Romeo and Juliet: A Tragic Couple of Fate

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A long, ancient feud between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic consequences for the star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet. They passionately fall in love, but unfortunately cannot be publicly united. A secret marriage forces the two to mature rapidly, because Juliet is to be wed to another. Juliet takes a sleeping potion that causes her appear dead for nearly two days, so in this time, Romeo is to be told that she is still alive; however, he was not so he illegally purchased a poison so that he could be with Juliet in death. He goes to her tomb and kills himself with the poison. When Juliet awakens, she sees Romeo’s lifeless body and kills herself. Their eternal love, was predestined by fate and it’s cause was to end the Montague and Capulet rivalry. According to the prologue, it states that “ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.” (Prologue , 5-6) It would truly mean that they’re stars are predetermined to have Romeo and Juliet cross paths before where they were even born ; and ended with their respective deaths. Around Shakespeare's time period with astrology, stars were considered the determinant of one’s destiny. There could be more possible explanation about why Romeo and Juliet died and what would've happened differently. What if Romeo did not go to the Capulet's party and met Juliet there? What if she married Count Paris instead? Because of the pair’s infatuation with each other, it led to many unintentionally disastrous events between the pair. The rushed romance amidst the tragic couple did not create a positive outcome in terms of love and life, but it may have killed the hate that was looming within their correspondin...

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...ho fell in love. The interrelationship between the two required a more natural start and closure than a consummately rushed one. Because of that it lacked the tragedy and sorrow for the characters. With their intentions, Romeo and Juliet tried to keep their marriage retained, but their fates were already sealed. Fate is not only the predominant cause of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths, but the two as mentioned before contributed as well into their own demise.

Works Cited

Cole, Douglas. "Fate and Coincidence." 1985. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Romeo and Juliet : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970. 466-67. Print.

Ulrici, Hermann, and L. Dora Schmitz. "Romeo and Juliet." 1876. Shakespeare's Dramatic Art : History and Character of Shakespeare's Plays Vol. I Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906. 466+. Print.

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