Bad Decisions and Love Change Endings Seen Through Fate and Fairies

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Recommended: Why were the families feuding in Romeo and Juliet

How can a person express a theme or idea in one of his/ her works? Shakespeare often uses literary elements to help him express a theme. Sometimes, he uses other elements to help him express a theme. Shakespeare teaches how love and bad decisions can cause a person to have different endings to his/her story by using the role of fate in Romeo and Juliet and by using the role of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Shakespeare uses the role of fate in Romeo and Juliet to show how love and bad decisions can change the ending of a story. First, fate brings these two “star-crossed lovers” together (R&J Prologue.6). The lovers are star-crossed because they are from two families (the Montagues and Capulets) that have had an “ancient grudge” (R&J Prologue.4). These two families hate each other so much their servants started a fight in the first scene just because they were from the other family. The fact that the lovers are star-crossed, yet they still love each other is a bad decision because it leads to their doom. Second, in the third act Romeo “slew Tybalt” because of fate (R&J 3.1.178). Tybalt hates Romeo for crashing the party where Romeo met Juliet and he also hates Romeo because he is a Montague. Paris hates Romeo even when Romeo did not get a choice in what family he was born into, it was fate. Then, Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel but Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio. In anger from Mercutio’s death, Romeo kills Tybalt which gets him banished to Mantua. Even though he was angry over his friend’s death, this action was a bad decision by Romeo because the banishment caused problems for the lovers. Then, they have to find a way to still be together. To even more complicate the plot, Mr. Capulet promised Paris that will Juliet “shall be married to” him (R&J 3.4.21). This arrangement happens because Juliet was sad about Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment. The marriage forces the Juliet to fake her death, which is the reason for Romeo’s suicide. Romeo committed suicide because he did not her death was fake. This is a bad decision because Juliet and Friar Lawrence should have found a way to tell Romeo before she fakes her death. Fourth, “Romeo [is] dead and Juliet” is dead too (R&J 5.1.196). The lovers died because they are star-crossed.

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