What part does bad fortune and fate play in the tragedy of Romeo & Juliet?

Tunç Yagci

Romeo and Juliet Coursework

In this story of William Shakespeare ‘ Romeo & Juliet ’ I think that the death of Romeo and Juliet is a bad luck. I got to this conclusion because Romeo and Juliet are from the different families that really hate each other, the Montague family which Romeo is from and the Capulet family which Juliet is from. Also Juliet was going to marry Paris although she did not want to. This is what I would call a very bad luck of these two lovers.

Firstly, the Capulets and the Montagues are the two richest families of Verona, but they are like enemies each other. When any of the members of these two families see each other they start a fight, not even a fight by jus shouting each other but a sword fight.

Sampson says at the beginning of the story “ Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow. ” After this Sampson and Gregory start to fight until Benvolio tries to stop them. This fight starts when the Sampson bites his thumb (in these days it meant like an insult) at Abraham “ Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? ” . Also another example of these two families hate each other is that when Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio try to get in the party of the Capulet family, Benvolio and Mercutio wanted to go there to make Romeo forget about Rosalind. To get in they had to wear masks so that they will not see that Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio came to the Capulet party, otherwise they could get kicked out or even they could get beaten up by the Capulets because they tried to enter their party. Mercutio says, " Give me a case to put my visage in (puts on the mask) , A visor for a visor! ". Also in the Capulets party Romeo and Juliet fell in love but they did not know at that time whether they were from two enemy families. When Juliet asks Nurse who Romeo is, Nurse says “ His name is Romeo, and a Montague, the only son of your great enemy “, Juliet says " My only love sprung from my only hate! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy. ". These lines by the Nurse and Juliet show that Romeo and Juliet must not love each other, this is a bad luck that their families are enemies, Juliet could fall in love with any other man in that party but she fell in love with the person that she must not fall in love with, also their love will not end in a marriage since the two families are enemies and Paris was going to marry Juliet soon.

Juliet does not want to marry Paris although the marriage is arranged by her father and Paris. It is not that she does not want Paris but she does not want to marry yet, even if she does get married at that age she wants Romeo to be her husband “ I will not marry yet; and, when I do I swear, It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. “ in other words she only wants to be with Romeo.

Another example of bad luck is that the marriage between Paris and ...

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Another example of bad luck is that the marriage between Paris and Juliet is rearranged to Wednesday instead of Thursday. By that time Friar Lawrence had a solution which could make Romeo and Juliet together, since he liked Romeo as his own son. The solution was “ Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber. Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off; When presently through all thy veins shall run, A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse, Shall keep his native progress, but surcease; No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest “ In other words Friar Lawrence gives Juliet a potion that would keep her pulse down, and would look like that Juliet is dead so, a day after or so she can escape and be with Romeo for the rest of her life. Because of this Juliet must drink the potion earlier. The arranged marriage is bad luck because it is another problem which prevents Romeo and Juliet from being together.

The last example of bad luck that I found in this story between the main characters of this tragic story is the problem with the messenger. Since Romeo killed Tybalt who murdered Mercutio, Romeo ‘s best friend, although it was an accident so Romeo was kicked out of the city, the message from Friar Lawrence must reach to Romeo who was in Mantua, through a friar called Friar John, Friar Lawrence says “ Hold, get you gone, be strong and prosperous, In this resolve; I'll send a friar with speed, To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord ” to Juliet. The message must reach to Romeo so that he would know that this death of Juliet is a plan of Juliet and Friar Lawrence. However Romeo does not get the message of this plan, but he hears that Juliet died from Balthasar, so he just gets on his ride and goes to Capulets graveyard right away, when the message was on its way Romeo was going back to Verona to see Juliets dead body. When he gets to the Capulets graveyard he sees Juliet lying, he drinks a poison because he could not live without his only love Juliet and dies. After that Juliet wakes up and sees Romeo lying on the ground dead so she gets Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself and dies. This is a bad luck that Juliet woke up right after Romeo killed himself.

By these reason I got to this conclusion that the bad luck was the tragic end of Romeo & Juliet.