There is more predestination in the phrase, ‘O, I am fortunes fool’ in Act 3 Scene 1. Romeo says this just after he kills Tybalt. This shows that fate is against him again. The ‘fool’ part makes it seem as if Romeo is totally helpless and doesn’t know what is going on and why. It is as if fate is playing a game with him and he is losing that game. Nothing is going his way, fate is in control of him and he has no power over it. Romeo knows he has made a big mistake by killing Tybalt and ‘O, I an fortunes fool’ is all that he can say, he is trying to put the blame on fate when it may not all be fate. Romeo could have controlled his anger and just reported that Tybalt had killed Mercutio instead of seeking revenge and killing Tybalt. It just so happens that Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin and this will spark even more hatred between the two families of the Capulet’s and Montague’s. There is foreshadowing of this incident occurring when Benvolio is speaking at the start.
The phrase, ‘What must be shall be’ is said by Juliet in act 4 scene 1. The ‘must’ part is very dominant which also reflects on Juliet’s character. She, like Romeo, realizes she has no control over fate and will just have to take it as it goes. This shows that Romeo and Juliet are connected with each other on a higher level. She is basically saying everything happens for a reason whether the result is good or whether it is bad. This part of the play is when she is planning her fake suicide. She is making it as if fate is in control of everything but she can, if she wants to not kill herself but try to resolve the family feud by another way. She could run away with Romeo or have the Friar talk to the families, as he is a respected man. This speech is with Paris but it is not a love sonnet like it was when Romeo and Juliet met for the first time which shows no matter how hard anyone tries, only she and Romeo can be together because it is written in the stars.
‘Then I defy you stars!’ is said by Romeo in act 5 scene 1. This links back to the prologue with, ‘star-crossed lovers’. Here Romeo is angry at fate and with God. He tries to go against fate, which results in him, stealing his own fate by him dying. He is very impatient to get the poison and Balthasar describes him as ‘pale’, which implies he is already half-dead. As the prologue stated, both of them will ‘take their life’ and this is exactly what is happening. All these quotes show that Shakespeare is giving the message that fate is malevolent and results in death.
Both families, the Capulet’s and the Montague’s play a big part in Romeo and Juliet’s death because they die over the feuding of the two families. It was all going on even before they were born and it is such a coincidence that Romeo and Juliet happened to be from both families. Nurse, Benvolio, Mercutio, Tybalt and the Friar Lawrence also help decide Romeo and Juliet’s fate.
It starts when Nurse tells Juliet that Romeo is from the family that she is meant to hate. This somehow makes their love more strong and forces Romeo to come and visit Juliet in secret in their garden. Nurse tells Romeo that Juliet wants to meet him and this is when they know they are to marry each other. Quite soon later on, Friar Lawrence marries them, and even though they have God’s blessing, he still gives them a word of warning. In the streets in Verona, Mercutio starts instigating with Tybalt. Benvolio had already warned them no to fight but Mercutio ignored this and kept taunting Tybalt even though Tybalt was pacifying. Tybalt wants to kill Romeo, but Romeo is in a good mood and says he loves Tybalt. Tybalt takes this the wrong way and he kills Mercutio under Romeo’s arm. Mercutio gets angry and says ‘A plague o’both your houses’. When Mercutio dies, Romeo goes and kills Tybalt. After this, Romeo is banished and this is when he definitely knows fate is against him. Romeo thinks Juliet is angry with him for killing Tybalt but they meet in her bedroom. Capulet then tries to force Juliet to marry Paris making her angry. Juliet drinks the poison to fake her death and everyone thinks she is dead. Romeo gets the message and so he gets some deadly poison. He kills Paris in the Friar’s cell and he drinks the poison. Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead so she stabs herself. Everything leading to their death has been out of their control. Instead of committing suicide, Romeo and Juliet should have slowed things down and thought of an alternative, this was in their control, but being young, they rushed everything and had an untimely, negative death.
Romeo and Juliet were very determined to get married from the beginning. Since they met at the Capulet’s ball, they knew they just had to be together. The events surrounding them made them rush their marriage. First, they found out that they were meant to hate each other, not love each other and that Juliet’s father had another wedding planned for her. They know that if anyone in the family finds out about them, there will be a war and everything will have to be called off and their relationship will end. After one night at the ball, and one night in Capulet’s garden outside Juliet’s bedroom, they decide to get married. They get married just a few days after they met. This could be because in the Elizabethan times, life expectancy was much shorter and so everything was done at a much earlier age. They get married at the age of thirteen, which is very young. They don’t consider what will happen to both families and what Tybalt thinks so they keep this a secret. The Friar warns them that it will come with consequences. He tells them to be pure and to not be alone. Romeo and Juliet are very eager to consummate their love relationship together and so they achieve this. They feel like husband and wife instead of girlfriend and boyfriend and consummating their relationship signifies that they are adults and not ‘pure’.
Act three scene one is the most important scene of the play as it is located exactly in the middle of the play. Shakespeare has deliberately put it in the middle to emphasize its importance. The outcome of the scene is two deaths and one banishment. There is a contrast in characters because Tybalt is known for his fiery attitude and Mercutio for his friendship, in this scene there is role reversal and Mercutio becomes the ‘bad’ guy while Tybalt persists on not fighting. Tybalt insists he does not want to fight Mercutio and that he has only come to fight Romeo. Shakespeare has done this to surprise the audience just as they were settling in and e changes their assumptions of the characters. Act 3.1 also contrasts with the previous scene of act 2.6, which was a very intimate and slow scene in the Friar’s cell. It has gone from three characters, to a fast-paced crowded street, which shows juxtaposition. Here, Romeo, (like Juliet), is misunderstood by others as Tybalt thinks Romeo is mocking him when Romeo says that he should love him. The foreshadowing at the beginning of the scene from Benvolio has done nothing to change the outcome, which shows fate cannot be tampered with. Romeo is very swift to realize that he is ‘fortune’s fool’ and so he runs away. This is a ‘wake up call’ from Shakespeare to show that anything is possible and that fate is predetermined and that it all results in death.
