Fate: The Guiding Force Behind Life in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

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.

Fate manipulates events such as dreams and visions to bring about the death of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is sent a prophetic dream by fate, telling him that, “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date, with this night’s revels and expire the term, of a despised life closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.” (I. iv. 107-111) Translated into moder...

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...e had been forced to baby-sit her ailing nephews, but was not able to inform my father of this problem. That Sunday, when my mother was finally able to continue on her way, my father was leaving. They crossed paths on a road outside the town, and my mother spotted him while driving by, but my father did not notice her. Later that spring, my mother ran into my father again, in a fate preordained meeting, so they could pick up where they had left off in the winter. My father jokingly compares himself to Romeo as they were both, “…fortune’s fool.” (III. i.119) In this example, Fate manipulates time as my mother happened to see my father while he was left unaware. Although it may not be strictly based on fact, Romeo and Juliet does have an air of reality about it, found with the inclusion of fate and free will; which is still an ever-present topic in modern society.