Was Romeo's reaction to his banishment in Act 3, scene 3 understandable or excessive?

I think a lot of this answer depends on the reader. Personally, I think it's excessive; however, many of my students fiercely defend his response as completely understandable. I suppose it's both. He's a young, impulsive teenager, and his response to banishment is a typical teenager's excessive overreaction to bad news. The friar comes in and tells Romeo that he has been banished instead of sentenced to death. Romeo's reaction is classic over-exaggeration. Romeo says that banishment is far worse than death.

Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say “death,”
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say “banishment.”

Friar Lawrence tries to talk some sense into Romeo, but Romeo isn't having any of it. Romeo goes so far as to say that the only world is Verona because that is where Juliet is. If he can't be there with her, there is no world worth living in. Death would simply be a kinder punishment.


There is no world without Verona walls
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence “banishèd” is banished from the world,
And world’s exile is death. Then “banishèd,”

Is death mistermed. Calling death “banishment,”
Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden ax
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.





The friar continues to try and talk some sense into Romeo. He stresses that Romeo is alive even though his crime demands his death.


O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath rushed aside the law,
And turned that black word “death” to “banishment.”
This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.



This back and forth between these characters continues far too long. Friar Lawrence attempts to persuade Romeo for much longer than I would have. I would have given up and started laughing at his excessive whining, but many of my students that claim to have loved and lost love are proud of the friar for his continued efforts. They empathize with Romeo's response; therefore, they see it as understandable. Eventually, Romeo's suicide comes up in the discussion, and this is the moment when Friar Lawrence has had enough. He firmly puts Romeo in his place through a long "suck it up" type speech.


Thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better tempered.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself,
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives
By doing damnèd hate upon thyself?