In “Romeo and Juliet” both Romeo and Juliet appear to be acting out against their parental control. There love appears to be absurdly founded on absolutely nothing. Many people say that Romeo and Juliet both act differently from how they would have acted if this play were real. I do however believe that there love is founded on something beyond the superficial. To me both Romeo and Juliet appear to be trying to take control of their own lives in a way that has previously been denied to them. Neither the Montagues nor the Capulets would allow this marriage to occur under any circumstance. They both long to shed the shackles of their families and live their own lives the way they want to live them. This love is less about actually love and more about trying to escape their individual parental controls. These two are merely children at 13 years of age. They would do anything to defy their parental figures.
Capulet approaches Juliet in act III and demands that she marry Paris. She refuses because she is already married to Romeo. She is sick of her parents directing the course of her life and feels that it is time for her to live her own life. She drastically takes her own life into her hands in act IV where she ingests a sleeping potion. Before she drinks the potion she thinks about all the terrible things that could go wrong with the potion. She decides that she will drink the potion anyway. This is Juliet taking control of her own life for the first time in the play.
Romeo does the same in this portion of the book by agreeing to stay with Juliet on their wedding night even after dawn begins to break. It is not the best decision and Juliet allows him to leave once he agrees to stay. Still, Romeo takes his own life into his hands.
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