William Shakespeare once said, “Everyone has their fate, and the more people try to avoid it, the more trouble they get into.” In the story “Romeo and Juliet,” by William Shakespeare, set in the fair city of Verona, Italy, Romeo and Juliet must keep their love hidden from their two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. After Romeo is banished from the city, he and Juliet will sacrifice everything including their lives for each other. The tragic love story of these two star crossed lovers has influenced our society and culture with movies like Titanic and The Outsiders where fate has a clear influence in these classic stories of forbidden love. By looking at “Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare delivers a message about life, suggesting that our lives our controlled by fate rather than free will. …show more content…
According to Romeo, “Is she a Capulet? Oh, this is a heavy price to pay! My life is in the hands of my enemy…but I’m afraid I’m in more trouble than ever” (Act 1, Scene 5, Page 6). Romeo knows that by falling in love with Juliet, a Capulet, he’s risking his own life for his one true love. He believes that the romantic relationship with Juliet will be the death of him because of their families rivalry; subsequently, causing them to keep their love a secret. This shows that it is fate that brought both Romeo and Juliet together at the Capulet's party. Furthermore, Shakespeare emphasizes fate with the moment they meet each other, but also with the banishment of
In Shakespearse’s classic play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the two star-crossed lovers created one of the most notorious tragedies known to man. Romeo and Juliet met as an act of a single force known as fate. Fate is the idea used to describe a circumstance when it is meant to happen; fate is the living body responsible for controlling everything, except the decisions you personally make.
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.
When two people are meant to be together, no time is too long” (Anonymous). Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and West Side Story by Arthur Laurents show the pure evils of acting extremely hastily and how it can change the outlook on the future. Romeo and Juliet are two young lovers who were taught to hate one another and who suffer deeply because of the consequences of fate. Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were sure to be tragic as was hinted at early on throughout the play. Both families suffer with the loss of their children as well as other family members. Maria and Tony are split from one another because of extreme violence, hatred, and the differences between their New York City gangs. Each of them
The play Romeo and Juliet was one of the most famous love tragedies ever written. This love story unfortunately had a fatal ending. Many people argue over why the lovers had died, was it over Free Will or Fate?
Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story written by William Shakespeare, in the Elizabethan era of English history. The work tells of the fatal attraction between Romeo and Juliet, how they met and why, their falling in love and their ultimate sacrifice for each other’s love, their actual lives. Fate has complete control, is a theme that is riddled throughout the text written by Shakespeare. It is essentially pointing out the view that everything we do or will, is at the mercy of fate, and whatever we do to counteract it, fate still holds the final judgement over our lives. This theme is also prevalent in cinematic codes written into both the visual representations of the Shakespearean love story by Franco Zefirelli and Baz Luhrmann. Two
In the play, Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, is about two “star crossed” lovers who are destined to end in a tragic accident. Fate is the path that leads to the future and cannot be altered no matter the outcome. Set in Shakespearean time, fate was believed to be in control of people’s lives. The fact that Romeo and Juliet would never live a peaceful life, none of the tragedies would have not taken place if they had not met. In the prologue of the play, Shakespeare outlines that “two star’d crossed lovers take their life”. This foreshadowing creates the sense that fate shall claim superiority. The powerful nature of Romeo
Fate was foreshadowed to be an antagonist in the play Romeo and Juliet; even before the play started; it was foreshadowed in the prologue that the “star-crossed lovers” were “death-marked”. Fate impedes the union of a happy marriage between Romeo and Juliet by throwing many barricades in their way. One such barrier is their lineage; because Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, they are enemies by blood. Nevertheless, they
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
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.
“For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo”(Act 5 Scene 3 line 320-321). In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, fate and freewill play a major part in the very tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet. With fate and freewill being such a major theme in the story they’re shown repeatedly. The two altered Romeo and Juliet’s live from them meeting by chance, Friar John being stopped from getting Friar Lawrence’s letter to Romeo to Friar Lawrence’s choices attempting the bring the two feuding families together. We all know the woeful tale of Romeo and Juliet and fate and freewill play a major part in their unfortunate demise.
Fate has brutal ways of twisting one's destiny and it surely did for both Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare wrote what is now known as the romantic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The play is highly recognized for it’s astonishingly composed writing. Another thing this play provides is the numerous debates that have come up from this very tragedy. One of the common arguments is between whether this tragedy was controlled by fate or by free will? For sure we can determine that the undoing of the two star-crossed lovers was in the hands of fate itself this is because of how critical is was for them to be born into rival families, their meeting was destined not chosen, and finally how they are always being battered by obstacles when they try
Fate and free will are two contradictory theories, one either has control over their lives and the decisions that take place in them or they’re simply following out the plan of a divine being. Romeo and Juliet, a Shakespeare play, brings light to idea people have no grasp on the outcome of their lives despite any decisions they may make. From the very beginning the love affair of the Montague boy and Capulet girl reveals that the outcomes of one’s life is preset. The monologue blatantly out states, “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife” (Shakespeare 1). Before the audience is able to even witness Romeo and Juliet fall in love they are told that
The story Romeo and Juliet has the theme of Fate vs Free will/choice . Fate is what is destined to happen to you.(Dictionary. Com) Many parts of the story has the theme incorporated. In every act of the play the theme can be noticed.
Fate is defined as, “The development of events outside a person's control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power.” (Oxford University Press: 2018). In Romeo and Juliet, the question of how much free the young lovers have versus the predetermination of the stars plan, and which results in their deaths, is the crux of the play. Shakespeare was not the first to question the notion of Fate versus Free Will but the universal themes in his works, the most notable being this, continues to underpin our society to this day. The question itself dates back millennia.