In romeo and Juliet does William Shakespeare think that marriage at a young age was okay?

Answer 1

Shakespeare did not write his plays to say what was "okay" or not. He wrote them to entertain. For example, in Act 1 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, Paris wants to marry Juliet, but Capulet thinks she is too young, and should wait a couple of years. Paris says "Younger than she are happy mothers made." and Capulet responds "And too soon marr'd are those so early made." Paris is saying it's OK for girls barely fourteen to get married; Capulet (at least at this stage of the play) is against it. Is either of them speaking for Shakespeare? No, of course not. Paris says it's OK because it's what he wants; Capulet hesitates because he cares for Juliet and perhaps he feels that his own wife was married too early.

You cannot argue that the play is a sermon against marrying young, because the tragedy that envelops Romeo and Juliet does not have to do with their age, but with the surrounding circumstances and their anticipation that their fathers will oppose their marriage. The same would have happened had they been twenty.