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Shakespeare treats death in Romeo and Juliet
Fate vs. free will in romeo and juliet
Destiny and fate in Romeo and Juliet
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Fate and Destiny is a mystery to everyone. Fate can decide someone's entire life by impacting the decisions they make and the things they do. In the story, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the main focus is love and fate, as the two main characters are destined to be together but multiple events happen that tear them apart. The two forbidden lovers end up taking their own lives due to the feuds between the two families. Fate is very powerful, and has a much greater impact on the characters in the play than personal choices each of the characters make do. In some cases of fate, people can be brought to you as a large part of your life and end up making a huge impact on you. In Romeo and Juliet, a servant is unable to read and holds …show more content…
The two lovers are enemies from two different families. When Juliet finds this out, she says “My only love sprung from my only hate” (Shakespeare 204). This is something that wouldn’t just happen out of the blue, it is something that occurs because of the fate and destiny of the two. Juliet knows the consequences for this love as well, but disregards it all. She says “I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars.” (Shakespeare 200). This shows that Juliet fears what could happen to her because of this love, but she is still pulled to and attracted to this love. Events like this would bring most relationships apart, but not this one, as they refuse to be …show more content…
When Juliet first faked her death to trick her family and be with Romeo, the plan did not exactly work. A servant that was told to take a letter to Romeo says, “I could not send it - here it is again.” (Shakespeare 268). The letter that was initially written to inform Romeo that Juliet’s death was not real never reached Romeo, causing him to believe that she is dead. Once Romeo comes to visit the “dead” Juliet, something very unlikely happens. Romeo consumes a poison while Juliet is in his arms, because he believes he should kill himself to be with Juliet. As he drinks the poison, Juliet wakes up and says, “My lips are warm.” (Shakespeare 274). Right as Juliet awakes, Romeo had already drank the poison and killed himself. Personal decisions couldn’t have prevented this, the timing was too perfect and nothing could’ve prevented this besides fate, which ultimately is what decided this to
Fate can be defined as being “a power that determines and controls everything that is or happens,” (Newfeldt (Ed.) p.431) while destiny can be described as “what is predetermined to happen in spite of all efforts to change or prevent it.” (Newfeldt (Ed.) p.321) Therefore, fate is the entity that decides all that will occur, and destiny is the decision made by fate. Tragedy can be defined as the dramatic representation of serious and important actions that turn out disastrously for the main character. This indicates that the tragedies in Romeo and Juliet were the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and to say fate and destiny were not responsible for these tragedies, is to say the characters of the play, rather than some intangible force, were aware and in control of the actions that caused Romeo’s and Juliet’s
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.
The lack of communication between the young couple killed them. Romeo’s reaction to seeing juliet dead (not actually dead) was to kill himself. “Oh my love! My wife, death that hath sucked” (3.5.141-142) If Romeo and Juliet planned out the rescue of Juliet's body more thoroughly, Romeo would not have killed himself.
...re her fake dead body is kept, and drinks the poison he brought with him, hastily, without giving it a second thought, assuming that Juliet was dead and that he might not be able to live without her. However, Juliet wakes up at the moment when Romeo falls dead on her lap and she exclaims, “Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end” (5.3.167), signifying the untimely death of Romeo that occurred due to his unnecessary haste.
Love is a wonderful curse that forces us to do unexplainable things. Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by William Shakespeare, who does an exceptional job in showing the readers what hate, mercy, death, courage, and most importantly what love looks like. This play is about two star-crossed lovers who are both willing to sacrifice their lives just to be with one another. Unfortunately tragedy falls upon the unconditional love Romeo and Juliet have for each other, but along the way they experience immeasurable forgiveness and extraordinary braveness just to be with one another. Sadly enough, love is a cause of violence in the end. Even though the pair spends less time together, it is enough for them to fall in love. It is clearly true
Poor choices can cause tragic outcomes. Fate, on the other hand, is beyond someone's control. Many people believe that regardless of their actions, fate and destiny determine the outcome of their lives. However, in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the outcome of Romeo and Juliet's lives were controlled by the choices that they made. Although the deaths of Romeo and Juliet were mentioned in the prologue of the story as star-crossed lovers, the tragic ending of the couple was determined by their free will as a result of unwise decisions.
Love is ironic. It can take you anywhere in the world unexpectedly, and turn you into a person that you never were. However, love is also two-faced, having both a negative and positive view. It is what drives you to the point where you do not know who you are anymore. In Shakespeare's story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare perceives love with the personalities and actions of the characters, Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet are characterized as immature and irrational due to their "love." In addition, both characters fail to realize the reality of life and go towards the path of adolescence. Even though Romeo and Juliet are doomed at the end of the journey of "love," their demise was caused by their rash and silly decisions because their belief of everlasting love blinds them from reality and shapes their lives into an unstoppable time bomb.
Romeo has a passion for love that is unbreakable, and he will do anything to get who he wants, no matter the consequences that might follow. An example of this is when Romeo goes to Juliet’s balcony and confesses his love for her, but what he does not understand is that “if they do see thee, they will murder thee” (Shakespeare II.ii.75). Romeo has trouble accepting the reality that it will not work out for him or her because of family differences. The intensity of love in both of these texts becomes a dangerous and violent thing.
In scene five, act three, Romeo was finding his way into the tomb where Juliet’s supposed dead body was resting. When Romeo found Juliet’s dead body, he brought out his poison and exclaimed that “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 120), and followed to drink the poison, killing himself. In this passage, Shakespeare explains how Romeo dies, using diction to make the scene romantic. “Thus with a kiss I die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 120), can be seen as as a romantic way to die, but it was Romeo’s choice to drink the poison, which ended his life. Furthermore, this decision also resulted in Juliet’s death, shortly after. This passage explains Romeo’s foolishness because instead of killing himself on the spot, he could have waited. Although he would not expect for Juliet to wake up, simply waiting for others to arrive at the tomb to mourn with would have wasted enough time for Juliet to wake up. After some time passed, Juliet woke up from the effects of the potion she drank. When Juliet woke up from her fake coma, she found Romeo dead next to him. She took his dagger and exclaimed “O, happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die,” (Shakespeare 5. 3. 174-175), and of course, she died shortly after stabbing herself. Shakespeare included
A further example of how their fate was controlled by the acts of god was in the early part of the script. Capulet’s servant cannot read and asks Romeo (the first person he sees) “God gi’ god-den. I pray, sir can you read?”, Romeo responds with ” Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.”. It was coincidence that Romeo was the first person the servant met who could read. The meaning behind Romeo’s reply is that although he lucky to be able to read in his case he is deeply depressed about Rosaline.
Prodigious birth of love it is to me/ That I must love a loathed enemy. ”(ACT I, Scene 5, Lines 152-155) Juliet had just found out that the man at the party she loved was one her family’s enemy. Love was evil and ruled her feelings.
From the very beginning of the play, the two lovers both from opposing families, Romeo a Montague and Juliet a Capulet, are bound to love and eventually death. It’s through precise timing, Fate
Fate plays a really huge role in Romeo and Juliet . They are both part of a huge family feud between two families. Before Romeo enter the party he says there is a unknown danger " hanging in the stars ". But what is fate? Fate is something you have no power to defy but influences your life.
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.