Examine the role of fate in Romeo and Juliet.
Lauren Wood
Examine the role of fate in Romeo and Juliet
There are a lot of events in the play that fate plays a part in. Fate plays a big part in this play. Most events that happen to Romeo and Juliet are not their fault at all, and it is fate that affects their lives.
We know from the prologue that eventually in this play, Romeo and Juliet will die. As it states in the prologue "A pair of star cross'd lovers, take their life." This is saying that these two people meet, Romeo and Juliet, and it ends up costing them their life.
There are suggestions throughout the book that are repeated that Romeo and Juliet will die. When Romeo is talking to Benvolio, in act one, scene four, as it states in the text "I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequences yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date, with this nights revels, and expire the term of a despised life clos'd in my breast, By some wile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail: on lusty gentlemen." This quote is Romeo worrying about what will happen, in a way, he is having premonitions of what is going to happen. Another example of this is after the party when Romeo talks to Benvolio, as it states in the text "Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is my foe's debt." When Juliet talks to the nurse about Romeo as it states in the text "Go ask his name, if he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bed." So throughout this scene there are little hints of what is going to happen later on in the play.
In act two, scene two, Juliet is talking to Romeo, and in the middle of the scene, she is expressing some concern that she feels that this will all end bad, they are making the decision to quick, as it states in the text "Well do not swear, although I joy in thee: I have no joy in this contract to-night, It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden." Here Juliet is having a sort of premonition of what might happen.
In act two, scene six, where Romeo and Juliet are to be married Romeo is talking ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
In act two, scene two, Juliet is talking to Romeo, and in the middle of the scene, she is expressing some concern that she feels that this will all end bad, they are making the decision to quick, as it states in the text "Well do not swear, although I joy in thee: I have no joy in this contract to-night, It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden." Here Juliet is having a sort of premonition of what might happen.
In act two, scene six, where Romeo and Juliet are to be married Romeo is talking to the Friar before Juliet arrives and he says "Then love-devouring death do what he dare, It is enough I may but call her mine." The friar then warns him that fate has a habit of accepting those challenges, and to tread carefully.
In act three scene five, when Romeo and Juliet are about to depart, Juliet asks Romeo if they will see each other again, and he says that he will see her again, but then Juliet says "O God, I have an ill-divining soul, Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb, Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale." This is interesting because the next time she sees Romeo is when she wakes up in the tomb after taking the friars potion, and sees Romeo dead because he has killed himself, so here there is another premonition of what is going to happen to Romeo and Juliet. Another example of this is in act five scene one. It opens with Romeo talking about dreaming of Juliet, as it states in the text "I dreamt my lady came and found me dead, (strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think:) and breath'd such life with kisses in my lips." We know that Romeo goes into the vault and finds Juliet dead, and then he kills himself, and Juliet wakes and kisses him to see if there is any more poison left on his lips, so that she too can die.
Romeo and Juliet are really helpless victims of a series of unfortunate events. The curse of a dying man was an ominous thing in Elizabethan times and when Mercutio died he said "A plague o'both houses, I am sped:" This could be the curse of the dying man, and this could have been what Shakespeare had wanted the audience to think. After Mercutio puts the plague on the houses, both Romeo and Juliet end up dying, and this could be the curse, as it affects both houses, and both Romeo and Juliet die, and they are from different houses.
Although fate is seen in a negative aspect there are parts of the play that it has happened positively. For instance, the clown in act one, scene two. If that clown had not have asked Romeo if he could read the letter, then Romeo wouldn't have known about the party and gone to it to see Rosaline and met Juliet. On the other hand, if the clown hadn't have asked Romeo to read the letter, both Romeo and Juliet would still have been alive.
Timing in this play is also crucial. If the monk delivering the friars letter to Romeo hadn't been delayed, then Romeo would know that Juliet would be safe, and not dead. If Balthazar hadn't heard of Juliet's death and rushed off to tell Romeo, Romeo wouldn't have gotten any message, and the friar could have taken Juliet when she woke up to him. If Friar Lawrence had arrived at the tomb five minutes earlier, he could have stopped Romeo from killing himself, and Romeo and Juliet could have lived happily somewhere else. If Juliet's drugs had worn off two minutes earlier, then she would have woken up just before Romeo got there, and she would have been alright, and Romeo would not have killed himself.
Throughout the play there are references to death in connection with love and marriage. In act one scene five Juliet is referred to as a bride of death. Also, when Juliet hears of Romeos banishment, she says "He made you for a highway to my bed, But I a maid, die maiden widowed." This is another premonition that Juliet is going to die knowing she was widowed. Another example of this is when Lady Capulet is angry at Juliet for refusing to marry Paris, in act three scene five, as she says "I would the fool were married to her grave." Here Lady Capulet is saying that when Juliet gets married, it will take her to an early grave. Another example of this is where Capulet learns that his daughter Juliet is dead in act four, scene five as he says "death is my son in law, death is my heir, my daughter he hath wedded. I will die, and leave him all life worth living, all is Death's."
Romeo and Juliet are really victims of fate in this play. I think this is mainly because they do not make decisions about it. It really is fate and very bad luck. Timing also plays a big part in this, it is quite frustrating, to think that if people could arrive a couple of minutes earlier or later, then the whole play might not have happened. Fate determined the separate houses; fate determined the fact that even though Romeo and Benvolio try to stop it, Tybalt still kills Mercutio. When Tybalt has just died, Romeo says "I am fortunes fool." This is a big indicator that fate has played a huge part in what happened in this play.
