Literary Analysis of Romeo and Juliet
In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the title characters didn’t just happen to fall in love and everything that occurred after that point was pre-determined for them. They made several choices that demonstrated free will throughout the story that made them responsible for the final outcome. The first decision was after they had met and matters were complicated because they were from separate houses. They still continued to pursue a future with each other. A second example was when Juliet decided to take the potion and deceive her parents to run off with Romeo. The third choice was when Romeo and Juliet both took their own lives as opposed to living without each other. It was the decisions that Romeo and Juliet made, not fate, that led to their marriage, Romeo’s banishment, and ultimately, their early death.
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Midway through Scene V of Act I shortly after Romeo met Juliet, the nurse interrupts their meeting and tells Juliet that, “Your mother craves a word with you.” When Romeo asks, “What is her mother?” she responds, “Her mother is the lady of the house (Capulet).” Though Romeo now knows that Juliet is a Capulet, a member of the rival house, he still continues to pursue a future with her as shown in the beginning of Scene I of Act II. In this scene, Romeo goes to the Capulet’s yard to see Juliet even though he is fully aware that their romance is doomed from the start because of their house name. Contrary to when they fell in love earlier, Romeo sneaking into the Capulet’s house was his own decision and was not determined by fate. This critical choice sets up the events for the rest of the
Did you know that Romeo and Juliet was one of the biggest love story of all time. Romeo and Juliet is a story of two star-crossed lovers from two families the Capulets and the Montagues. The Capulets and the Montague had a big fight that made the families very angry at each other. Romeo and Juliet decide to get married. The two couple marry and run away. In the process both of them will die. When it comes to Romeo and Juliet who are the top three people that caused the two to die. The two people that are chosen are Friar Lawrence and Lady Capulet. Friar was chosen because he is the one that married Romeo and Juliet. Lady Capulet was chosen because she is forcing Juliet to marry Paris which is making Juliet want Romeo even more. The third thing
In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, all the choices made by the star crossed lovers have consequences. The two lovers blame fate for their misfortune. They refuse to believe that fate does not determine the end result, only that they can do that. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is presented with a plethora of choices. The audience is introduced to Romeo as he sulks over his lover Rosaline.
Who would be willing to die for their loved ones? Romeo and Juliet would and did. Romeo and Juliet’s love and death brought two families together who could not even remember the origin of their hate. When the parents saw what their children's love for each other, they realized that their fighting had only led to suffering and insoluble conflict. Romeo and Juliet loved each other to an extent that they killed themselves rather than live apart. They did it with no hiatus. Juliet says before she kills herself, “O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.”( 5, 3, 182-183) demonstrating how she would rather die than not be with him.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is an inevitable tragedy. Many events take place, which are quite detrimental to the love Romeo and Juliet have for one another. By mentioning marriage and death together, Shakespeare foreshadows Romeo and Juliet's tragic ending. From the very beginning of the play throughout and to the end, there has always been the intent of a tragedy, and Shakespeare uses much dramatic irony to express this.
Lady Capulet, Juliet’s own mother was part of the star-crossed lover’s death. Lady Capulet has her hands full with Juliet. Lady Capulet does not make an effort to reach out her daughter now that she’s of an age to be married. But it’s obvious that Juliet’s closest bond is with the Nurse; Lady Capulet never even comes close to challenging that. As a result, Juliet's mother wasn’t supportive when Juliet needed her the most. Just when Juliet needs her mom’s support, Lady Capulet coldly ignores her daughter pleas to help her avoid marrying Paris. After Lord Capulet storms out, Juliet turns to her mother to soften her father’s punishment. Juliet begs her mom to delay the marriage. Lady Capulet responds, “Talk not to me, for I’ll not say a word… Do as thou wilt, for i have done with thee,” (3.5.214-215). It seems very likely that Lady Capulet herself had an arranged marriage with Juliet’s father, and it seems she went along with it obediently. Juliet did not have her mother’s support. Additionally, Juliet had fallen in love with Romeo and the two decided to get married. Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother, was unaware of the secret marriage and also encouraged the feud between the Capulet’s and Montague’s, creating more tension in Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage. Lady Capulet is pushing Juliet to marry Paris even though Juliet insists that she does not want to marry him. Alternatively of Lady Capulet listening to Juliet reason
In act one scene three of Romeo and Juliet Lord Capulet states “…She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.” This means that Juliet is not quite fourteen years old and her father is not sure if she is ready to become a wife and mother. There are many differences between how people marry today, and how they married in the time of Romeo and Juliet. Some of the differences are when the people marry, why people marry, and also the level of maturity people marry at.
In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, free will is more dominant than fate in the outcome of the play and is shown by Juliet’s actions, Romeo’s actions, and the actions of others. Free will is shown first through Juliet’s actions, most notably, when she is supposed to marry Paris, she drinks the potion to put herself in a coma and, when she chooses to kill herself. According to fate, Juliet was supposed to marry the county of Paris. “Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn/ The gallant, young, and noble gentleman/
If it were not for Capulet sending incompetent help to do his tasks or if Romeo had been in a different spot at that time and did not come in contact with the servant, then Juliet and Romeo would have never even met in the first place. Also, while attending that party, Romeo is discovered at the party by Juliet’s cousin Tybalt. Tybalt has a strong hatred for all Montague’s and when he discovers that one is attending his own family’s party it really angers him. He then goes straight to the head of the Capulet family and asks for permission to fight the intruder. Capulet does not want a fight at his party so he tells Tybalt to be patient and ignore him.
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
What makes a piece of literature relevant or irrelevant to a society? There have been many debates on the relevance about particular pieces of literature, especially old literature, in the modern day. Their relevance can be judged by how they address issues happening in society when they were written compared to those same issues today. It can also be judged on whether the themes present can apply to the modern day. And even if a story portrays issues that are either resolved or irrelevant today it can still have value on how it portrays human nature The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a relevant work for a person in modern times due to its themes on suicide, human recklessness, and violence and revenge.
However, some may believe that Romeo and Juliet were destined to love, then die. With their families hating each other, and Juliet being engaged to another, they were already destined for a tragic end. To make the situation worse, Romeo and Juliet were children so they had no control over the decisions of adults. Romeo and Juliet's meeting itself was due to an adult, Capulet. During the Capulet party, Capulet decides to leave Romeo “Alone” (I, v, 74) which eventually causes the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet. Capulet, an external force that unknowingly shoves Romeo onto the path of meeting Juliet is defined as fate. Another instance where Romeo and Juliet had no control over the situation was with the letter that Friar John was to deliver to Romeo. Due to the “infectious pestilence” (V, ii, 10) ) Friar John “could not send” (V, ii, 14) the letter. Since the letter was never sent, Romeo had actually thought that Juliet was dead. Although, these outside factors did have an influence on Romeo and Juliet they are minuscule compared to the actions Romeo and Juliet took to choose their own path. Falling in love, getting married, and killing themselves were choices that Romeo and Juliet made. Those choices affected them far more over the choices of
Everyone is to blame for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, Juliet, Friar Laurence, and Romeo and Juliet’s parents all played their own role in causing the four deaths of Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, and Paris. It is not just one of them to blame, every one of them did something to cause the tragedy. Some of them played a bigger role than others, but everyone contributed. Fate had nothing to do with it and it was all the different characters faults. Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence’s rash decisions where the main cause of the tragedy.
In the story of romeo and juliet's roller coaster of love, free will plays a huge part in the story, making their fate change every second. As they say, there are always consequences whether in life or romeo and juliett. In the story, romeo and juliett consequently met at the party but there free will to love each other and all the choices they made ultimately led to their death. The only fate is what we make, the world is broad and wide like said in the book, meaning many choices need to be made. Actions are the seed that plants your destiny, there is now way our life is just laid out in front of us. For example, Bill gates, on of the most richest men in the world was a high school drop out, but his choice to turn his life around made him
There is in it a power of energy, a singleness of reason, an entireness, a fulfillment of
In regards to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare chose fate to be a strong underlying theme which constructs the basis of the story line. Fate has the ability to control the characters’ lives and one minor change in the way it had acted would have changed the entire outcome. Through Romeo and Juliet’s spontaneous encounter, fate was largely responsible for love at first sight alongside controlling the misfortunate events that occur as a result of their love. Apart from love and misfortune, Shakespeare suggests that Romeo and Juliet were destined to die the way they did, despite the fact that it was their choice to end their lives. The outcome of the play was a direct result of fate, which to a notable extent was responsible for the many events which were destined to occur.