Crushes In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

The Role of Crushes in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
A teenage crush can lead to death. In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the influence of romantic crushes, identity crushes, and parental absence lead to the suicides of two teenage lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, Shakespeare, the author of the play, uses both romantic and identity crushes to communicate that parents need to take teenage crushes more seriously. A romantic crush is a type of romantic admiration of another person, usually of the opposite sex. Romeo and Julet both had romantic crushes on each other, which lead to a tragic ending. The parents of these two lovers were not aware of this relationship, which is not safe, because the parents needed to make sure their children do not “act out under the influence of a crush in self-endangering ways” (Pickhardt). Because they did not, the relationship got out of hand and Romeo took his own life, because he thought Juliet died. Then, Juliet found Romeo dead, so she “[stabbed herself and fell.]” (Shakespeare). This story could have had a happier ending if the parents had been involved in the relationship and took it more seriously. Therefore, the tragic relationship between …show more content…
In the play, Juliet seemed to have an identity crush on Friar Laurence. She looked up to him, and even when he convinced her to do something unsafe like when he told her, “take thou this vial . . . and this distilled liquor and drink thou off,” she trusted him (Shakespeare). This decision made by Juliet and influenced by Friar Laurence, inadvertently lead to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. If the parents had known about the identity crush Juliet had on Friar Laurence and took it seriously, they might have been able to stop the tragic ending of the lovers. Therefore, Shakespeare used identity crushes to communicate that parents need to take these relationships