliet are the perfect example of naivety, manliness, and the abilities of love, but they are also reckless, unfaithful, and rash. This essay is an argument that those same qualities are what makes the lovers magnetic, those same qualities are what makes them weak, and those same qualities ultimately destroy the lovers and that Shakespeare was not coincidental in doing so.

Juliet's Strengths

Of the two, Juliet is a more impressive character. She is the first to have an inquisitive mind and cannot buy anything without asking questions, and inherited hatred is her primary weapon. On the balcony, she describes how she must face the feud – and the only way she can succeed is to defy her own name, asking "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" (2.2.33). She's also generous and honest with her emotions, stating that "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep" (2.2.140). Most importantly, she has less faith than Benvolio in the integrity of young men and will not count on the moon, "ear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon" (2.2.114). That instinct is a sort of maturity that her elder suitors can never claim her.  Her sincerity also sets her apart from the cliched, coy heroines of the time; she freely shares her emotions, and even concerns herself that she has been too forward, and this shows a sense of self-awareness in a character so young.

Romeo's Strengths

Romeo's strengths are not in his material abilities but in his emotional abilities. He's a man who loves, and he shows his love to us in some of the most memorable verses in the play. Upon his first sight of Juliet, all his previous sadness vanishes, and he asks, "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night" (1.5.59). He is also brave for love's sake, dismissing the mortal danger of standing in the Capulet orchard with the claim that "My life were better ended by their hate / Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love" (2.2.82). He is never suspected of lying; whatever his faults are, he is telling the truth.

Shared Strength: Courage and Commitment

Combined, the lovers have a desire to take action as a result of the conviction that is missing in the adults who surround them. They marry without the consent of their parents; they defy two warring families; they are united in death. Even Friar Lawrence, who chastises them on the reasonableness of their moving too fast, conducts the marriage since their devotion appears to be true enough to mend the feud. It is this courage that makes them good, not foolish children: they are not chastised for their lack of care, but the opposite. Faithful once committed and once committed, Juliet demands that the more she gives, the more she can have, as they are boundless. Even those who shoot down their decisions hold that complete determination in high esteem.

Romeo's Weaknesses

Romeo's flaws, however, are serious. Inconstancy is the most apparent. He's down on his luck for good reason at the beginning of the play, when he expresses his grief over Rosaline, but forgets her the instant he sees Juliet, and this is just the randomness Juliet fears later. His biggest downfall is short-tempered. He kills Tybalt in a burst of rage that gets him banished and immediately recognizes the self-inflicted nature of the disaster, crying "O, I am Fortune's fool" (3.1.142). He's indecisive and that's what takes his life because when Juliet says she's dead, he decides to kill himself in a matter of seconds, rather than checking if it's true. There's no governor to his passion, and it's this that kills him.

Juliet's Weaknesses

Juliet is stable although not perfect. Although she warns him to wait before falling in love, she does fall in love, agreeing to marry Romeo, who also agrees after only a night together, and quickly does so. Her age, as she is only twelve or thirteen, deprives her of the practice to go through with the crisis she contributes to, and her total devotion to Romeo alienates her from all other people who would be able to hold her back in any way, her parents, and the Nurse. Upon which the support gives way, she places her life in the precarious scheme of the Friar. Her spirit is good, but, like Romeo's, it is driven down to a folly.

Shared Weakness: Fatal Haste

The most obvious sin the lovers have in common is their haste. They fall in love, they marry, and they both die days after marrying, and the play strongly warns against it. Friar Lawrence calls their union "too rash, too unadvised, too sudden" (2.6.9) and counsels them to love "Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast" (2.3.101). They stumble that run fast" (2.3.101). They reject him and it's a definite threat. Their imprecision is not their fault, because it is the logical result of their greatest strength: Love.

Conclusion

The lovers can be neither celebrated as idealistic heroes of love, nor condemned as the foolish young lovers. Bright, kind, and courageous, Juliet is handicapped by her youth and isolation. Romeo's character is loving, faithful, but fickle and very reckless. They are joined by the commonality of courage, and by the commonality of haste, and they cannot be separated. It is the source of the lasting impact of the tragedy. As per the genius of Shakespeare, his heroes acquire virtues that turn into vices, and the audience is supposed to feel more sympathy for them because it is those attributes that we admire in them, that lead them to their graves. They are not feeble characters, ill-sketched; they are strong characters, and have their good turned against them; that's why they're here.