Free Will In Romeo And Juliet

People like to believe that they can control their fate, however, in the end, it’s fate that controls them. In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, fate brings Romeo and Juliet together at a party and causes them to fall in love, eventually leading to their eventual demise. Perhaps Romeo and Juliet thought they were choosing their own fate by defying their families, but in the end that was what fate wanted them to do. Despite their best efforts, Romeo and Juliet couldn’t avoid the decisions made by everyone that prevented them from being together peacefully. Fate brought upon coincidence after coincidence until it brought upon unavoidable death. It may seem that Romeo and Juliet made their own decisions; Romeo decided to go

People kept attempting to have them do things, like Mercutio pressuring Romeo to go to the Capulet party, or Juliet’s parents pressuring her to marry Paris. “Juliet faces tremendous pressure from her parents… when it comes to considering marriage” (Dupler). In some instances, Romeo and Juliet are able to make the final decision, if it can even be considered a true decision at that point, after being pressured by others to do so, but other times, such as in Juliet’s marriage and Romeo’s banishment, they are not given a choice. After Tybalt’s death, Lord Capulet doesn’t bother to consult Juliet before telling Paris, “I will make a desperate tender of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled in all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not” (III. IV. 12-13). Capulet gave Paris Juliet’s hand without ever taking her opinion into consideration. Other such actions, like Tybalt’s slaying of Mercutio, which led Romeo to kill Tybalt and then be banished by Prince Escalus, are what brought doom upon the two lovers. Their actions led into more and more events that eventually killed Romeo and

A serving man, who stated himself “I can never find what names the writing person hath here writ” (I. II. 42-43) as he cannot read, coincidentally approached Romeo to ask him to read the list of people he was to invite to Capulet’s party and then invited him to come if he was not a Montague. There were plenty of other people in the town he could’ve asked to read the paper, however, fate led him to Romeo. Romeo’s friends then convince him to attend the party despite his being a Montague. At the party, “Romeo meets Juliet, but his presence there fuels Tybalt’s challenge to him the next day. The challenge leads to the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt” (Kerschen). Romeo is then banished and Juliet is forced to marry Paris against her will. Only fate would be able to make attending a party turn into banishment, even if it was a party Romeo wasn’t supposed to be at. One could attempt to argue that Romeo made the decision to go to the party himself, therefore he controlled his own future, however, the only reason he went to the party is because he believed that he would be able to see the girl he had fallen in love with. She wouldn’t date him because she had decided herself to take a vow of chastity. Romeo was entirely unable to control her decisions. After Romeo had been banished and Juliet had been promised to Paris, the Friar was going to send a message to Romeo detailing his plan, but his messengers were