Romeo and Juliet kill themselves for love (and other reasons to listen to teenagers)

"My child is yet a stranger in the world; She hath not seen the change of fourteen years, Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride." -Daddy Capulet

Juliet is 14. The character is so often portrayed by a woman in her 20's or 30's that I worry that we miss much of the story. Romeo and Juliet are teens. They have so much passion. Juliet threatens to kill herself once, drinks a potion that might kill her or will ideally let her sleep for 72 hours, and ultimately takes a dagger to her own body. 

Suicide. Two attempts. One complete. And that's just Juliet. Romeo wants to die as soon as he hears that he is banished. He also threatens to kill himself unless someone can come up with a solution to this banishment which means he cannot be with his love. He drinks poison and dies by a sleeping Juliet's side.

I got to see this play Thursday night at American Players Theater in Spring Green, WI. They did a stunning job with it. Really. At one point, all the lively activity of the Capulet party slowly ceases to a complete standstill while Romeo and Juliet meet, flirt and kiss. The other actors were frozen in place. It was incredible. 

But as I sat through this familiar play, reciting the lines in my head as they were being played out on the stage, I began reflecting on how adults overlook teenagers. How easily do we dismiss young love? Passion? The energy and idealism and viewpoint of teenagers? 

Our society has seen far too many teenage suicides in recent years. A large number of them have been LGBTQ. And I suspect adults were telling them that what they were feeling was insignificant, that they would change, that they loved the WRONG person (like "a loathed enemy," perhaps?). 

Picture this. A modern day Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are both female. They keep their love secret from their families because they would seriously disapprove. When Juliet is forced toward a marriage with the dashing earl, Paris, she threatens to end her life rather than spend it in a lie with this man she does not care for. 

You know the rest of the story. It ends in their deaths. "See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love. All are punish'd."

The shining bit of hope? Go back to the very beginning of the play. The opening chorus.

"A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife."

Their tragic death ends their parents fighting. 

Adults, listen to me now as I tell you to LISTEN TO YOUR TEENAGERS. Their passion and pursuits are not insignificant. If we do not listen, what message do we send but that they are not worth listening to? Tone down the judgement. Put your own sense of right and wrong and up and down aside. And listen. Just listen. It could save a life.