Essay On Free Will In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare. In the play, Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other after meeting at a party, but their families will not allow them to be together because the Capulets and Montagues are in a long-standing family feud. Romeo and Juliet do not want this feud to stop them from being together, so they come up with a risky plan. The plan includes Juliet faking her death, but Romeo is not aware of the plan when it takes place. This leads Romeo to think that she is actually dead. Romeo decided to kill himself of grief, and so did Juliet when she woke and discovered Romeo’s body. I believe that both fate and free will led to Romeo and Juliet’s death.
One reason that I know fate played a role is because many things were out of Romeo and Juliet’s hands. For example, “Who bare my letter to Romeo? I could not send it – here it is again – [hands him letter] Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection” (Shakespeare 5.2.13-16). Basically, Friar was wondering if the letter was delivered to Romeo, and Friar Lawrence responds by saying that it wasn’t delivered for fear of spreading an infection. This had an effect on their deaths because the letter had important information and …show more content…

The texts states, “Here’s to my love! O true apothec’ry Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die” (Shakespeare 5.3.119-120). Those were Romeo’s last words to be spoken. He voluntarily killed himself by drinking the poison. Soon after Juliet wakes up and says, “Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die” (Shakespeare 5.3.174-177). This is when Juliet stabbed herself with Romeo’s dagger that she found. This all relates to free will because it was their ultimate decisions to kill themselves. There were many things that pushed them to this point, but no one killed them, and no one forced them to kill themselves; it was their

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