“Everything in moderation, even moderation.” - Oscar Wilde The story of Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, is abundant with moments of despair and glimpses of happiness that coalesce to aggregate into a mosaic of tragedy and romance. But throughout the entirety of Shakespeare’s great romantic misadventure, the one thing that remains constant is adversity. It is the ember that tempers our character’s spirits, but also the inferno that consumes all, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. Romeo goes through many perils and hardships in the unfolding of the play, each tempering his spirit but ultimately extinguishing his soul as we grasp the tragedy that is Romeo and Juliet. Romeo’s adamant resolution is annealed during the course of the play by his unrequited love for Rosaline, Mercutio’s death, his banishment from Verona, and Juliet’s “death”. In the end, this is the cause of his own destruction and the demolition of the discord between the families, which proves to be the most paramount adversity throughout the world famous tragedy. Initially, we see Romeo as a Petrarchan lover, as his love for Rosaline is unrequited and she being the source of his depression. He is characterized in the play as a young and inexperienced lover who is more in love with the concept of being in love than with the woman herself. This is shown by his use of exaggerated language and stylistic devices. He truly embodies “misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms” (I.i.171) when it comes to his emotions as he is so despondent and melodramatic when faced with the problem of unrequited love that he is unable to think rationally with a clear resolution when confronted with adversity. Even though Rosaline never appears in the play and is only discussed among Romeo’s peers, she plays a pivotal role in the temperance of Romeo’s resolve. It is because of her that Romeo decides to attend the Capulet feast, despite being peer pressured into going rather than listening to his heart as “[his] mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars” (I.iv.12-13). She is the first adversity that Romeo faces, unbeknownst to her. His emotions are not yet firm and lucid, thus making his feelings chaotic and blurred, until he is later introduced to Juliet where he states whether or not “[his] heart loved till now” (I.v.51) and that “[he] never saw true beauty till this night” (I.v.52). Romeo never confronted the adversity of his unrequited love for Rosaline, yet instead fell in love with someone else by the name of Juliet Capulet, thus abandoning his love for Rosaline for another. He is constantly falling in love and is ready to fall into depression when it becomes unrequited. This displays immaturity and weakness of resolution when it comes to decision making and confronting adversity. Rosaline acts as the impetus to bring the "star-crossed lovers" (I, Prologue.6) to their deaths as she is crucial in shaping their fate. Shakespeare demonstrates in this way that a person who plays a seemingly inconsequential aspect in one’s life may actually have a very momentous prerogative over their destiny. Shakespeare establishes that adversity can come in a plethora of designs, but it is never to be underestimated as a hindrance of diminutive priority to the human spirit. However, as the tragedy progresses and the plot u