Free Will In Romeo And Juliet

In Shakespeare's timeless story, Romeo and Juliet, two young teenagers fall in love. They come from the two families that have an unending feud with each other, making their love dangerous. They are married in secret by a friar, but shortly after Romeo fights with and kills Tybalt, a Capulet. The prince banishes him, and it causes Juliet and the friar to come up with a plan to get them together. However the plan does not work, and Romeo kills himself, and when Juliet awakes and sees Romeo dead, she also kills herself. The question then becomes, was fate or free will involved in the deaths of these lovers? A multitude of evidence is given throughout the play to prove that fate plays a key role in the tragic deaths of these two lovers. The first appearance of fate is seen in the prologue of the play. In line 6 it states, "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,"(Act 1.Prologue.6). This is an indicator that the reason Romeo and Juliet died was because of fate. Back in Shakespeare's time the community is known to have a strong belief in astrology. They took into consideration when and where stars are located at any given point in someone's

He feels as if fate told him, which is evident by him stating, "I fear, too early; for my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,"(Act 1.Scene 4.106-107). Again this mentions the stars, which is another word for fate. Romeo speaks this before he goes into the ball, where he will soon meet Juliet. Fate brings them together at the ball, and Romeo does not see it as a horrible thing he had thought to have happened. However this foreshadows how fate contributes to their deaths, because if fate had not brought Romeo to the Capulet ball, they would not have met. This would prevent their manic love which ultimately leads to their tragic