Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

A definition of fate would be the power that is supposed to settle

ahead of time how things will happen. In the famous play Romeo and

Juliet, written by Shakespeare, the two young lovers ended up becoming

a large part of what could be called fate. This ultimate power seemed

to control their lives and it forced them together. I think it was

fate however which ended their parents hatred for each other, some

people say if it wasn't for the unexpected fate, Romeo and Juliet

wouldn't have both died in the tragic way which they did. In this

essay I am aiming to come to a conclusion, in deciding to what extent

were Romeo and Juliet fated to die. Was it fate, a tragedy or both

linked together? They have different meanings and both could be a

possible way to describe the play. Tragedy centres more on one main

character, which by the end has usually died, 'the fall of a hero.'

Many tragedies are painful for the audience to watch and often people

believe if there are no values i.e. a moral/religion involved, then

there can be no tragedy. Does Romeo and Juliet fit these guidelines?

Aristotle is a Greek playwright. He came up with his own criteria of

what he thinks a tragedy should be. Aristotle believes the most

important ingredients of a tragedy, is that there should be a stable

plot, which is the most important feature of a tragedy. It should be

complete with each action leading to the next, so they are able to

connect in a realistic way and the play needs to be of a certain

length. The character should go from good to bad and needs to be

noble, idealized, yet logically constructed. The ending mu...

... middle of paper ...

...not in my

opinion. Finally he thinks the ending should be beneficial in the

sense that the audience are better off after watching the play. This

is true in Romeo and Juliet as I think you learn many lessons about

life, one, not to invade into other people's love and try to resolve

problems secretly. Taken as a whole, I would say that Romeo and Juliet

doesn't fit Aristotle's criteria, as he wants to be strict on

everything and in this case not all matters refer to it completely.

My essay has covered many areas of this play, involving Aristotle and

different Elizabethan tragedies as well, I have extended the essay and

researched more into fate occurring in other Shakespeare plays also.

Gemma Hinton 10BI Miss. Little, English Coursework, Shakespeare

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