What Is The Relationship Between Romeo And Juliet

The answer may lie with Sigmund Freud. It is no secret that Freud had little faith in a successful, loving relationship that could endure over a long period. In Mark Edmundson’s essay Freud and Shakespeare on Love, he indicates that, based on Freud’s theory of erotic repetition, “The heart breaks time and again and, Freud insists, it’s prone to do so in the same fashion” (51). If Freud felt that it was human nature to revert to an infantile state which consists of “images and desires, great pleasure…and body-wrenching wants,” perhaps the answer to the question of why young lovers and authors are so fixated on unhealthy relationship originates with the concept of desire (Edmudson 54). More specifically, Romeo and Juliet and subsequent novels,
The fact that Romeo was only recently distressed over his unrequited love for Rosaline should not be forgotten. Now, he attempts to engage in a relationship with Juliet, despite potentially dangerous familial consequences, expecting positive results. Juliet reinforces her similar inclination to repeat behavior that previously brought about aversive results as summarized in the following
Hillman goes on to explain that, “transference love is rooted in past” and displays little regard for reality (303). As Marjorie Garber proposes, “Shakespeare makes modern culture and modern culture makes Shakespeare” (3). This leaves us to consider if Shakespeare truly does perpetuate these unhealthy behaviors in adolescents or if Shakespeare attributed these behaviors to his characters because he recognized them as human nature. One can assume it is some combination of the two as Shakespeare and subsequent young adult literature does little to trouble this Freudian model of human behavior, failing to offer teens a new way to encounter relationships. What Shakespeare intended to create for adult audiences: powerful plays dealing with embedded, repressed aspects of the psyche in an understandable and “highly entertaining way(s)” does not translate to a young adult’s understanding of the play as a means of processing sexual repression. Instead, “children repeat everything that has made a great impression on them in real-life” (Freud 17) and with Romeo and Juliet being taught, essentially as young adult literature to middle school audiences, the reckless and detrimental behaviors of the protagonists are