In other accounts the pair have time to fall in love however for our R & J its instant which leaves us begging the question…is it love or something else? if you look at one of the resources 'shakie' based his version on 'Romeus and Juliet' by Brooke's then it becomes apparent that it was about lust, sin, etc everything that shouldn't be done. its also important to note that all other accounts of a Romeo and Juliet saga extend over a number of accounts and shakespeare has compressed this to under a week depending on what resource you listen to. having the couple married so young was unusual and holds some sort of significance and probably would have weirded out audiences at the time. I've been doing a lot of research for an essay I have to write on the topic and one source (Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare by Emma Smith) said that although most people presume that marriage at that age was a normal thing to do it wasn't. Just been reading through some of the comments on Juliets age and Romeo and Juliets marriage…

Posted in Best Of, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare Answers, Shakespeare Geek So that certainly backs up the idea that you have to cast R&J of roughly equivalent ages to avoid squicking out your audience. But because of her small frame, in her words, “Leonardo looked like he was molesting me.” The director said the same thing I said above, only backwards - “Leonardo was 21, but could look 18 – and she made him look 21.” In other words he looked too old, not that she looked too young. Apparently Natalie Portman auditioned for the role of Juliet. While looking at the trivia for Luhrman’s movie, I learned something interesting. Better than trying to imagine 13yr old Tybalt saying, “I hate the word as I hate Hell….” Update! Juliet can be young and be the smart one. Romeo can be older and still be rash and impetuous.

I don’t need to make her older to justify anything, and I don’t need to make Romeo younger to get it to balance out. That she’s 13, surrounded by people generations older than her, is quite impressive. But honestly I’m cool with it (the age difference, not the pedophilia!) The more I read the play, the more I appreciate that Juliet is the most mature person in it. I can just imagine R&J being closed down because it promotes pedophilia or something. It wouldn’t stage well these days to point out that age difference, of course. And often I think that we then make the leap and assume that Romeo is 13 as well.īut that’s hardly true, is it? Would that imply that Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris are also all about 13? Surely it was the case that men simply chose younger wives ( Capulet is much older than his wife, is he not?), and actually we can assume that Romeo and the others are what, maybe late teens, early 20’s? How old is Romeo? Sure, we all know that Juliet is 13, the Nurse comes right out and tells us. Mercutio Drew First Merchandise Now Available!

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