The two lovers face tremendous obstacles to overcome to succeed in their love because of the fact that they are both from 2 different feuding families who wouldn’t let them marry each other so they must find some other way to get married in secret. Juliet is supposed to marry Paris. This will cause alarm within the household when she says no and wants to marry Romeo instead.
Shakespeare continues this idea in the constant references to fate and various premonitions of both Romeo and Juliet. There are frequent allusions to doom and visions of death suggesting that their union will end in tragedy.
“I fear, too early, for my mind misgives…
Direct my sail. On, Lusty Gentleman”.
This short comment from Romeo is suggesting that he might love someone because the stars foretold it but also talks in a dream about untimely death by loving this person.
“ Now old desire in his death-bed lie…
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.”
This whole chorus is setting the scene for act two by saying that there is love soon for Romeo. Juliet’s love is described as “loves sweet bait from fearful hooks”, this is obviously saying that this has been fated by something and, that something bad will happen to her.
“One nickname for her purblind son and heir
Young Abraham Cupid he shot so trim
When King Cophetua loved the beggar maid.”
The reference to cupid is perhaps saying that Romeo and Juliet’s love was destined be cupid and therefore by fate but does not suggest that this might also lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. It suggests that love is part of fate.
Juliet warns Romeo about swearing on anything that is inconstant and that will bring bad luck. So Romeo swore by the moon and maybe brought him and Juliet bad luck and possibly a fated death.
It is possible to view the deaths of Romeo and Juliet as not determined by fate but instead a result of a set of ordinary and understandably if tragic circumstances.
The lovers are very young and possibly too naïve to make marriage succeed, especially in the current circumstances. I say this because of a number of reasons. Romeo and Juliet are very young, from two different feuding families who dislike each other highly. Because of this they would make enemies in the two families. As they are very young they wouldn’t know how to cope with being in a fully committed relationship and things could go wrong. This links back to the pressures their parents are putting them under because of the relationship with Paris.
Their love has made enemies already, take for example Tybalt. He betrayed Mercutio and killed him, now Romeo is angry and takes revenge for the death of his friend and kills Tybalt, all because he is in love with Juliet and it comes with loving her.
In the openeing paragraph Romeo is described as being rather a young romantic. I think that he is not mature enough to be in love or even be married because at heart he is still a little boy. This can contribute to the fate of death between Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Lawrence warns Romeo of the dangers of a relationship which is moving too fast as he is getting married having only known Juliet for one day, he says “These Violent delights have Violent end, And in their Triumph die like fire and powder.” This is a very good quote from Friar Lawrence because it is clearly describing the fact that if Romeo marries Juliet very early it might come to a sudden and abrupt end.
At the end of the play Romeo kills himself impetuously rather than waiting which may have given time for Juliet to wake up. I think that if Romeo hadn’t been in love with her to such a great extent and couldn’t live for one more second knowing that she is ‘supposedly’ dead, this I believe is fated.
Friar Lawrence helps the lovers and this provides hope but coincidence and fate conspires against the two lovers. I will now expand this sentence by giving examples of coincidence and fate, which lead to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
I will now explain the coincidence examples and explain them.
Peter asks Romeo to read the party invitations, I think that this is coincidence because if Peter hadn’t been walking down the exact same street as Romeo he wouldn’t of come across Romeo and then he wouldn’t known about the Capulet’s party and therefore wouldn’t have met Juliet.
Romeo did not get thrown out of the Capulet’s party. I think that this is coincidence because Capulet was drunk and therefore in a good mood and couldn’t control himself.
Juliet told Romeo not to swear by the inconstant moon. This is definitely that their love would have been doomed to fail if he had sworn by the moon.
Mercutio is accidentally killed. I think that this is coincidence because Mercutio knew that the Capulets were in the town but still wanted to go. I think that this also ties the deaths of Romeo giving revenge on Tybalt and if Mercutio hadn’t been killed Romeo wouldn’t have been banished and would’ve known about the sleeping potion.
I will now look over and explain the circumstance cases that might have killed Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo went to the Capulet’s garden because he didn’t want to talk to his friends. If his friends hadn’t have been walking down the street wanting to talk to him at the same time he wouldn’t have met Juliet for a second time and wouldn’t have got married, and maybe they might’ve both survived.
Friar Lawrence supports Romeo and Juliet getting married as he thinks it might help stop the feuding between the families. He had good intentions with this but he should’ve seen the difficulties between them and he could’ve advised them to get married later in their lives.
Romeo wants to take revenge for the death of his close friend Mercutio. If Mercutio hadn’t of been so foolish he wouldn’t of got Romeo Banished and he would of then known about the plan to fake Juliet’s death.
I think that when Shakespeare wrote this play for his audience he intended the audience to think that the death of Romeo and Juliet were fated. I have many reasons for this conclusion, the fact that they were described as being “star crossed lovers” and after this “death marked lovers” obviously pointing out that Romeo and Juliet have been fated by the stars to fail in there love and eventually die because of it.
