The catastrophe of Romeo and Juliet was caused by a lot of different things. Many people could be held accountable for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. One possible reason could be fate. Whether we like it or not, bad luck exists. There is no way to forestall it; it is naturally a fraction of our lives; it is not possible that everything could be perfect and accompany your wishes. Similarly, Romeo and Juliet are fatalities of bad luck- Juliet, a Capulet, and Romeo, a Montague fall in love with each other. However, the Capulets and Montagues have reciprocated hatred, thus forbidding Romeo and Juliet to be together. When Juliet ultimately finds the one she loves, she receives an arranged marriage planned by her parents to Paris. Juliet does not want to marry Paris as revealed when she articulates in Act 3, “I will not marry yet; and, when I do swear. It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris.”
This shows not only that Juliet does not want to marry, but is also an example of dramatic irony. Juliet makes Lady Capulet believe that she hates Romeo, but the audience knows that Juliet actually wants to be with Romeo. Friar Lawrence manages to devise a plan to allow them to be together. The plan is that Juliet would feign consent in marrying Paris, and will “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 humor, for no pulse shall keep is native progress, but surcease”. What Friar Lawrence is explaining is that he will give Juliet a drink that will put her to coma and will make it seem as though Juliet is dead. In the meantime, Romeo would receive a letter from him and get informed about his plan, and Juliet will then escape into exile to be with Romeo. While this plan looks flawless, bad luck strikes again and the messenger man does not manage to deliver the letter in time. Romeo mistakenly assumes that Juliet is dead, and consequently kills himself just a few minutes before Juliet wakes up. If Romeo had disembarked when Juliet had woken up, the lovers would then have a chance to live happily ever after. Though their physical deaths were their own decision, fate is what made them want to commit suicide for each other.
Some might deem these as coincidences, but the power of fate is factually commenced in the prologue where it states that the two are “star-cross’d lovers”, which means that they are ill-fated. The prologue also points out “The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love”, which implies that the fate of their love is death. From that point onwards, fate orchestrates their lives and ends as envisaged, with death. It was also fate that brought them to meet each other. If the illiterate servant of Capulet’s had not asked Romeo to help him read the guest list for the Capulet’s feast, Romeo would not have wanted to attend it, as the only reason why he attended it was to see Rosaline. The antagonist of fate is discussed again in the wedding scene by Friar Lawrence. He warns the couple of their destiny when he says, “These violent delights have violent ends”. From this, we can see that he fears of something that may go wrong, but marries them anyway because he thinks that it would end the feud, as he was quoted verbalizing “For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (Act 2). Even though something eventually went wrong, which was the death of Romeo and Juliet, his prediction that the feud would end was right. The two families did make peace. This is seen in Act 3 Scene 3 where Lord Capulet says “O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more can I demand.” Lord Montague then promises to “raise her (Juliet’s) statue in pure gold”. The Prince also refers to this when he says “A glooming peace this morning with it brings”.
There can be many “What ifs” to this play. One could ask “What if Friar Lawrence did not help Romeo and Juliet?” This would then enable one to blame Friar Lawrence for marrying them and drawing out the plan using the potion to get them together when Romeo was banished. It is comprehensible that Friar Lawrence had good intentions and only wanted contentment for Romeo and Juliet, as well as reconciliation between the Montagues and Capulets. However, the problem lies at the fact that he proceeded with the plan even though he knew something might go wrong. By marrying Romeo and Juliet, it situated a bigger burden for himself as well as the married couple because this had a big risk. The chance of Romeo and Juliet getting caught was very high because after their marriage, they would presumably expend supplementary time together. When Friar Lawrence designed the potion plan, he overlooked the bad consequences and only thought of the good consequences. If he had not come up with the plan to use the potion, Romeo would not have been bestowed the news that Juliet had passed away and he would not have killed himself. Another point is that if he had delivered the letter informing Romeo of the proposal personally then Romeo would not have assumed Juliet was dead and take his own life. Then again, we cannot put all the blame on him, because the fact that his plan had botched was fate. The plan could have perfectly worked well if Friar John delivered the letter in time. The fact that he did not manage to reach Romeo was part of fate and was inevitable.
Others could inquire “What if Lord Capulet chased Romeo away from the Capulet feast and forcing Juliet to marry Paris?” Here again, Lord Capulets intention for allowing Romeo to stay was good. He did not want to instigate an unnecessary scene, especially in front of his guests, as seen when he says “Content thee gentle coz, let him alone, ‘A 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 this 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, an ill-beseeming semblance for a feast”. If he had let Tybalt deal with him, otherwise sort out the situation himself, Romeo would not have met Juliet and forget about Rosaline instantly, and Friar Lawrence would not have taken place in this complicated matter. Then again, if he had dealt with the situation, Romeo would still be in pain. If Lord Capulet had not forced Juliet to marry Paris, Juliet would not have sought help from the Friar and the deaths of Romeo and Juliet could also be avoided.
All these questioning can continue for a long time and eventually still point to fate. It was fate that brought them to meet, for them to fall in love with each other, and to take their lives for each other. The overall structure of the play and the way it develops generates a feeling of inexorableness about the ending. Neither Romeo nor Juliet can ever really escape due to the fact that when things began to look as though they might improve, some new disaster strikes. Shakespeare was a very dexterous writer and these adversities never seem simulated or fanciful. Hence, I construe that fate is to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death.
