How is youth and old age shown in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

Youth and
age are certainly contrasted in , though not necessarily old age. It is rather a contrast
between youths and adults.

Youth is portrayed through the young characters of
the play, such as , , , and . Juliet is our youngest character, being only 13. We know that
Juliet is only 13 because her father points out tothat she is not yet fourteen in saying,
"She hath not seen the change of fourteen years" (I.ii.9). Likewise, Juliet's Nurse
points out that in a little more than two weeks, Juliet will be 14 (I.iii.18-21). We are never
told exactly how old Romeo is, but since he and his friends are men roaming around town, we know
that he and his friends are at least in their late teens, possibly early twenties. If they were
younger, they would still be at home studying under their tutors, which was the way that boys of
high society were educated back then.

All of these young characters make
extremely emotionally driven, impetuous, and rash decisions. Even Benvolio, who is known for
being the peace maker, comes up with the foolish idea to crash the Capulet's ball. We can assume
that crashing the ball was his idea because, as the second speaker in the scene, he is the one
to lay out the plan in Scene 4 of Act 1. Both Romeo and Juliet also make the rash, emotional
decision to marry so suddenly. The whole play is full of youthful, emotionally driven, rash
decisions.

In contrast, some of the characters that represent the older,
adult generation of the play are Lords and Ladies Capulet and Montague, , and Prince Escalus.
But even these older characters are not necessarily wiser. They, too, are known for making
emotionally driven, rash decisions. Lords Capulet and Montague have made the decision to carry
on a feud that was actually begun by their ancestors, as we learn from the line, "From
ancient grudge break to new mutiny," found in the opening(3). Their decision to fight
actually goes against their own known better judgement, as we learn from Capulet when he
declares "and 'tis not hard, I think, / For men so old as we to keep the peace"
(I.ii.2-3). Friar Laurence decides against his own better judgement to marry Romeo and Juliet,
simply because he hopes it will end the feud. He also makes the irrational decision to fake
Juliet's death, rather than to announce her marriage to her father. Even Prince Escalus, who is
known as the voice of righteous judgement and pure reason, confesses to making poor decisions.
He repents not putting an end to the feud sooner as it cost him Mercutio's life, his own family
member.

Hence, we see that while youth is contrasted with the older
generation in the play, both the youth and the adults actually make the same foolish,
emotionally driven, impetuous, and rash decisions, showing us that so long as you allow yourself
to be governed by your emotions, there is actually not a vast difference between youth and
age.