Mercutio speaks much of fate as a pun on Romeo as with his last mention he is trying to prove to Romeo that love is just a form of fate and that it should be handled with care
‘Speak to my gossip Venus in one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
the ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
Conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
by her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
by her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
that in thy likeness thou appear to us!
(Act 2, Scene 1, Line 11-21)
This is where Benvolio and Mercutio have lost Romeo in the orchard and they draw themselves to the conclusion that Romeo has gone to sleep with Roseline, as they do not know about Romeos new love for Juliet.
Mercutio then goes on to jest, ‘Blind is his love and best befits the dark.’ As Benvolio carries on, ‘If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.’ They both feel that Romeo is misguided in his love for Roseline.
In Act 2 Scene 2 there are many mentions of love including the destiny, this scene is where Romeo and Juliet hastily arrange their marriage.
‘Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
having some business, do entreat her eyes
to twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.’
(Act 2, Scene 2, Line 15-22)
Romeo here is seeing Juliet again and talks of the light as her and the dark being without her as she is a star to him.
Fate is not always talked about in the sense of love in the play. When Mercutio dies Romeo exclaims,
‘This day's black fate on more days doth depend;
this but begins the woe, others must end.’
(Act 3, Scene 1, Line 110-111)
Romeo sees that Tybalt has killed his best friend and wants to claim revenge from him, so angrily Romeo charged towards Tybalt to begin the woe that he must end.
‘O, I am fortune's fool!’ (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 127) means that destiny has taken Romeo to a place that he does not want to be, he has just killed Tybalt now a member of his family and he blames fortune for taking him there and driving him to it. Romeo uses fate as an excuse for killing Tybalt.
In the time of Romeo and Juliet many people were superstitious so fate and destiny were a very respected thing, life was planned out for you and all fortune was foretold in the stars through premonitions. Juliet wonders if she will ever see Romeo again as she says, ‘O think’st tho we shall ever meet again? (Act 3, Scene 5, Line 51)
As he was leaving to Mantua, she says
‘O God, I have an ill-diving soul!
Me thinks 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.
(Act 3, Scene 5, Line 54-58)
She is foretelling the death of Romeo and her own future in these four lines and that she doubts that they will see each other alive.
‘O fortune, fortune! All men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
for then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.’
(Act 3, Scene 5, Line 59-64)
Juliet is requesting that fate be fickle but let her see Romeo again as she hopes his destiny will not keep him from her for very long.
Fate is a main characteristic to the play and it adds a lot of suspense to the scenes especially to Act 5, Scene 3, ‘O give me thy hand, one writ with me in sour misfortune's book!’ (Act 5, Scene 3, Line 80-81), Romeo is saying that as him and Juliet loved then they can write in the book of misfortune all there sufferings and die as great lovers.
The Capulets and Montague’s were feuding families and a lot of their hate caused Romeo and Juliet to take their lives.
The very first words of the play are,
‘From ancient blood break to new mutiny,
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes’
(Prologue, Line 3-4) this shows that the feuding of the two houses has gone on for many years and a new war will be fought between them during the course of the play.
In act 1, scene 1 the first fight breaks out and Tybalt proves his sheer hate for the Montague’s,
‘What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
as I hate hell, all Montague’s, and thee’
The Prince, shown as a Prince in the Franco Zeffirelli version but as the chief of state in the Baz Luhrmann version, warns them after the fight,
‘Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partisans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate
If ever you disturb our streets again,
your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace’
The prince is saying that three fights have broken out recently and disturbed the streets of Verona. Unless they make peace their lives will pay the price of their hate.
At the Capulet party Tybalt is again the one that wants to brawl with the Montague’s when he recognises the voif Romeo at the party,
‘This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
to fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
to strike him dead, I hold it not a sin’
(Act 1, Scene 5, Line 53-58)
Tybalt is very angry with the Montague’s and thinks they are only there to laugh at the solemnity of the Capulets night, if he were to strike Romeo dead he would not repent it, as he wouldn’t think of it as a sin. He goes forth to his father, who deters him by saying,
‘Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone;
He bears him like a portly gentleman;
And, to say truth, Verona brags of him
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth:
I would not for the wealth of all the town
Here in my house do him disparagement:
Therefore be patient, take no note of him:
It is my will, the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence and put off these frowns,
And ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.’
(Act 1, Scene 5, Line 64-73)
Tybalt is still not convinced,
‘It fits, when such a villain is a guest:
I'll not endure him.’
(Act 1, Scene 5, Line 74-75)
His father, Capulet, then gets angry and violently whispers in a state of rage,
‘He shall be endured:
What, goodman boy! I say, he shall: go to;
Am I the master here, or you? Go to.
You'll not endure him! God shall mend my soul!
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! You’ll be the man!’
(Act 1, Scene 5, Line 75-80)
His Father does not want his party to be ruined and states that Romeo has not been spoken bad of so he will not ruin the party so Tybalt will have to endure him.
Later on in the scene Romeo and Juliet kiss and exchange their love, when the party ends Juliet asks the nurse whom Romeo is, the nurse replies,
‘His name is Romeo, and a Montague;
the only son of your great enemy.’
Juliet is shocked to hear this and says in confidence to the nurse,
‘My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
that I must love a loathed enemy’
Juliet hates the idea of loving an enemy but loves the idea of loving Romeo. She is shocked and distressed that her only love has come from the family she has been raised to hate.
Juliet goes on to question her family name in the balcony scene, Act 2 Scene 2.
‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.’
(Act 2, Scene 2, Line 33-36)
…
‘'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.’
(Act 2, Scene 2, Line 38-48)
Juliet feels that her name has no importance anymore as it is not a real thing just a name, she compares it to a rose and how if that was called another name it would still be the same as before. She wants Romeo to stay the perfection that she first met and that she would rid her name for him to take all of her.
Romeo hears her and responds quickly,
‘I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
henceforth I never will be Romeo.’
(Act 2, Scene 2, Line 49-51)
Romeo is stating that me will re-new himself for her and she will never need to refer to him as Romeo again.
Juliet is startled and embarrassed that someone has over heard her talking about her love and asks who is there, Romeo replies again,
‘By a name
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
because it is an enemy to thee;
had I it written, I would tear the word.’
(Act 2, Scene 2, Line 53-57)
Romeo again is saying I will not repeat my name as it is an enemy to yours, if his name, Montague, were written down he would tear it to prove his love.