Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
The play, Romeo and Juliet, involves plenty of bad luck and misfortune
that ultimately
leads to the deaths of these star crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet are
referred to as, "star
crossed lovers" because they were destined to fall in love and die a
tragic death. The stars
have decided that they would fall in love and die, with everyone else
the stars have
decided their future. The audience were given hints that Romeo and
Juliet were going to
die when the prologue stated, "Death-mark'd love." This gives a
warning of what to
expect. There are several incidences that symbolise misfortune and bad
luck. An obvious
indication to the audience that something tragic will occur, is when
Romeo had bad
dreams and premonitions often involving death. In the play, the
prologue refers to an
ancient grudge between the Capulets and Montagues, which attracts our
attention to
human error. This is because grudges can cause lethal rage and bring
out the worst in
someone, which are few of the characteristics that we regret having.
If the parents' rage
was not so powerful and rebellious, this tragedy may not have occurred
because the
parents would have accepted Romeo and Juliet to be married. There is a
lot of conflict in
the play between the characters. The characters personalities had a
variety of weaknesses;
we have seen anger, pride, arrogance, hastiness, deceit and ill
judgement. An example of
deceit is when Juliet insured her father, Lord Capulet that she would
marry Paris and beg
for forgiveness, "Pardon, I beseech you! Hencef...
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...ed our interests….. the work
of heaven.." He
believes that a much stronger power (heaven) will not let the couple
live together. The
prince, too, reprimands both the Montagues and the Capulets, "See what
a scrounge is
laid upon thy hate that heaven finds means to kill your joys with
love!" From these
quotes we can clearly see that fate appears to be punishing both
families for their
weaknesses.
To conclude, I feel that fate played a large part in the play due to
several incidences that
symbolise misfortune, the personality traits of the characters equally
contributed to the
tragedy. The character weaknesses eventually resulted in six deaths
signifying the
weaknesses of the characters including Romeo, Tybalt, the Nurse, Friar
Lawrence, the
prince, Juliet and the parents.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a story of two young lovers. These two hearts, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet belong to feuding families. The family feud causes them to keep their love a secret and therefore only Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence know of their love. Romeo and Juliet are able to look past the feud and let themselves fall in mad love with the other. They let themselves do almost anything for the other and at times it seems like too much to do, even for the one they love. Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Rome and Juliet’s personal choices lead to their downfall.Fate originates all of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, from when they met until they die.
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.
think this is the case as, in spite of his arrogance, he does care for
In the very opening of the play the chorus is singing about Romeo and Juliet, and predicts their life together as having a star-crossed conclusion. By already knowing from the beginning that their life has an ill-fated conclusion, we can see how their choices brought them to their death. Romeo and Juliet could see that their life together was not going the way they wanted, because Romeo and Juliet wanted to marry each other but there were many barriers between them. Both Romeo and Juliet had many failed attempts in their efforts to trick fate out of what was ultimately going to happen to them both. Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. (IV, i, 122-124)
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.
Imagine living a tragic existence, not even two entire decades long. Imagine being controlled by an invisible, yet limitless puppet string conducted by “the stars”. When fate is your enemy and time reveals each unraveling tragedy to your dismay, you understand how it feels to be the protagonist’s of Shakespeare’s most famous love story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Tradition, heredity, and ancestry symbolize the celestial psychology that is the stars. Controlling every miniscule detail of the play from human behavior to action sequences, to the ultimate climax of the tale. The power that fate has is surprisingly destructible yet inevitable to audiences as they come to realize the given characteristics that cannot be changed, even to avoid death. The moment Romeo and Juliet initially saw one another, they were sure their love was meant to be. This feeling was brought on because their love was the solution of the stars, or forefathers, to cure the rivaling families’ animosity. Fate contributes to the development of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by relating to astrological terms, human behavior, and fate as an agent of destruction.
One of the key issues of the play was FATE. You could say all of the
In a nutshell, fate is the concept that everything is predetermined, and that human beings have no control over what happens in their future. We as people either deny fate or use it to defend ourselves against life, but in either case, consequences are often unavoidable. Take the case of Romeo, when he kills his cousin-in-law, Tybalt. Romeo, who kills vengefully kills Tybalt for slaying his friend Mercutio, cries out, “Oh I am fortune’s fool!” when he sees Tybalt dead. This line is obviously Romeo blaming fate for the fact that his sword impaled Tybalt. In this case, it is clear that all the fate blaming in the world will not save Romeo from the Prince of Verona’s doom. Romeo is thereafter banished for slaying Tybalt, getting lease from the punishment of death only because Tybalt himself was a murderer. Romeo faces the consequences of his actions and heads off to Verona, where thereafter a couple failed plots and some plague or another lead to him and Juliet dying. Romeo, despite a concrete belief in fate, ends up still dealing with the consequences of kill...
From the very first words of the play’s introduction, we are reminded of the lover’s fate in Romeo and Juliet and how it affects their world. The prologue in a work of literature is meant to introduce the story, as shakespeare so often does in his plays such as Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare introduces Romeo and Juliet with the lines “From forth the fatal loins of two foes/A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Do with their death bury their parents' strife.” (I.I.V-VIII) It may seem as if Shakespeare decided to spoil the end of his tragedy for his audience before it even started. In fact, some might have been angry at Shakesp...
From the beginning of the play it is clear that Romeo and Juliet are doomed to die, They are considered victims of circumstance but the question is did they have responsibility for their fate? Could things have been different? Was it a bad series of events, was it a coincidence that fate was against them, were outside forces against them, It is not just a coincidence the language used in the prologue 'star-crossed lovers' and 'death-marked love' shows that it was all meant to happen from the beginning of the play, the words 'star-crossed' refers to an astrological outlook on destiny that was widely accepted in the period the play was written in, reference to this so early in the play creates a sense of anticipation for the audience and from the start they know what is going to be the outcome of the play but the question left on their minds is 'Why?' and 'How?'
From the beginning of "The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet", the reader knew how the story was going to end, hence the title of the story and the explanations in the start. After reading through the story, there were multiple frustrating moments where events could have gone one way but ended up going in another. Every act in the story added onto the total tragic ending. The things that happened could have been because of fate, but everything had to start somewhere. Everything had to start somewhere. Everything that occurred in the story would not have been possible if it was not for the Friar who had agreed to the marriage.
The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are linked to Friar Lawrence’s plan.... ... middle of paper ... ... God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands. ”(IV.i.53-56)
Throughout the play, it is clearly shown that fate has a huge role in the “star-crossed lovers” dire downfall. This is written in the prologue to foreshadow the ending. The prologue provides the audience with Romeos thought provoking promotion further warming the reader of the omnipresent force of fate which is looking over him, “Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars.” Here Shakespeare use literary techniques such as a metaphor to demonstrates that there is a deathly consequence written in fate for Romeo. Overall this provides the reader with the knowledge of what Romeo is thinking and foreshadows the end of the story. Shakespeare uses clever diction to imply that Juliet’s death is inevitable, "If all else fail, myself have power to die.” This clearly illustrates that fate is involved in the upcoming disaster. Not only have the lovers realized that there is a greater fore involved, but Friar Lawrence has too realized, “a greater power than we can contradict, hath thwarted our intents.” This shows that fate is a subjugate factor in the lover’s untimely
Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet takes place in Verona, Northern Italy. The city is divided by civil war between two noble families, the Capulets and the Montagues. The. The feud is an old one, from ancient grudge to new.
In Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare, the characters are subject to fate and destiny and hence, have no control, whatsoever, over their lives. Shakespeare repeatedly refers to fate, the idea of a predetermined future or a hidden power beyond anyone’s control through various techniques. There is a sense of inexorable doom throughout the whole play which is made evident through the characters’ repetitive acknowledgement of destiny, as well as the constant foreshadowing and coincidences that take place. Romeo and Juliet have their entire lives played out according to fate and destiny which is obvious through the many references to their predestined future.