Romeo and Juliet are victims of forces beyond their control. Discuss. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a pair of teenage lovers is introduced, whose love leads to their tragic demise. Whilst Romeo and Juliet are responsible for their own behaviours, Shakespeare demonstrates that other factors beyond their control contribute to their predicament. Being born in opposing families, the toxic feud greatly influences Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. In addition, the concept of fate does not fall lightly on the lovers, however, it is evident that the lovers’ actions help lead to the unfortunate outcome of their relationship. Through the exposure of passionate hate between Romeo and Juliet’s families, Shakespeare unfolds the significant …show more content…
impact of the feud. This feud is the result of the irresponsible behaviour of the Capulets and Montagues. “The continuance of their parents’ rage” influences the foundation of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Furthermore, this “ancient grudge” forces Romeo and Juliet to conceal their relationship. They can only meet in the dark, where “more light and light, more dark and dark our woes.” Shakespeare uses the literary conventions of night and dark comparison to reflect the constriction of the relationship due to the long-time feud. This also includes the personification of dawn where Shakespeare describes the break of dawn as “night’s candles burn[ing] out” in which Romeo has to “[go] and live, or stay and die.” To elaborate, as morning dawns, Romeo has to leave Juliet again or else his banishment will be turned into an execution. Additionally, Friar Laurence only agrees to help marry Romeo and Juliet, in hope that “this alliance may so happ[ily] prove to turn [the] households rancour to pure love.” However, this only occurs when Romeo and Juliet have died and become “poor sacrifices of [the family’s] enmity.” Shakespeare demonstrates the effect of the family’s hate through Romeo and Juliet’s falling in love which results in death. This everlasting feud and hate create complications that are out of Romeo and Juliet’s hand. Shakespeare introduces the concept of fate which dooms Romeo and Juliet to death. As predetermined in the prologue, the eponymous character’s relationship is destined to fail as fate marks them as “star-crossed lovers.” Shakespeare addresses this before the play has begun to play with the idea of fate and question to what extent are actions and outcomes are preordained. The first meeting of Romeo and Juliet is due to Capulet’s illiterate servant asking Romeo to read the invitation list, in which he sees Rosaline’s name. Romeo being in the right place at the right time is the result of fate directing the two to meet and fall in love. Nonetheless, after their first meeting, events and outcomes start to turn downhill. Romeo becomes a “fortune’s fool” and a victim to fate where he kills Tybalt and is later banished from Verona. Romeo and Juliet’s tragic ends are not met by their own defects, but because of fate, which describes them as “death-marked.” Shakespeare conveys fate as unpredictable, but yet always leading to the same ending. Throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet consistently have ill feelings which follow the idea of foreshadowing. Romeo believes that their love is “hanging in the stars”, while Juliet says a “faint cold fear thrills through [her] veins.” Likewise, Mercutio shouts “a plague on both [the family’s] houses”, foreshadowing what is to come for the title couple. Shakespeare uses these premonitions and foreshadowing to reinforce the significance of fate. The notion of fate permeates many of the events which lead to Romeo and Juliet’s downfall. Despite Romeo and Juliet being victimised by forces beyond their control, their behaviour and actions contribute to their suffering.
Being young and inexperienced, the lovers both express an impulsive nature. When overwhelmed by emotion, Romeo and Juliet lose the ability to think rationally and believe that suicide is a solution to their problems. Juliet claims that “if all else fail” she has “[the] power to die”, while Romeo’s banishment leads him into thinking he can be sacrificed and “be put to death.” Shakespeare is drawing attention to the implications of young, passionate love with inexperience. Similarly, Romeo and Juliet express too much passion in which it overcomes reason. Romeo is reckless and fearless, feeling as if nothing can “countervail the exchange of join” since he is “proof against [the] enmity.” Once again, Shakespeare emphasises the youth and immaturity through Romeo displaying these traits. When Romeo reveals to Friar Laurence that he loves Juliet, the Friar’s response suggests that young men are superficial as they love “not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” Thus, Shakespeare questions the depth and sincerity of Romeo’s love for Juliet due to his fickle nature. Romeo constantly ignores Friar’s advice about his relationship with Juliet. Simultaneously, Friar Laurence suggests Romeo to “love moderately” because his passionate relationship with Juliet will lead to “violent ends.” Friar argues for Romeo to have a more tempered and moderate behaviour as Romeo and Juliet’s passion and impulsivity will result in destruction. Shakespeare uses Friar Laurence to warn Romeo against a rushed and unrestrained passion and juxtaposes to Friar Laurence’s patient and well considered actions with Romeo’s impulsive and irrational actions. Romeo and Juliet’s actions and behaviours aid to their predicament, along with the inevitable factors of fate and
hate. Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other ordains for destruction from the beginning because of the hatred between the two families and fate leading to their dying as foretold. Through this, Romeo and Juliet still hold responsibility for choices and behaviour. It is therefore apparent that the deaths of Romeo and Juliet cannot be fully blamed on themselves, but mainly on forces beyond their control. Shakespeare’s intent of including other factors that attribute Romeo and Juliet’s death besides themselves is to condemn the idea that any downfall cannot be fully blamed on the individual.
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” by William Shakespeare is a play about two lovers from different families that have an internal feud between them. It ends in both lovers, Romeo and Juliet, committing suicide as they could not openly live with each other. An important idea in this play is that of the impetuosity of youth and the rash decisions that young people may make. This idea is continuously brought up throughout the play and is explored through the concepts of overreacting and being blinded by anger, desperation in forbidden love and taking your life for love.
“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare is a play about two lovers from different families that have an internal feud between them. It ends in both lovers, Romeo and Juliet, committing suicide as they could not openly live with each other. An important idea in this play is that of the impetuosity of youth and the rash decisions that young people may make. This idea is continuously brought up throughout the play and is explored through the concepts of overreacting and being blinded by anger, desperation in forbidden love and taking your life for love.
One of the most common character tropes is the moody, teenage sibling who’s always in trouble and fighting with the parents. Teenagers are often stereotyped as reckless and emotional. They take too many chances and act like everything is the end of the world. Young adults are constantly experimenting and taking risks, but what is the force behind their actions? During adolescence, the areas in the brain controlling reward processing and control begin to change. According to neuroscientist Laurence Steinburg, the shift creates an imbalance between emotion and restraint (Sukel, 46). The play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, focuses on the teenager, Romeo, during a dramatic period of his life. He faces many difficult situations involving love
There are many forces in the tragic play of Romeo and Juliet that are keeping the two young, passionate lovers apart, all emanating from one main reason. In this essay I will discuss these as well as how love, in the end, may have been the cause that led to the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Their strong attraction to each other, which some call fate, determines where their forbidden love will take them.
Love is dependent upon the slightest change, but it can cause the utmost drastic consequences. This is the truth of two lovers in William Shakespeare’s furthermost celebrated play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, love is inimical. Romeo comes from the family of Montague while Juliet comes from the family of Capulet. For reasons unknown, these two families are sworn enemies. However, Romeo and Juliet are not. In fact, they are in a secret relationship that only two others know about. The only two that Romeo and Juliet trust, the Nurse and the Friar. While the Nurse, Friar, and Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, all have good intentions, they are all responsible for the suicides of Romeo and Juliet in the
Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, written by the ever-famous William Shakespeare, is an eloquent story of passionate love between two teenage individuals of a time long ago. These individuals, Romeo and Juliet, fall helplessly in love with each other, in spite of the fact that their families, both upper class, have been enemies for generations. The two lovers therefore strive to maintain their ardent bond with each other in secret. They also encounter various obstacles along the way and suffer serious consequences, such as Romeo's banishment to Mantua and the obligatory marriage of Juliet to Paris.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. The two lovers go against their families and against their hate to be together but they don’t think about the consequences, which in the end are devastating.
Many parents feel as if their job is to protect their children from any harm or difficult decisions that may come their way. In the screen write Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the parents are in control of almost every aspect of their own child’s life. Romeo and Juliet takes place in the fourteenth century in Verona, Italy. Romeo is a Montague, Juliet is a thirteen-year-old Capulet, and Paris is related to Prince Escalus. Also, the Montague and Capulet families despise each other. Consequently, Romeo and Juliet fall in love when they first meet each other at a party. Because of the family feud, they cannot let their parents know about their love, so Juliet and Romeo marry in secret. Also, Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, promises Juliet’s
Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, depicts an ancient feud ended by a pair of star-crossed lovers’ deaths. A lord and lady from warring families seek a forbidden love with guidance from a friar and nurse. Due to a tragic course of mischances and fateful errors, their attempt of eloping led the lovers to a tragic end. Because of rash decisions, the four characters are torn apart by miscalculating events and misunderstandings. Ultimately, the four characters encounter a heartbreaking ending, as a result of their hastiness.
Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet become embodiments of impulsiveness. Through their rash words and actions in the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare sets forth that both are too hasty in their decisions, leading them into unfortunate events. As the plot unfolds, Romeo and Juliet’s futile love is torn apart by their family’s hate and animosity towards each other. Despite their constant struggle to let their love survive, it is doomed from the beginning of the tragedy. It is plain that lack of foresight and wisdom leads to disaster all around.
The play Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story written by William Shakespeare, well known around the world. The play tells the fatal love story of two young star-crossed lovers from two different feuding families. In Romeo and Juliet, we get a definite sense of fate over free will, as fate is an unavoidable force beyond a person's control, destined to happen. No matter what we do, fate still holds the final judgment of our lives. The resultant events of the characters in this tragedy are majorly caused by the hands of fate, and not solely on the voluntary choices that could have been made by each character. The play’s themes of conflict, love, revenge, and destiny all tie in with the role of fate.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
In the vast collection of romantic and tear-jerking performances, the outcome of a story is always the product of the characters’ decisions. Romeo and Juliet, the main characters in a renowned tragedy, are the victims of others’ adverse behavior and both commit suicide due to their anguish when their fates separate them. One may deduce through a careful inspection into the impulsive, immature, and impressionable attributes that certain characters possess that the two teens’ tragic ultimatum is not simply the result of a dark twist of fate. The untimely deaths of the two lovers are the consequence of the unfortunate choices that the people around them make. In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, Friar Lawrence, and the apothecary’s
Romeo says, “Then love-devouring death do what he dare” (2.6.7). Romeo and Juliet make the decision to risk everything, however Shakespeare makes it evident that these decisions are influenced by fate. This is also revealed through Friar Lawrence as he says, “These violent delights have violent ends” (2.6.9). By foreshadowing further, Shakespeare reveals that a grim fate shall befall Romeo and Juliet. Although their love seems perfect, they know the trouble that it will cause their families, making it violent to everyone that is involved. He also reveals his stance through simile, “And in their triumph die like fire and powder” (2.6.10). By comparing their forbidden love to fire and gun powder, Shakespeare reveals that their acts will have consequences. Their love may be powerful, but it may just as well go up in flames for they are fated to die. Although Romeo seems to understand what is fated, he says “It is enough I may but call her mine”, revealing that he is blind to fate in that his only goal is to be with Juliet, no matter the grim cost (2.6.8). Through his use of foreshadowing and simile, Shakespeare reveals that our choices have consequences, but in the end our fate will be our