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Romeo and juliet tragedy analysis
Introduction to Romeo and Juliet Books
Introduction to Romeo and Juliet Books
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Fate and free-will are both widely discussed topics in the world today. In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, fate and free-will greatly influenced Romeo and Juliet’s lives at every opportunity. That influence was both good and bad, and led to their premature deaths at the end of the play. Fate can be described as the development of events beyond a person’s control, while free-will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. Free-will caused Romeo and Juliet to fall in love with each other, make poor choices, and ultimately die an untimely death. Romeo and Juliet made their own decisions as to who they fell in love with, and that decision was with each other. After the Capulet party where Romeo …show more content…
In this quote, Juliet tells Romeo that if he truly loves her, then he will make plans to marry her tomorrow and that she will be a true and loyal wife to him. This quote proves that free-will was the cause of the lovers’ unfortunate deaths because Juliet made the decision to be with Romeo even though he was supposed to be her enemy. She knew that only trouble would arise if their parents found out, yet she went ahead with the marriage anyway. As a result of free-will, Romeo and Juliet made numerous bad choices throughout the play. After Romeo hears about Juliet’s “death,” he visits an apothecary to ask for a deadly poison that he can drink. Romeo wants to die because he can’t bear the thought of continuing life without Juliet. The apothecary says to Romeo, “Put this in any liquid thing you will/ And drink it off, and if you had the strength/ Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight” (V.i.77-79). The apothecary tells Romeo what the poison will do to him and how to use it. This quote shows free-will is to blame for Romeo’s death because he made the poor decision to go out and buy a lethal poison that he knew could kill him. Nothing forced him to buy that poison, and it wasn’t “written in the stars” that he was going to use poison to kill himself. It was all his own
Romeo is in love with Rosaline at the very beginning of the story and has just found out that she has taken the vow of chastity. Meanwhile Lord Capulet has given County Paris Juliet’s hand in marriage if he can wait until she is sixteen. The Capulets have a party so that Juliet and the Count can meet and he can then woo her. When Romeo and Juliet first meet they are at the Capulet party, which Romeo sneaks into. They fall in love at first sight without realizing that they are enemies. Fate brings them together and it is fate that they are enemies.
The tragic outcomes of Romeo and Juliet were determined by their free will because they didn’t go with their
“It lies not in our power to love, or hate, for will in us is over-rul'd by fate.” In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, it is clear that the leading theme is fate, as it is mentioned several times. Shakespeare allows the audience to see everything that happens “behind closed doors.” While some characters’ actions did affect the outcome of the play, fate is the ruling force.
Since we can ultimately make decisions to what we desire, for we all have free will, could Romeo and Juliet thus have done anything different to avoid their death-marked love? Ever since Romeo saw Juliet on page 757, he tells us about how he finds her irresistible and of her beauty that is, “too rich for use, for earth to dear!” And we see on the next page that their love was destined to be. But afterwards, they are in a rush to marry each other, and at the end of day two, the friar and the nurse help the star crossed lovers do exactly that. What if, instead of keeping the marriage a secret, if Romeo and Juliet told their parents about their marriage? If they did this, would the two lords have disregarded their hate for one another’s families, thus accomplishing what the friar hoped that Romeo and Juliet’s marriage would do? And even though Romeo and Juliet kept their marriage a secret from their families, they could have avoided their suicidal actions by avoiding the poisons that were offered to Juliet on pages 821-822 and to Romeo on pages 837-838. For like I said before, the both of them ultimately had the free will to choose to drink the poisons that were given to them. If Juliet didn’t take the sleeping drugs, then Romeo would have saw her to be well and would have stayed in Mantua. If this did happen, then would the nurse and or the friar have helped her to escape from Verona, and Lord Capulet’s plan to have Juliet marry Paris? So, in the end, Romeo and Juliet are the only ones we can wholly place the blame upon for their inevitable
The best explanation, however, is that Shakespeare does not rely entirely on fate. Romeo holds responsibility for his actions in regards to committing suicide, whether or not he was destined to die from the beginning. This ending is avoidable in many ways. First of all, if the Friar had thought through his plan a little more he would have realized that there are some flaws that could result in serious consequences, as happened. Also, Romeo could have tried to live his life without his lover and then soon realized that she was alive, though this would be very hard to do.
Some people argue that fate played a big factor in the death of Romeo and Juliet,However the teens decisions are what caused their own deaths they both made the decision to kill themselves. They both made the decision to kill themselves Romeo did it after he thought Juliet was dead Romeo says “Here’s to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick.Thus with a kiss I die” (5.3.119.120). After Juliet wakes up and sees that Romeo has taken
Juliet is to drink a potion to make her appear dead, and later wake to be free of the shame of marrying Paris. Here, Friar Lawrence is assuring Juliet that he will send a letter to Romeo, explaining their plan. Romeo doesn’t receive that letter, and he does not know what is to happen. Free will comes with great consequences. Friar Lawrence and Juliet inflicted their own wounds by not telling Romeo of their plan. If they had taken the time to make sure that Romeo got the information, their plan might have succeeded, and Romeo and Juliet would be free to marry each other. A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents. (V, iii, 154-155)
Romeo and Juliet is widely known to be a tragedy, but what caused the atrocity for which it is so renowned? Some may argue fate was to blame for Romeo’s and Juliet’s deaths, that the situations these young lovers faced were depicted as being out of their control. Could Romeo have refused to attend the Capulet masque? Was Romeo destined to duel the raging Tybalt? Did Romeo and Juliet truly have to kill themselves? If one considers the specific circumstances and causes of these situations, the fact that all scenarios are the result of choice rather than chance, and the notion that the characters were never left without options, only one conclusion can be determined. It was unarguably the decisions made by characters, not those made by fate, that were responsible for the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet.
The death of Romeo and Juliet was partially because of free will. The fact that Romeo and Juliet got married knowing that there was a bitter feud between their families, the Montague and Capulet’s. This feud brought on many problems, such as the murder of Tybalt by Romeo. Juliet knew that this might be a problem for Her and Romeo. Juliet had said: “What’s in a name”? Which explains her ill fate of being a Capulet and Romeo being a Montague. When Romeo tells his servant “ Ay, mine own fortune in my misery”. This illustrates that he does not...
Romeo and Juliet believe their fate is to be together even without knowing each other for longer than a day, deciding to get married right away. In the play without Romeo, nor Juliet's parents knowing, the night after meeting Romeo decided to have Juliet marry him and he says “I take thee a thy word. Call me
Juliet is as much to blame for their fate as Romeo. She knows that the
Romeo has taken the poison, which caused instant death, and Juliet had awoke and seen Romeo, she took his dagger and killed her self. I believe that Shakespeare wanted the audience to believe that fate was to blame and no matter what choices the characters made fate would always have intervened and the outcome would have been just as tragic. This is because this fits in with the major influence of the time, during the Elizabethan period the theme of fate and Greece god’s where what they believed and where influenced by.
...east, By some vile forfeit of untimely death”(shakespeare act 1 scene 5). which he's basically saying i will wait and see what fate has in store for me,also he saying he's destined to die.I think romeo believes in fate to much that he thinks that everything revolves around fate, even though some of it could've been his fault and other peoples faults.like when mercutio died (shakespeare act 3 scene 1) tybalt caused the fight not fate he could of just let it go but he persisted on fighting which caused the death of mercutio.Romeo also believed in fate to much he let it control his life,it was like a book to him like he had to follow code.As a result it got him into bad situations,in turn caused his own demise.If romeo believed in fate so much than he should of realized that him and Juliet weren't meant to be. these are examples why romeo is at fault for his own demise.
No force of fate could have compelled him to do such an act. These actions of other characters in the play such as the death of Mercutio, the apothecary selling Romeo an illegal poison, and the Friar admitting that the death of Romeo, Juliet, and Paris are his fault are the final examples of how free will is more dominant than fate in the outcome of the play. Romeo and Juliet made many choices out of their own free will, including an irreversible decision that ended in despair for all characters. “All are punished!”(5.3.305). In the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, the actions of Romeo, the actions of Juliet, and the actions of others prove that free will is more paramount than fate in the plot of the play.
In regards to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare chose fate to be a strong underlying theme which constructs the basis of the story line. Fate has the ability to control the characters’ lives and one minor change in the way it had acted would have changed the entire outcome. Through Romeo and Juliet’s spontaneous encounter, fate was largely responsible for love at first sight alongside controlling the misfortunate events that occur as a result of their love. Apart from love and misfortune, Shakespeare suggests that Romeo and Juliet were destined to die the way they did, despite the fact that it was their choice to end their lives. The outcome of the play was a direct result of fate, which to a notable extent was responsible for the many events which were destined to occur.