Romeo and Juliet: Love or Infatuation? William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet," contains some of the most quoted lines in literature. It is the ultimate love story, the epitome of romance. However, this is not a story of deep bonded love, but rather one of deep infatuation. This is actually a story of puppy love carried to the extreme. One gets the impression that had these two, Romeo and Juliet, lived another week or even another day, they would have become infatuated with someone else, particularly Romeo, and been expressing undying devotion to a new face by the next phase of the moon.

Juliet has "not seen the change of fourteen years," and thus, her suitor, Paris, is advised to "let two more summers wither in their pride, ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."

Therefore, Juliet cannot be any older than thirteen years. She is basically still a child. It makes one shudder to think of a thirteen-year-old even being courted, much less married. Thirteen-year-old girls are impressionable, to say the least. They cherish teen idols, which is what Romeo represents. He is just enough older than Juliet for her to be drawn to him, like any young girl is drawn or infatuated with an older boy. For example, a middle-school girl would be on cloud nine if a high-school boy paid attention to her, and if he made advances towards...

In Shakespeare's play, Romeo professes his love for two different females on the same day. He apparently falls in love at the drop of a hat. He basically crashes Capulet's party in order to see Rosaline, once he sees that her name is on the invitation list. Of Rosaline, Romeo says, "One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun, Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."
From this statement, one assumes that Rosaline has hung the moon as far as Romeo is concerned. She occupies his mind, she is all that he can talk about. That is, until he sees Juliet. Then it's goodbye Rosaline. One can only wonder whom he dumped for Rosaline, who came before she was the apple of his eye. When Romeo spots Juliet, he says, "It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear; ... Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

In a matter of a split second, Romeo's deep undying affections were transferred to another female. There was no hesitation, no regret, no conflict within his soul whatsoever. He fell as deeply for Juliet as he had for Rosaline. This is not the actions of a mature…