Fate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Decisions and choices- an act of or need for making up one's mind, and the right, power, or opportunity to choose. Fate- a four letter word, a noun defined as the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as being determined by a supernatural power. These are what many can believe as the most powerful forces that shape our future. The playwright, William Shakespeare, wrote a tragedy of two youngsters in love. This tale was filled with drama, mixed-emotions, laughs, heartbreaks, and affection. Written as a tragedy, the play had ended like other Shakespearean tragedies had ended; in death. The death was inevitable because of decisions and choices made fates were shaped and had played a part in the events that blossomed the love of two star-crossed lovers. As an illustration, picture two families at war with each other, a feud that everyone gets caught in the crossfire. For instance, when innocent citizens are tired of watching their supposed ‘peaceful’ streets get disturbed by the feud, and as the prologue states, “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.” (Prologue.6) The feud was poison for the city of Verona and its citizens. Besides crummy choices were made, therefore a cursed destiny was created for two naive lovers.

     Fate, for better or worse, interrupts everyone’s daily life, whether he/she chooses to acknowledge it or not. Thinking about fate conjures up different feelings for different people; some people believe strongly in it, some people think of fate as ridiculous, and some do not care one way or the other. However, in many instances, such as in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, far too many coincidences occur to be strictly coincidental. Fate creates a powerful effect throughout the entire play, starting in the prologue, continuing as Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, and tragically ending in the lovers’ deaths.

Fate is a hidden, but unavoidable force that leads to certain consequences in people’s lives. The theme of fate plays a crucial role in the main characters of the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet share a destiny that dooms them to tragic deaths immediately after the exchange of their zealous love. Despite their resolute attempts to challenge their destiny, the lovers still succumb to the inexorable powers of fate. In the Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, the principle of fate propels the lovers together with infatuation, tears them apart through a bitter demise, yet, ensures peace in Verona for many future generations.

In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, fate appears to be a dominating force from the very beginning. In the prologue, the Chorus introduces the idea that fate controls Romeo and Juliet’s love, when we are told that Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed” and “death-marked.” When the author, William shakespeare begins the play by revealing that Romeo and Juliet are ‘destined’ to die, he reveals the climax of Romeo and Juliet before the play even begins. The author’s decision to reveal such a large part of the play and spoiling the end for the audience does serve a purpose. The introduction reveals the presence of fate by declaring Romeo and Juliet must die because that is what Shakespeare imagined from the beginning, which declares fate as the ultimate

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, published in 1597. It is a story about how, “A pair of star-cross’d lovers [Romeo and Juliet] take their lives…/The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love…” (Prologue of Romeo and Juliet, 6-9) as they are forbidden to be together due to a long lasting and ongoing feud between the Montague and Capulet families. Their deaths are the results of many characters’ actions and fate, and there is not one distinctive person that can be blam¬ed for the young lovers’ deaths. Friar Lawrence is not to blame for these deaths as fate played a major role in their demise, he warned Romeo of his impulsive and unwise decision making, and his intentions were to abolish the ongoing feud between the two families. Further examination will prove that Friar Lawrence is innocent and his intensions were far from the passing of the two lovers.

In the play of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, William Shakespeare explores the idea of fate, through the characters experiences. The play was taken place during the Elizabethan Era where the social norms were completely different to those today and the idea of fate was well and truly believed by the society. Shakespeare incorporates this concept of fate in different ways, he makes references to celestial bodies, employs premonitions and orchestrates events where Romeo and Juliet have no prior knowledge off. He introduces the two young lovers as ‘star-crossed’, which means their relationship is destined to end in tragedy and this is supported by events that occur in the play. Specific events

Everyone wants to marry the love of their life. Seeking the approval of our family and friends, we all look ahead fondly at the idea of living a long and happy life with our soulmate. Unfortunately, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet this is not the way life played out.

Fate has always been of interest to society, and even today, people continue to question whether someone’s life is destined for a certain fate, or if it is shaped by their own free-will. Such thoughts come into play throughout various acts and scenes of Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare’s play often strongly suggests that Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is built upon fate and free-will. There are many critics who argue fate is what makes up this play in its entirety due to the various fate related ideas evoked throughout it. Although fate does indeed play some roles in the shaping of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, overall, it is free-will that plays a much greater role throughout their tragedy and is ultimately at work in this play.

Although the play “Romeo and Juliet” is lauded as one which excellently portrays unconquerable love, the most prominent theme of the play is not that of unconquerable love but rather of the death and tragedy that stems out from Romeo and Juliet disobeying fate for their own desires. This theme of relationship between fate and free will is present throughout the play and even emphasized through the use of literary elements. One such example of this theme being emphasized through the use of literary elements is the prologue. The prologue of the play employs the literary elements of alliteration, rhyme and foreshadowing to convey the theme of the relationship between fate and freewill, claiming that attempting to defy fate will leads to misfortune.

Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth; So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.’What makes a story so compelling?(5.3.10-12) In Shakespeare's tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet, the author makes fated occurrences to introduce the next event. In the story, many are fated occurrences that is not impacted by the decision of the characters but, happens naturally. Further, exploring these events will tells us how fate changes outcome.

Most of Shakespeare's plays are conceived around a foundation in either tragedy or comedy, this polarity of themes allowing him to experiment with the full range of human emotions. Typically, an integral part of a Shakespearean tragedy is love, which is frustrated by a breakdown in order, or the character of the hero, due to some human limitation. The play Romeo and Juliet has all these typical characteristics. However, the resultant conclusion of events for the characters in this tragedy is adversely affected by the hands of fate, and not solely the product of human limitations. Fate in fact has a decisive role in the events of the play; it is a series of rapid coincidental events, which lead to the final tragedy.

Do things happen for a reason or do our actions decide what happens? This is a question that everyone has asked or will ask in the future. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet there are two young star-crossed lovers that meet and fall in love. Romeo and Juliet begin to get split apart by forces that they can not control and end up each committing suicide because of the actions of the characters in this play. Fate is the cause of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths.

Fate in Rome and Juliet ‘’What must be shall happen’’ (Rome and Juliet Act 4 Scene 1). In the play Romeo and Juliet a tale of two ‘’Star-crossed lovers’’, have to deal with adversity to be together. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, fate decides the outcome of the play, as in real life. In this text decides means ‘’ to determined what will happen’’.

The play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare explores the concept of fate to allow the audience to query whether the tragedy was inevitable or not. Throughout the play Shakespeare alludes to the concept of fate controlling the events that occur. An example of the presence of fate, is displayed at the end of Act 1, Scene 4 when Romeo states “ Some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin this fearful date with the night's revels; by some vile forfeit of untimely death.” This quote uses the literary device of foreshadowing to verbally display the tragedy that is about to occur, to which the audience has already been informed of.

In this essay i'm going to talk about the Romeo and Juliet book written by Shakespeare. There were many characters that died because of fate in the book, but they could have easily changed it. I am going to talk about three characters that determined their fate because of their actions and how I think they could have changed their fate. The three characters I'm going to focus on are Romeo, Juliet, and Tybalt.