Since Romeo and Juliet was written, there has been lots of controversy over one topic: was it fate or poor choices that ended the couples’ lives so early? It’s about a boy and a girl that fall in love, get married, separated, and meet their deaths, heartbroken. Did they have to die in each others’ arms? No. Romeo and Juliet didn’t have to meet such unfortunate ends; they were the victims of their misguided choices, not a star-crosses fate.
The first bad choice made was when Romeo and his friends snuck into the Capulets’ party. They knew it had the possibility of starting a fight. That night, Romeo and Juliet fell in love, and they got married far too soon after. The play shows that Romeo and Juliet meet at the party and are immediately entranced
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by each other (Shakespeare 393). Such adoration isn’t love; it’s infatuation. Their decisions were too rash given one night of knowing each other. The second poor choice comes after the “star-crossed lovers” are married.
Tybalt is looking to fight Romeo but fights Mercutio instead, killing him. Romeo, blinded by rage, kills Tybalt for slaying his friend. The penalty for which should have been death but was reduced to exile from Verona. Before the fight, Romeo was preaching peace, “Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons./ Gentlemen, for shame! Forbear this outrage!/ Tybalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath/ Forbid this bandying in Verona streets./ Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio! (Shakespeare 428)” After the fight, however, Romeo had blood on his hands and was forced to leave his family, wife, and …show more content…
hometown. The third mistake proved fatal for Romeo. Juliet, upon hearing news of Romeo’s exile, devised a plan to leave Verona and live with Romeo in Mantua. She had Friar Laurence concoct her a drink to make her appear dead for approximately two days. The friar explained to Juliet what would happen: No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;/ The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade/ To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall/ Like death when he shuts up the day of life;/ Each part, deprived of supple government,/ Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death./ And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death/ Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours,/ And then awake as from a pleasant sleep./ (Shakespeare 453-454) Her ‘dead’ body was placed in the Capulet sepulcher, and Romeo found her and presumed that she was truly dead.
Romeo’s mourning was cut short by the County Paris, who Romeo also killed.
The final mistake they made was suicide. Romeo killed himself by drinking poison after he saw the stiff body of his wife. He was grief stricken and sure that he couldn’t continue without Juliet. When she woke up from her coma, Juliet saw her dead husband lying next to her, and she killed herself with his dagger, “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.” (Shakespeare 475)
Although evidence points to bad choices causing the tragedy of Romeo and Juliets’ deaths, destiny could have played a part. A servant asked Romeo to read him a list which eventually lead to him being at the Capulet party and falling in love with Juliet (Shakespeare 385). Had he not been asked to read the guest list, their entire relationship would’ve never happened; they wouldn’t have died. Even though there are several points where it seems destiny and fate control the lovers, it was their foolish decisions that lead to their
deaths. Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet were the victims of their foolish actions, not destiny. Their deaths were easily avoidable, not set in the stars. Even though destiny may have affected their tragedies, Romeo and Juliet are the only ones to be held accountable for what happened to them.
Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Romeo 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 is in love with Rosaline at the very beginning of the story and has just found out that she has taken the vow of chastity. Meanwhile, Lord Capulet has given County Paris Juliet’s hand in marriage if he can wait until she is sixteen. The Capulets have a party so that Juliet and the Count can meet and he can then woo her.
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life. Whole misadventured piteous overthrows Do their deaths bury their parents' strife? -Chorus As these words echoed through the hall of the Globe theatre, little did William Shakespeare know that this tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, would be examined and admired by playwrights for decades to come. So does fate play a major part in this tragedy?
So it is likely that Shakespeare meant for fate to be the cause of Romeo and Juliet's death. I think that the family feud is the main cause for the death of Romeo and Juliet. If the families were not so hateful towards each other Romeo and Juliet would not have kept there love for each other a secret, and they would have no need for committing suicide. This also backs up the point that fate could be to blame for their deaths.
We have now read both Pyramus and Thisbe, and Romeo and Juliet. The question we have yet to answer is what has a greater impact on what happened, destiny, or personal choice? We believe that personal choice affected the characters more because they chose to fall in love, Romeo and Juliet rushed into marriage, Pyramus and Thisbe left home on their own terms, and in both stories, the main characters decided to commit suicide. This is something that cannot be determined by the stars, your choices determine what happens, not some mystical prophecy. Though that is what we believe, it is also believed that destiny has a greater impact because they were doomed from the stars.
Romeo made the wrong choice by killing himself, although it may have seemed like the perfect thing to do at that time. He should have not been so hasty in his choices.
Inevitable Death in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet In Romeo and Juliet it is clear that fate plays a large part. There are many references in the play that refer to bad luck or misfortune, but it is argued that the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are equally the fault of human error. The characters each have weaknesses that could be to blame like anger, ambition or ill judgement. Also some characters had premonitions or bad feelings that something bad would happen but they never did anything to stop this.
Life is filled with difficult situations and tough choices to make. The question is, should we choose to make them ourselves? Some people feel it's best to do things alone, while others do not. For example, most of the characters in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare that are analyzed in the text, “What’s the Rush?: Young Brains Cause Doomed Love” by Lexi Tucker, do not consider other’s opinions at all. However, the opinions of people who love us positively affect our choices so it would be smart to consider them in most cases, but not in those that are very personal.
Some people argue that fate played a big factor in the death of Romeo and Juliet,However the teens decisions are what caused their own deaths they both made the decision to kill themselves. They both made the decision to kill themselves Romeo did it after he thought Juliet was dead Romeo says “Here’s to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick.Thus with a kiss I die” (5.3.119.120). After Juliet wakes up and sees that Romeo has taken
In the first few events that happened in the play, the readers have already seen some poor choices Romeo and Juliet made that eventually led to their death. After Romeo learned that Juliet is a Capulet, an enemy of his family, he still chose to go back to the Capulet's house after the party hoping to see a glimpse of her as he asked himself "Can I go forward when my heart is [in the Capulet's]?" (II.i.1-2). Romeo's words reveal that he found the love of his life. He says that he cannot leave because of Juliet. He has to go back to the Capulet's orchard in order to find his h...
Romeo decided, at the spur of the moment, that his only solution to deal with Juliet’s death was to kill himself. Romeo’s impulsiveness caused his preventable death, but he is not the only one who was impulsive and hasty in the play.
After catching Romeo at a party he was not supposed to be at, Tybalt had it out for Romeo. Just after Romeo and Juliet’s wedding, Tybalt comes looking for him wanting to fight. Romeo does not want to fight because he now loves Tybalt since he is family to him, but neither Tybalt or anyone else knows this reason. Quickly, Mercutio steps in and tells Tybalt that he will fight him in honour of Romeo. Sadly, this led to the death of Mercutio.
Romeo denies the fate of Mercutio who fought against Tybalt and lost, so he challenges Tybalt to fight in defense of his honor. His sense of honor would not allow himself to ignore the death of Mercutio. It mandated his absurd behavior to take Tybalt’s life which even further separated the Montague and Capulet family. Moreover, Romeo still decides to marry Juliet after he takes Tybalt’s life. His sense of honor leads him to find Father Lawrence who will marry both Juliet
Every action we take, decision we make, and person we fall in love with always leads us to our inevitable destiny. Some people are meant to live happily ever after while others may not be so lucky. Romeo and Juliet ended up being one of those not so lucky couples. Born as enemies, their love ended up pulling them closer to their destiny which was proven to be death. The main people that can be blamed for the death of Romeo and Juliet are Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and Romeo.
Once in a while many people make bad decisions. Usually these decisions don’t cause them any harm in their futures, unlike Romeo Montague’s and Juliet Capulet’s decisions. In Verona, a city in Italy, two lovers fall in love. The catch is their families despise each other. Eventually Romeo get’s banished from Verona, and Juliet is forced to marry someone she doesn’t want to marry. Juliet takes a potion that knocks her out for 42 hours, and feigns her death, hoping she does not have to marry Count Paris. Romeo assumes Juliet is dead, and drinks a potion that kills him, and when Juliet wakes up and realizes that Romeo is dead, she stabs herself. In William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, the main protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, make poor choices which eventually lead to their death at the end of the story.
Romeo and Juliet were just feeling normal human emotions like love, and sadness, and anger. Lots of people have experienced love at first sight, the only difference is that Romeo and Juliet’s love at first sight was more intense, and strong. If it wasn’t for fate, Romeo might have met Juliet at a later time, but fate caused them to meet at the dance and fall in love with each other while their families hated each other. If he hadn’t met Juliet until later in the story he might have been more in love with Rosaline. His love for Juliet wouldn’t have been as intense, and the family feud might have been solved by then. Fate also caused there to be a plague when Friar Lawrence’s letter was supposed to be delivered. “I could not send it – here it is again – Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, so fearful were they of infection.” Said Friar John to Friar Lawrence. In this quote he states that he couldn’t get the letter to Romeo because no one wanted to go to Mantua as a result of the plague. This caused Romeo to not know Juliet wasn’t actually dead. Not only were Romeo and Juliet killed by fate, but they were also killed by the feud between their