Juliet’s Age In the twenty first Century, it is commonly known that the proper age of marriage is at least above twenty one. People believe that an individual should have a college degree, a stable career, and a secure salary to support a family. However, Shakespeare contradicts this idea by making his characters young and immature. For example, Juliet in Shakespeare’ play is portrayed as an adolescent. Why would Shakespeare make her so young and immature? Perhaps it was to show the drama in her spontaneous decisions, the impact of love in her life, or just because Shakespeare wanted to individualize his work. Shakespeare, a dramatic author, gives Juliet a young age to portray her love-driven decisions and impulsive choices. In “Too soon marr'd': Juliet's Age as Symbol in Romeo and Juliet,” Karl Franson states that Shakespeare makes her so young to, “amplify the drama of her progress from innocence to suicide.” Juliet falls head over heels in love with Romeo to the point where she wants to marry him and be with him always. However, both of them are too young to get married, and their families also forbid them to be together. Karl Franson also makes a point of how dangerous Elizabethan people believed early motherhood was. This is also why Romeo and Juliet could not be married properly. Juliet is a young teen who has not yet matured physically, therefore not allowed to marry Romeo. By being forbidden, her love-sick heart leads her to her tragic ending. On the other hand, Shakespeare made Juliet so young so that he could illustrate how love made her grow and mature emotionally. In “The Osier Cage; Rhetorical Devices in Romeo and Juliet,” Robert Evans states on page two that, “she is quickly matured by love and grief into a young woman of profound grace and tragic dignity.” Shakespeare shows how Juliet, being a young child in the beginning of the play, grows into a strong individual who chooses death instead of a loveless forced marriage. Juliet lives a devastating life where she has no one to trust and is forbidden to be with her true love. Therefore, when she sees Romeo’s dead body, she too commits suicide (Evans 2). All of the hardships and grief in her life made her mature emotionally, which in the end lead her to her deathbed. William Shakespeare was a man like any other; he had his hopes, dreams, and ambitions like most human beings. What truly drove Shakespeare to set Juliet’s age at the