“What rouse thee man! Thy Juliet is alive, for whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead”
Time will pass and Romeo may be forgiven, however, the Friar’s desperation, to clear the rivalry between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s, clouds his vision and spontaneously Friar comes up with a plan to re-unite Romeo and Juliet. Friar’s plan could have worked but so many things could have gone wrong, just as they did. The letters never get to Romeo, and when Romeo turns up at Juliet’s grave he commits suicide thinking that he will be with Juliet in heaven. The fact that Balthasar reaches Romeo in Mantua before Friar’s letter does, is fate, but as stated above Romeo had a choice. He didn’t need to go back to Verona because if his only reason for going back is a dead Juliet then why risk his own life, but Romeo made a decision resulting in his return.
Lord Capulet is keen for Juliet to find a husband and goes along with Paris’s proposal, provided it meets with Juliet’s approval. However later in the play his attitude changes and he forces Juliet into marriage. Capulet is not the only character who contradicts himself in the play. To start Romeo is deeply sad that his only love doesn’t feel the same about him and after he meets Juliet he becomes a melodramatic passionate lover. However as the play progresses Romeo becomes, again, a very dramatic person who seeks revenge for the killing of Mercutio. The flaw in Romeo’s character is that he experiences emotion to the extreme which makes him very bold and very unpredictable.
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”
Many though, would argue that it wasn’t Romeo’s fault for killing Tybalt. Romeo is drawn into the fight much against his will. The basic instinct, the desire of a man to avoid being thought a coward, and Romeo’s new found angered revenge prevails and he is driven to fight Tybalt.
Another source of omens in the play is the presaging of dreams. Romeo has a dream, "I dreamt my lady came and found me dead." Also before the Capulet party Romeo senses that something bad will come of this night.
“I fear, too early, for my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date with this night’s revels and expire the term of a despised life, closed in my breast, by some vile forfeit of untimely death.”
At the Capulet party, the only reason that Romeo and his friends get in is because the guard is illiterate and Romeo happens to be in the right place at the right time to help the guard but making sure that his friends and him were allowed into the party. By being lucky to get into the party, Romeo ignores his dream of unfortunate death and enjoys the night’s gathering.
In this play we see two miraculous changes in Romeo, from the love sick naive boy to the direct and humorous man. His good humour is apparent after the secret wedding when he joins his friends in the streets of Verona. He has altered as a person offering no apologies for his apparently inconsistent behaviour.
“Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable; now art thou Romeo”
Mercutio says when he has recognised the change in Romeo.
Then things take a turn for the worst after being forced to kill Tybalt to stay alive, Romeo instantly realises the implications:
“O, I am fortune’s fool”
Romeo becomes extremely erratic and the affected misery he had shown in the opening scene is replaced by genuine despair as he contemplates life without Juliet. Romeo also becomes very selfish. As he goes to seek comfort in Friar Lawrence’s cell he sees banishment as torture and not mercy and he draws his dagger to commit suicide without thinking what Juliet would think and feel with having to live without her Romeo.
The lovers are fated to die, as we know from the opening lines of the play.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.”
Their deaths come across as the result of tragic mistakes, chiefly the result of people acting in haste. Romeo’s rush of blood leads to the death of Tybalt. Romeo reacts equally swiftly when he decides to return to Verona to be with Juliet. When challenged by Paris outside the vault, he does not hesitate but engages in a fight that leads to the death of Paris. The Friar has the chance to save Juliet at least, but hearing footsteps he panics and leaves her to her predictable suicide. Only at the end when five of Verona’s finest young people have died is there time to consider the consequences of what has occurred. At last common sense prevails when the Prince points out that “All are punished”
And the “Parents’ strife” is finally buried as the prologue Act 1 has warned us.
The divisions of Verona are to be found even today in civil wars. I think the theme of Romeo and Juliet is a headstrong youth against society’s predudice which is to be found in every period of history.
Capulet’s attempt to delay Paris’ nuptial interest in Juliet at the start of act 1, scene 2 coincides with Juliet’s secret marriage to Romeo. Ignorant of Juliet's marital status, Lord Capulet agrees to Paris' request for the hand of his daughter and plans a wedding for Juliet and Paris. Juliet defies fate and drinks a "magic" potion in order to avoid the fateful marriage.
“Come, vial. What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married then tomorrow morning? No, no! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there. (She lays down a dagger).”
Friar Lawrence attempts to send a message to Romeo about the "apparent death" of Juliet, but, due to fate, Friar John could not leave Verona because of the plague and left such an important an urgent message in the hands of a messenger.
“I could not send it – here it is again – Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection.”
Romeo happens to hear about Juliet's death from his servant Balthasar and decides he must join Juliet's fate in eternity. When he enters the tomb, he notices the scarlet of Juliet's cheek, signalling that she is soon to awake from her trance. He mistakes the colour as the beauty of her being shining through to defy death.
“Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And deaths pail flag is not advanced there.”
If only he had arrived five minutes later, Juliet would have been awake and the two deaths would have been avoided and the two love struck souls united. Clearly, fate controls the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
By Joe Fellows
