To what extent are fate and free will to blame for the tradgedy of Romeo and Juliet
After Killing Tybalt, Romeo complains that he is 'Fortunes Fool'. Consider how far Romeo and Juliet's relationship is governed by a power higher than themselves. Do You Always expect the play to end in tragedy?
I have chosen 3 scenes from the play to answer this question. All of which have different answers to the question. I have chosen:
One scene for A higher power controlling them,
One scene for being in control under their own free will and
One scene to sum up my feelings and to answer the final question.
Anyone who reads this play picks up on the repetitive references to fate, the presence of fate and the importance of fate in 'Romeo and Juliet'.
The first reference to fate in this play is in the prologue at the start.
'From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with heir death bury their parents' strife.'
The prologue says that the pair was doomed from the very beginning. Saying that the lovers were 'star-cross'd' is almost like saying that they had no way of controlling their lives as it was in the hands of the stars. The prologue tells the audience of the outcome of the play from the start but leaves them wondering 'how' and 'why' Romeo and Juliet die.
Act 2 Scene 2, Free will.
Act 2 scene 2 is the famous balcony scene. In this scene Romeo has sneaked into Capulets house and is under the balcony of Juliet's Bedroom. He is declaring his love to her, without her hearing, when Juliet appears onto the balcony and complains of how Romeo is a Montague, and how they can, therefore, never be together with the consent of their houses.
Romeo then says that he is prepared to sacrifice his name to be with Juliet:
'Call me but love, and I'll be new baptised:
Henceforth I never will be Romeo'
These Quotes show how far Romeo is prepared to go to be with his love. He is prepared to give up his name, under his own fee will, so that he can be with Juliet. The family of Capulet is one of the most highly regarded in Verona and for Romeo to give it up for Juliet shows the extent of his love for her. The fact that he has done it out of his own free will shows he has control over his life.
Romeo Takes the developing relationship into his own hands and makes the first move by asking:
'O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?'
Here Romeo has taken the relationship into his own hands. Juliet doesn't quite know what he means and then she is asked he asks for 'th'exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine' making it perfectly clear. He is making the move to exchange vows under his own free will; Romeo is once again taking the relationship into his own hands as he is fearful that it will end as soon as he leaves the house of Capulet and is determined that it will not.
However, as much a Romeo is willing to make sacrifices to be with his loved one Juliet is offering to make sacrifices too. She says that she will 'no longer be a Capulet'. She could lose her name of Capulet by marrying Romeo, and adopting his name or she could just get rid of the surname so that they could be together. Either way, this shows that Juliet is also willing to make sacrifices to make the relationship work... The scene ends with the nurse calling Juliet and forcing her to go inside and to leave Romeo to ...
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However, as much a Romeo is willing to make sacrifices to be with his loved one Juliet is offering to make sacrifices too. She says that she will 'no longer be a Capulet'. She could lose her name of Capulet by marrying Romeo, and adopting his name or she could just get rid of the surname so that they could be together. Either way, this shows that Juliet is also willing to make sacrifices to make the relationship work... The scene ends with the nurse calling Juliet and forcing her to go inside and to leave Romeo to return home.
Act 3, Scene 1, Fate.
Act 3 scene1 begins with a confrontation between Tybalt and Mercutio in Verona. Tybalt becomes very annoyed and agitated when he is ignored by Mercutio, Tybalt keeps making frequent references to fighting between the 2 of them but Mercutio doesn't want to know. Tybalt is searching For Romeo from when Romeo attended the party at the house of Capulet, unaware of the developing romance between Romeo and Juliet, and the possibility of them becoming brothers in law.
When Romeo appears Tybalt is eager to fight with him but Romeo wants to make peace. As Tybalt begins to attack Romeo, without Romeo fighting back Mercutio becomes angered and joins in with the fight to protect his friend. Tybalt stabs Mercutio even though Romeo is trying to break up the fight. Injured and dying Mercutio, not a member of either house, yet killed during the bitter feud between them places 'A plagues a' both houses!'
Mercutio was killed during the inter-house battle, even though he was not a member of either house, only a friend of Romeo who didn't want to see his friend killed. However, if Mercutio had not taunted Tybalt at the beginning of the scene he would not have been so angry and maybe would not have started a fight with Romeo. The curse that Mercutio ordered upon both houses was the start of things going wrong in the relationship between Romeo and Juliet.
Seeing his best friend killed by an enemy made Romeo snap, he took his sword and, after a short fight killed Tybalt. Romeo then realised that he had just killed the cousin of his future wife, and that if Tybalt's family found out he could be killed. Romeo realises that he has made a mistake ad flees from the scene. As the news of the death of Tybalt spreads to the Capulet household Lady Capulet is furious and orders the death of Romeo. Prince Escales Learns of the news and, despite the tries of Lady Capulet refuses to order the death of Romeo, deciding to punish him by banishment from the city of Verona.
I believe that fate was fully in control of Romeo in this scene. Tybalt was looking for a fight with Romeo, whether or not Romeo wanted it, and Mercutio knew that Romeo was never going to fight back.
Perhaps, Mercutio's aggravation of Tybalt at the start of the scene made him sure that he was going to have a fight with Romeo, and maybe aggravating Tybalt cost Mercutio his life, because if Tybalt had not have been so annoyed with Mercutio he may not have killed him.
No matter what Romeo did, the fight would still have happened, making it out of his control.
When Romeo saw that Mercutio had been killed, he snapped, he began to fight with Tybalt and viciously killed him. Romeo had just had to witness the death of his best friend, all because he didn't fight back against Tybalt and forced Mercutio to join in, , which lead to Mercutio's death. This was in the hands of Romeo, with no higher power involved. The fight happening was out of his control but he could have changed the outcome by fighting back against Tybalt therefore Mercutio would not have joined in, and not have been killed.
Before Mercutio's death he says 'A plague a' both your houses!' placing a curse on both the house of Capulet and the house of Montague, of neither he was a member, but was killed in the feud between them.
Up until this scene most things were going right for Romeo and Juliet, with their love blossoming, but as soon as the plague was placed things began to go wrong for their love as, unaware to Juliet, Romeo is banished from the city of Verona.
After the death of Tybalt Romeo realises the extent of the problem that he has just created becomes clear to him, this is when he refers to himself as 'Fortunes Fool', he is disappointed that he has let his emotions get power over him, and has realised the consequences, that his love with Juliet is doomed.
Act 4, Scene 3, Both Fate and Free Will
In this scene, The friar has given Juliet a potion that makes her look as if she is dead, but is only sleeping. Juliet has not taken it yet but is wondering whether or not she should. Juliet wants to trick her parents to thinking she is dead so she can escape marrying Paris. Only the nurse and the friar know that Romeo and Juliet are married, and the Capulets want her to marry the person that they have selected for her, Paris. Juliet doesn't want to marry Paris because she is still in love with Romeo, even though he has been banished and they cannot see each other any more. Juliet did not tell her parents that she and Romeo were married as they would be appalled that she had married a Montague, the family that was the enemy of theirs. They had been able to arrange their marriage through the Nurse and the friar, not letting anyone else know. As they would disapprove of the marriage.
When Juliet is considering drinking the potion She goes through many motions, she is so sure that, if the potion does not work she is prepared to kill herself with a dagger to avoid marrying Paris.
Juliet Becomes very scared, questioning the honesty of the Friar; she wonders whether she will wake up in the tomb before Romeo comes, or whether the friar has given her a poison to get rid of the illegal marriage that he undertook for Romeo and Juliet. The scene ends with Juliet drinking the potion, to Romeo.
Juliet wondering whether or not the friar is honest or is poisoning her shows that she believes that things are still out of her control, even when she is making the decision to drink the potion to avoid being forced into a marriage with Paris. Because of most of the things in the play being out of the hands of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is sure that the friar is controlling her life, making it end by giving her a falsely named potion to kill her.
Juliet is making the decision to drink the potion on her own, if anyone were to know about it they would try to discourage Juliet from taking the potion, as it is dishonest and dangerous. Juliet would not have to drink the potion if she was not being forced into a marriage with Paris by her parents. So, in at time where you could mistakenly say she was drinking the potion of her own free will, she is actually being forced into it by her parents, as she thinks that it is the only way out of the situation that she has been forced into.
Juliet is prepared to stab herself with a dagger to avoid marrying Paris, Juliet says that if the mixture does not work, and she has to marry Paris in the morning, that she would rather kill herself than to go through with the marriage. This also firstly appears to be a decision made of free will, which it is to a certain extent, before the cause of her wanting to kill herself becomes known. With Juliet being forced into a marriage she doesn't want, when she is already married to her true love, seems like the worst ting that could possibly happen to Juliet.
It is the way that she delays drinking the potion that leads to the death of both Romeo and Juliet. If she had not been so apprehensive about drinking the potion she would have woken up before Romeo drunk the potion, and He would have not killed himself, therefore neither would she.
The play ends with Romeo discovering about the 'death' of Juliet, and rushing back to Verona to see his dead lover. On the way to Juliet's tomb he has a run in with Paris. After a short fight Paris is killed, with his last request to be laid next to Juliet in her tomb. Romeo grants this and carries on to see Juliet.
When he casts his eyes upon Juliet he is so appalled with what he sees that he drinks the poison that he bought off an apothecary earlier in the play. After drinking the poison his final act is to kiss Juliet on the lips, before dying next to her.
The final kiss of Romeo wakes up Juliet from her sleep and she is greeted with the sight of Romeo and Paris next to her. Juliet is so upset by the death of Romeo, and shocked that he is there that she tests his lips to see if they are still wet with poison, with them being wet she kisses him to get a dose of the potion which kills her.
If Juliet had not been so fussy in taking the potion in act 4 scene 3 then she would have woken up before Romeo took the potion and neither of their lives would have been wasted.
Do you always expect the play to end in tragedy?
In the beginning of the play Romeo and Juliet seen to be in control of their own love, choosing to meet up whenever they like and to become married. These actions are made completely of their own free will. But after the death of Mercutio and the curse placed upon the houses seem to be the beginning of things going wrong, starting immediately with the death of Tybalt.
Fate seems to be mostly in control over the lives of Romeo and Juliet from the beginning of act 3, with nothing going right for them from then onwards. Shakespeare meant for his audience to realise that Romeo and Juliet had no control over their lives, leading to a sympathetic view of the couple from the audience.
The actions of the lovers, although at the beginning were of there own free will, seemed to be, in the end controlled by Fate.