Herring 1
Seneca Herring
Ms. Rickard
English 9
February 15, 2014
Teenage Marriage In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare there are many issues that the star­crossed lovers must over come. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are young teenagers who fall deeply in love but their families are bitter enemies. Regardless of the feud between their families they hastily marry in secret. They make every effort to overcome the issues put against them but the story ends in tragedy when Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, and Mercutio all die. One issue that is prevalent in Romeo and Juliet and is also faced by today’s teenagers is the issue of teenage marriage.
During the 13th­14th century it was socially acceptable to have arranged marriages between two wealthy families, because the marriages were based off of wealth things like love were not very important. “They are but beggars that can count their worth; but my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up some of half my wealth” Act 2,Scene 6, Line 2. Juliet sees love as wealth, she does not want to marry for money; while many of the other characters such as the Nurse, the Capulets and Paris see love as a way to secure wealth and power. Romeo and
Juliet also wanted the marriage to happen quickly because they believed they were each others true loves and didn't want to wait. The star­crossed lovers also didn't want anyone to know about the marriage except for the Friar and the nurse because it could start an uproar between the two

families.
In society today most teenage marriages are based off of adolescentes getting pregnant out of wedlock. Although, it is not unheard of to find cases of couples around the ages of 17­19 getting married because they believe they have found their true love, “We have such an idealized view of marriage, and about how it’s going to solve the problem of who we are” ... “We think that (by) getting married or having this relationship that all of these problems will magically go away, and the sad thing is you wake up and all those problems are still there ­ they haven't gone away.” Jaynes, Kealy. “Teenage Marriage”<< The Dibble Institute. “ The