Brooklynn Doyle Miss Breese Period 7 April 10, 2024 Romeo and Juliet Essay Fate Vs. Free will. Fate is the idea that everything is going to happen for a reason, and free will is a voluntary choice made by a person. Fate versus free will is seen in the tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet choose to fall in love, and they also choose to die; therefore, free will. Throughout the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet both make really stupid decisions, for example, choosing to fall in love and get married. Romeo goes to the Capulet party, knowing that everyone there belongs to the Capulet family. He goes up to Juliet and says, “If I profane with my unworthiest hand/ This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this/ My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand /To smooth that rough touch with a …show more content…
Romeo chooses to flirt with and kiss Juliet, which leads to their love. Juliet responds to Romeo's kiss by saying, “Then have my lips the sin that they have taken” (1.5.106). She is happy to kiss Romeo, a stranger, while she is in line to be married to another man. If Romeo and Juliet had not decided to kiss, then they would not have fallen in love, and this is not the only poor decision they make. Both Romeo and Juliet kill themselves, choosing to defy their fate. Once Romeo hears the news that Juliet is “dead” he quickly rushes to get poison, and once inside the Capulet tomb, “I still will stay with thee.And never from this palace of dim night/Depart again./Here's to my love! [ drinks ]... Thus with a kiss I die. [dies]”
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.
Juliet strategizes her disastrous plan and worries, “How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me?” (Lines 30-32 of Act Four, Scene Three). Juliet is desperate to see Romeo, ergo she plans to fake her death. Her thoughts of Romeo finding her lifeless foreshadows their future. Romeo is deprived of the news of Juliet’s real state of health, therefore he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. O mischief, thou art swift to enter the thoughts of desperate men!” (Lines 34-36 of Act Five, Scene One). Once again, Romeo’s perception is only focused on Juliet. His mental instability leads him to think Paris is in the way obtaining true happiness, thus he slays him. Romeo acquires poison, stands beside Juliet, and states, “Here’s to my love! (Drinks.) O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (Lines 119-120 of Act Five, Scene Three). Romeo observes Juliet’s body and determines that he should die beside her. Juliet wakes to his lifeless body, and determines she should commit suicide, as well. Romeo’s foolish decisions lead to the death of himself and
“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.
At the end of, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” the star crossed lovers kill themselves, for as the say throughout the acts, they both would rather die than be apart from each other. But have we really stopped and pointed the finger at the ones who are really responsible for the deaths of this famous couple? Of course, Romeo did willingly drink the poison and Juliet also stabbed herself, but who else could have influenced these irrational actions? Could it be the nurse and the friar for giving the two bad advice? Or would it be the families, for being filled with so much hate that they couldn’t see the love between Romeo and Juliet? Could the end result of these actions ultimately be the effect that the the star crossed lovers have caused
In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, all the choices made by the star crossed lovers have consequences. The two lovers blame fate for their misfortune. They refuse to believe that fate does not determine the end result, only that they can do that. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is presented with a plethora of choices. The audience is introduced to Romeo as he sulks over his lover Rosaline.
When the play begins, Romeo chooses to crash the ball. Even before the Capulet ball, Romeo predicts his “untimely death"(1.4,117). Fate did not make him go to the Capulet ball, he decided to go on his own, even though his “mind misgives some consequences”(1.4, 114). Another example of how free will comes to play is when Romeo finds out later on that Juliet his true love is his enemy. A "fear"(1.5.120), is placed in him. Nonetheless, he still continues to pursue the relationship even though he knows it will only end in trouble.
FLE: Romeo and Juliet: Fate Versus Free Will? “.A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;/.Do with their death bury their parents' strife./ The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,/ And the continuance of their parents' rage,/ Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,/ Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;/ The which if you with patient ears attend,/ What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.” (Prologue, lines 6-14, p.7) Romeo and Julie He describes Romeo and Juliet as “star-cross’d” (Prologue, line 6, p.7) and their love as “death-mark’d”
A timeless topic--fate and free will--still captivates society today. Fortune cookies, physics, and horoscopes all contribute to the obsession people have with this controversial debate over who manipulates life; fate or free will. No one is sure who really pulls the strings, but everyone has an opinion on the matter. Many famous plays center on this topic, and one such play that features characters’ views on fate and free will is Romeo and Juliet. This legendary play, written by William Shakespeare, has been beloved by people for centuries, as they contemplate who is the guiding force in life? The play discusses just this, while depicting the lives of Romeo and Juliet: two desperate teenagers each trapped in their own worlds, seeking love and freedom. The two “star-crossed lovers” are from feuding households, and each has their own distinct problems. Romeo jumps from girl to girl, never finding anyone to reciprocate his feelings until he meets Juliet. She is hidden from the world, and with every decision being made for her, she wants to control her own life, which she does with marrying Romeo. Although fate and free will are both undeniably found in the lives of Juliet and Romeo, it is ultimately fate and the way it manipulates the events, time, and the characters that brings about the untimely death of the two iconic teen lovers.
William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers who belong to two opposite families: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet; the protagonists meet at a party and instantly fall in love, they soon have the Friar perform for them a secret marriage. The play ends with Romeo and Juliet’s death this outcome is do to the protagonists’ free will.
Two lovers lay dead on the ground. One with a wisp of poison on his breath, and the other with a dagger inside her. In the prologue, Shakespeare reveals to us that two star-crossed lovers die because of their families’ ongoing feud. When the two families discover what has happened and how they caused it, the families agree to end the feud and no longer quarrel. Was Romeo’s and Juliet’s death at the hand of the family in the form of fate, or did their choices cause this tragedy? In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, free will is more dominant than fate in the outcome of the play and is shown by Juliet’s actions, Romeo’s actions, and the actions of others.
Some people may not believe that fate truthfully exist in the world. Part of the population doubts that there are things that is meant or supposed to happen thinking that they will always have a way to get around troubling predication, knowing that thing won’t just turn out that one certain way. They are certain of whatever happens in their life is due to the decision they made from their free will. Others, though, believe their life is an inevitable and all events that happen is predestined and planed out for them like a map of life. Or what Shakespeare calls fate. In Shakespeare’s play, fate plays a role like an exceptional crucial force in Romeo and Juliet. Fate leads the two young lovers to come across each other. The moment Juliet and
Fate is someone’s or somethings destiny, no matter what the person does their fate will fulfill itself. According to Bolle Kees fate “Derived from the Latin fatum (something spoken,a prophetic declaration, an oracle, a divine determination), the term fate denotes the idea that everything in human lives, in society , and in the world itself takes place according to a set, immutable pattern”(Kees 2998). Basically meaning what is meant to be will come to pass. According to dictionary.com free will is a “free and independent choice; voluntary decision” (dictionary.com). But free will can also be “a moral, religious, and social concept that is central to philosophy and most religions” (Marcoulesco 3199). Free will could be based on religious beliefs or just having a free mind and doing whatever one is free to do, without thinking of the outcome or consequences. In the play Oedipus The King by Sophocles, Oedipus experiences are caused by his fate,
Fate is a dominating force which operates the development of events. Most people believe that fate is predestined and nothing can be changed. But even a person 's fate is determined by a complex combination of conditions and factors. It includes the choices people make according to the tendencies of their own mind, each time they encounter a specific circumstance. In the play of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, the protagonists believe that their lives are controlled by destiny and luck. However, they had ability to choose what they wanted to do and change their fortune over their lives. Although fate seemed to influence what happened to Romeo and Juliet, their choices ultimately contributed to the result of tragedy because they made their
1. According to the article, it is difficult for an individual to obtain class consciousness in a capitalist society because they lack social and economic characteristics of the class they want to be a member of. Class consciousness is portrayed as the awareness of a social and economic class relative to others, and the economic rank of class within society. The proletariats are challenged by the inequality from bourgeoisies. In contrast of obtaining class consciousness, individuals are living with a false consciousness that can establish an increase of competition of one’s rank between with others.
Romeo and Juliet is regarded as one of William Shakespeare’s most tragic love stories, which has its influence on many aspects of the entertainment industry. In the context of this play, there are uncertainties surrounding whether the fatalities occur as a result of free will or under the uncontrollable force of fate. Through Romeo and Juliet’s premeditated encounter, Shakespeare indicates that fate is primarily responsible for love at first sight. Simultaneously, Romeo and Juliet are also portrayed as victims of their own destiny which induces their misfortunes and deaths. Apart from being one of the major themes, fate is also a main contributor to the outcome of the play.