Theme Of Fate In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo is telling Mercutio that he has a dream. The dream is that if Romeo goes to the Capulet party he will die. Yet, he decides to go to the party anyway. The above quote is important to the theme of fate and choice, because most plays about fate and choice usually show the main character trying to change their fate but having their fate come true anyway. Romeo, however, chooses to go to the party despite of his ominous dream. The quote shows what happens to Romeo happens because he chooses to go to the party.

     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.

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 book Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, fate plays a large role in moving the plot along. It does this by bringing people together. Fate also plays a role in a couple people’s deaths, including the main characters, Romeo and Juliet.

If Capulet had sent a literate servant he would know that Romeo is a Montague and would not bother talking to him. Additionally, Romeo feels these premonitions just before he enters the party. He says “there is some consequence, yet hanging in the stars”, which means that he feels some bad is going to happen to him, an untimely death. Despite this he decides to go the party in which he meets Juliet. Overall, the destined events that occur prior to Romeo meeting Juliet are responsible for their tragic deaths.

The tragedy that happens in Romeo and Juliet is inevitable because of the many different themes of love, hate, character and destiny. These themes are essential to the play in order to be an interesting play. For example with love you have hatred, with love you would have character and with love you will also get destiny. All of the themes link to the main point love.

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.

Juliet is also sent a vision by fate, causing her to drink Friar Laurence’s potion during a moment of doubt. Juliet is almost about to talk herself out of swallowing the potion when she says, “O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghost, seeking out Romeo…stay, Tybalt, stay! Romeo, I come! This do I drink to thee,” (Iv. iii. 55-58) and takes the drink. Fate’s plan could have been ruined if Juliet did not take the poison, so a vision is sent to her, insuring that the plan stays on track. Farther along in the play, Fate sends yet another dream to Romeo. However, this dream is of good tidings. The dream shows a dead Romeo, but then Juliet, “breathed such life with kisses in my lips that I revived and was an emperor.” (V. i. 8-9) Fate sends this dream to leave Romeo in an upbeat mood, before he is told the news of Juliet’s death. This causes Romeo to be put through an emotional roller coaster. At one moment he is extremely happy, loving being in love, and then the next he is distraught, desperate, and ready to commit suicide. The series of good news and then bad news puts Romeo in a befuddled state of mind in which he is not thinking clearly. Otherwise, Romeo would almost certainly check in with Friar Laurence prior to committing suicide. Fate masterfully manipulated these events and sent the dreams and visions at all the appropriate times to cause the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

The play Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare 420 years ago in the late1600s. The play is about two star crossed lovers, from two opposing families Montague and capulet in fair Verona. Romeo and Juliet meat and fall in love, as star crossed the author is trying to tell us that their fate is controlled by the stars and that no matter what they do, they will always be doomed to a tragic end that freewill and there own choices has very little to do with their fate. The theme I will be focusing on is fate and free will which lead to there tragic ends.

There are numerous warnings of fate in the play; all are ignored. Before the Capulet party, Romeo senses fate presence and he will be bound to it after that night. He feels there is “some consequence yet hanging in the stars” but ignores the signs and goes anyway. Luhrmann heightens the significance of this line by fading out non-diegetic sound and having Romeo look at the starts, which as supposedly commanding his destiny. Fate is also personified as cruelly taunting the characters, Later Juliet knows things are moving too fast, but doesn’t have the power to control her own emotions. “I have no joy of the contract tonight, it is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” Another warning sign has been ignored.

Fate is the main reason why Romeo and Juliet ended up as a tragedy and not with a happy ending. In the modern world, most people choose to believe that they have a sense of responsibility and can control their own lives but, during the Elizabethan era some people had believed in fate and led their lives the way the stars told their future. Before the play in the prologue you were told what would happen very briefly. “ From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of ‘star-crossed’ lovers take their lives.” Meaning that Romeo and Juliet met because of fate & the stars aligned them to be together, it also states that both Romeo and Juliet are destined by the start to disaster. When Mercutio shouts “a plague on both your houses!” in Act 3, Scene 1, we are reminded of the protagonist’s fate. This bloody scene in which characters are killed gives us a glimpse of what fate has in store, marking the beginning of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic downfall. Even Romeo and Friar Lawrence blame fate when romeo says “ I defy you stars!” And Friar Lawrence says “ Unhappy

Fate in Romeo and Juliet plays a central and major part of many of the character’s lives. The audience is given the idea that the lives of the characters are controlled by a higher power. The two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet are branded the ‘star – cross’d lovers’. Named as such, because their relationship is written in the ‘stars’ and doomed to fail. The fate of Romeo and Juliet were foreshadowed throughout the play especially Romeo’s premonition in 1.4, ‘my mind misgives/ some consequence yet hanging in the stars/ shall bitterly begin his fearful date’. However, Friar Lawrence, also contributes to the lovers’ downfall unknowingly. He appears to the audience as a calculated and careful man, but like all other characters he is controlled by fate’s hand.

Some people may not believe that destiny is something that truthfully exists in the world. These people doubt that there is anything that is actually meant to be, or supposed to happen, thinking that there is always a way around troubling predicaments, knowing that it is not necessary to turn out just one certain way. They trust that whatever occurs in their lives comes as a result of the decisions that they make with their own free will. Others believe that whatever happens during the course of their lives is inevitable and every event is laid out before them like a road map to life, in other words, fate. William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet has fate as an exceptionally crucial element which makes fate as important as any

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.

Don’t you hate it when something doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to? When you care so deeply about something and sacrifice so much just so that it can happen, but despite it all, ends in ruins. This is the theme of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In this tragic tale, two fated lovers risk everything, even life itself, to be with one another. They go against family, friends and fate to be together. Had premonitions in the play been taken more seriously by key characters, tragedy could have been avoided.