Is love worth everything? As advertised in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, ill-advised decisions can lead to an unexpected and terrible conclusion. It also lets you know that if feelings about a situation are overly dramatized it can cause a dangerous misstep. This is exactly what Romeo, Juliet and Friar Laurence accomplish in Shakespeare's tragedy. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the main characters cause the tragic outcome of the play through their poor choices and decisions. Most importantly, Romeo's poor choices and decisions lead to the tragedy of the play. From the beginning of the story Romeo reveals his immaturity and ill-equipped emotions. His first mistake is revealed when he claims to be deeply depressed. Romeo states that he feels like “sinking 'under love's heavy burden'” (Dupler). At this point Romeo has succumbed to his emotions, due to the fact that a girl named Rosaline refuses to reciprocate his love for her. Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio, “urge him to stop philosophizing about his lost love and to seek another young woman as the new object of his affections” (Dupler). Romeo now appears to seem incapable of listening to his friends' suggestions and chooses to continue in a youthful state of depression. Romeo makes another fateful decision when he cultivates an undeniably doomed relationship. Romeo admits that he still loves Juliet once her brood appears as Capulet when he says, “Is she a Capulet? Oh dear bill! My life is my enemy's debt” (1.5.115). Romeo irresponsibly supports the idea of ​​a relationship between himself and Juliet only because “The young hero is simply shifting his attention to a more receptive subject as he responds to the erotic drive implicit in his name” (…middle of paper… dy of Romeo and Juliet." Classical, Renaissance, and Postmodernist Acts of the Imagination: Commemorative Essays by O. B. Hardison, Jr. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1996. 177-194. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 118. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center , April 3, 2011. Shakespeare, William and Alan Durband. Shakespeare Made Easy: Romeo and Juliet. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. 1985. Print.