Detrimental Impacts Of Haste In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Detrimental Impacts of Haste Making decisions in life can be difficult and people often rush and act too quickly without taking time to think their actions through. When under pressure to make the right decisions haste comes into play and the impacts are detrimental, as proven in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The main characters in this text ignore many dark signs warning them along the way as they rush decision after decision leading to tragic results. The saying “haste makes waste” means that when action is taken in a hurry there are negative consequences which Romeo and Juliet both struggle with. Their lives take a spin downhill when they become overly eager to be together, are impatient, and act with rashness. For example, after Romeo and Juliet’s instant marriage their lives become filled with doom and tragic losses. It is important to take one day at
a time and stay patient, being sure to be content with decisions.
The detrimental impact of haste is reflected and absorbed in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet through characterization, foreshadowing, and conflict. Both Romeo and Friar Lawrence make many rushed decisions in the play which never have positive outcomes. Romeo meets Juliet at the Capulet feast and instantly falls in love with her. Without even knowing her personality or her name, Romeo is deeply in love. He acts with rashness and asks her to marry him the very next day. This seems to be typical of his character; Romeo is desperate for affection and acts accordingly. “O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.” Romeo’s conception is that the faster he goes through with things the better the outcome will be. Friar Lawrence, who also seems to act with the rashfulness of youth, agrees to marry the young lovers without thinking his decision through. He makes it for the arguably selfish reason of wanting to end the Montague-Capulet feud, but doesn’t consider the
negative impacts it will have on the youths’ lives. After the precipitant marriage everything in Romeo and Juliet’s lives becomes tragic and unhappy. Friar makes a plan later on in the play to help re-unite Romeo and Juliet by creating a fake death potion. Again he makes the decision on the spot, not realizing the potential harm that could come from it. “And if aught in this miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrificed, some hour before his time, Unto the rigour of severest law.” Friar Lawrence only realizes his actions hastened the catastrophe after the tragedy was over. Another example of haste in this play is Romeo’s decision to kill himself when he believes Juliet is dead. He does not consider what he still has to live for, because if he had taken the time to do so, Juliet would have woken to a living husband and the end of the story would not be so tragic. Both Romeo and Friar Lawrence are displayed as characters that act with haste and are met with negative outcomes. Shakespeare shows the detrimental impact of haste not only through characterization, but also through foreshadowing. There are many occasions in the play Romeo and Juliet when the negative effects of haste are displayed through foreshadowing. The signs warning that bad things will happen to those who rush appear often but the characters ignore them repeatedly. When young Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to marry he and Juliet, the Friar portrays the idea that this sudden decision may end badly. “These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die, like fire and powder… Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; too swift arrives as tardy as too slow”. It is important to take one day at a time because as the friar says, it seems all good now but acts of impatience don’t have a positive outcome. Another example of foreshadowing the detrimental impacts of haste is when Juliet and Romeo are discussing plans of seeing each other again after Romeo is banished. “O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.” Juliet thinks the previous plans developed to allow her and Romeo to be together will result in disaster. The foreshadowing in her quote turns out to be all too true because she literally finds Romeo dead beside her in a tomb later in the novel. This tragic ending and Juliet’s worried feelings earlier in the play are due to acting with rashness. Foreshadowing is used in Romeo and Juliet to display the negative effects of acting hastily, as is conflict. Through conflict, Shakespeare shows the detrimental impact of haste in the play Romeo and Juliet. The characters in this play often act without thinking and the results are not pleasing. An example of interpersonal conflict is when Tybalt wishes to fight Romeo. He doesn’t take the time to figure out why Romeo was at the Capulet feast, he just assumes it was for questionable reasons and wants to battle. When Mercutio fights Tybalt instead of Romeo he is killed and this makes Romeo furious. He wants revenge and impatiently goes to hunt down Tybalt. He does not consult his new wife for advice on the situation but rather acts with haste and kills Tybalt. When Romeo is banished he is upset but these negative outcomes should have been expected when acting in such a rush. “My husband lives that Tybalt would have slain; And Tybalt’s dead that would have slain my husband.” The conflict between these characters is always based on fiery tempers sparked in the moment and can only lead to a tragic ending. The conflict between the Montague family and the Capulet family also leads to tragedy. The mortal feud creates a feeling of pressure for Romeo and Juliet to act in the moment and proceed with marriage before the conflict of their families can interfere with their love. As it turned out, it would have been better to use patience and not be so rash and wait to find a wiser path for their love. “The fearful passage of their death mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, which but their children’s end naught could remove.” Conflict creates situations in which characters feel compelled to act precipitately, bringing about problematic results. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the detrimental impact of haste is reflected and absorbed through characterization, Foreshadowing and conflict. The main characters in this play rush their decisions and ignore warning signs of negative outcomes constantly. Romeo and Juliet’s families’ lives become filled with doom and tragedy after many acts of rashness. Rather than being impatient, it is worth it to take one day at a time and think decisions through. It is very typical of characters Romeo and Friar Lawrence to act with the rashfulness of youth. The negative impact of haste is displayed through foreshadowing as well, when Friar Lawrence warned the young star-crossed lovers that their sudden marriage would have a violent end. Lastly, Shakespeare demonstrated the negative outcomes of acting on the spot through conflict, when a battle breaks out between Tybalt, Mercutio, and Romeo. “For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” Shakespeare shows that when making decisions under pressure, it is tough and people act with haste, resulting in detrimental impacts.