Despite the obvious human intervention, fate too plays a part in the seemingly inevitable tragic conclusion. From the outset of the play, the audience is aware that Romeo and Juliet’s love is in the hands of fate. They are also aware that Romeo and Juliet’s passionate love for each other is not going to last and they will die together as lovers.
“A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.” (Prologue, line 6)
The prologue referring to Romeo and Juliet as ‘a pair of star-cross’d lovers’ suggests that they are almost destined by fate to suffer an unhappy end. It is clear that their lives are in the hands of fate, and that their deaths are going to be unavoidable.
“Death-mark’d love.” (Prologue, line 9)
This phrase also indicates that Romeo and Juliet’s love is going to end in tragedy. It suggests that their love is marked as death by fate right from the beginning.
It is clearly fate that allows Lord Capulet’s illiterate servant asks Romeo, of all people, to read the invitation list for the Capulet’s ball. In Romeo reading this list, he sees Rosaline’s name on the list and decides to go to the ball uninvited. If the servant had not asked Romeo for help, perhaps the decision to attend the Capulets’ masked ball would not have been made, and Romeo would not have met Juliet.
Early on in the play, prior to the Capulets’ ball, Romeo foresees his own death. He has dreams that tell him something terrible is going to happen on that night of the ball, and it will result in a change in his life. Romeo has fearful misgivings and looks uneasily into the future. He even appears to have a premonition of death.
“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…” (1.4.106-109)
Here Romeo suggests that his dreams have warned him that there will be some type of consequence - which is ordained by the stars but not yet revealed - on that night and that this consequence will make a change in his life. Romeo calls upon the one that ‘hath steerage’ of his ‘course’, he who guides the path of his life, to direct him safely and not dangerously.
Tybalt and Romeo meet at a critical point. Romeo acts in an impulsive and reckless manner when he kills Tybalt. He allows his anger to dictate his actions and the result is his banishment. This only serves to complicate matters further. Romeo’s words, following the death of Tybalt,
‘Oh I am fortune’s fool,’ (3.1.132)
…reveal that he too recognises that fate has made him do what he did. Romeo knew that everything would be different from that point onwards, as he had just killed Juliet’s cousin, and he did not know how Juliet would take the horrifying news.
Just before Romeo and Juliet’s parting, due to Romeo’s banishment from Verona, Juliet has this sense in her mind that something awful is going to happen.
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee now, thou
art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.” (3.5.54-56)
Juliet feels this pessimistic feeling in her mind because Romeo has stayed until later than he should have, and he is climbing down the balcony to leave her. She has no idea when they will meet again. For all she knows, they could never meet again. This feeling suggests that Juliet appeals to fate.
“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.” (3.5.61-64)
Juliet knows that it is due to fate, that Romeo has been banished from Verona to Mantua, and therefore she asks fate to be fickle, and send Romeo back to her.
The request by Paris that he should be allowed to marry Juliet, sets in motion some of the events that lead to the lovers’ death. If he had not asked for her hand in marriage, and had the marriage not been brought forward a day by Lord Capulet, then the events might have turned out differently. In the marriage day being moved, forwards, it meant the Friar had less time to make sure Romeo received the message to tell of his plans. This hastened and accelerated the tragedy. Capulet moves the wedding day forward a day from Thursday to Wednesday. Juliet is under immense pressure due to this decision.
Romeo himself blames fate on hearing of Juliet’s “death”.
“then I defy you, stars!” (5.1.24)
This suggests that fate has done the cruellest thing that it could to Romeo, and therefore Romeo challenges fate to do any more to him. He knows that Juliet’s death is the worst scenario possible for him, and believes there is not a single thing that fate could do to make him to make things worse.
It is due to fate that Friar John is held up in the city of sick and is unable to deliver the letter to Romeo telling of Friar Lawrence’s plan. This is a big turning point in the play. Had Friar John been able to deliver the letter to Romeo in time, Romeo would have known that Juliet was not really dead, and that it was all part of the plan, and he could have met her at the Capulet’s vault and taken her away to Mantua. As he thought that Juliet was really dead, he decided to kill himself.
At the conclusion of the play, Friar Lawrence himself believes his plans have been ‘thwarted’ by ‘fate’ and there is nothing that could have been done to prevent what has happened.
“A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted
our intents.” (5.3.153-154)
He realises that fate has always been in control of his plans and he or anybody else couldn’t have done a single thing to prevent the tragedy.
Both Romeo and Juliet blame fate for their death. Fate finally does manage to part the two lovers in life, but ultimately they are united in death.
It is the pressure of time that gives fatal momentum to the events. Juliet’s marriage with Paris is brought forward a day by Lord Capulet. The Friar’s letter to Romeo is not delivered. Balthasar brings news of Juliet’s “death”. The Friar is just half an hour late in his arrival at the tomb to prevent the tragedy. If only one or even two of these events took place, it could be said that it was just a coincidence, but for all of these events to take place in a short amount of time and affect the tragedy, it has to be fate.
However, Romeo and Juliet can also be the ones to blame for their own deaths. The two lovers were impulsive, rushing into love and marriage without careful consideration of the consequences. This may show that they had not really been in true love before and didn’t really know what love was. Romeo believed he was in love with Rosaline, but he just thought he was. He couldn’t take his mind off Rosaline for one second until the Capulet’s masked ball, where he met Juliet. When he met Juliet, he completely forgot about Rosaline, and fell in love with Juliet. This shows that he is a fickle man about love.
“Did my heart love till now, forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true
beauty till this night.” (1.5.51-52)
These lines suggest that Rosaline was forgotten in an instant. He says that he has never seen true beauty until this night. Juliet is the perfect woman. From this stage onwards in the play, Romeo and Juliet are two completely different people to those we met in the beginning of the play. Before they met each other, they were both ignorant of love.
They put immense pressure on Friar Lawrence; both at the point of marriage and desperation, and whole-heartedly adopted his plans. The feud between the families is the issue that convinces the Friar to marry them. He believes their marriage would solve the feud. Even more pressure is put on the Friar when Romeo is banished for his irresponsible behaviour when intervening in the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio. If the Friar had married Juliet and Paris, both he and Juliet would have been in trouble. It would also have meant that Juliet would have been married twice, and he would have married Juliet twice; illegal as it was for anyone to be married twice.
Juliet, although initially appearing dutiful, deceives and disobeys her family and hides much from them. She hides her love and marriage with Romeo from her parents, and doesn’t appreciate her parents’ thought of bringing her a great man to marry. If Juliet had just been honest with her parents from the beginning, things might have been different. This way, she still would have remained a dutiful daughter to her parents, and she might have been able to convince her parents to allow her to marry Romeo.
The Friar is surprised and suspicious that Romeo’s affections for Rosaline have strayed so quickly. This fickle behaviour gives the audience second thoughts about whether or not Romeo’s love for Juliet is genuine. Romeo and Juliet fail to listen to advice they are given, particularly from the Friar who warns them, “wisely and slow”, they stumble that run-fast. This disobedience is what leads to the tragedy of their deaths.
Romeo acts in haste and irrationally when killing Tybalt and when returning to Verona on news of Juliet’s “death”. When Balthasar informs Romeo of Juliet’s supposed death, he has no patience even to think about what could’ve happened to her or to find out what happened to her. He immediately goes to the Apothecary and buys a potion of poison from him. Even after all of this, when he enters the Capulets’ vault, he doesn’t even think to see if Juliet could still be alive. He immediately drinks the poison and dies. This was a senseless act from Romeo, and this is what led to the death of Juliet. If Romeo had not killed himself, there would have been a possibility that Juliet could’ve woken up in time and they both could’ve gone off to live happily ever after in Mantua. If this had not gone to plan, then at least both Romeo and Juliet would not have died.
Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other is self-indulgent and melodramatic. Romeo and Juliet both are seen to be melodramatic characters, and their love is as well. Their love could also be seen as selfish. They take no account whatsoever of other people’s feelings and thoughts. They do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. This is the main reason why Romeo and Juliet are seen to be the causes of the tragedy of their deaths.
Friar Lawrence, the man who shows the authority of the church plays a large part in the final tragedy of the play. He married Romeo and Juliet in secret, without the permission of their parents. He may have had good intentions in marrying Romeo and Juliet, but he did not take into account the role of fate. This is what let him and his plans down.
As a man of the church, and as an adult, he should have behaved in a more responsible and rational manner. He warned Romeo and Juliet against haste and then failed to follow his own advice.
The Friar was the only character who was fully aware of all the events that took place. As a man of the church, he should have put an end to things at an earlier stage.
When Romeo meets the Friar for the first time in the play, he appears to be a perceptive and mature man. The Friar is very observant, and when he meets Romeo early one morning, is amazed that Romeo has completely forgotten about Rosaline, and once again fallen in love. The Friar realises that Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline were only an infatuation and says that Rosaline knew this too. He concludes that,
“Young men’s love lie’s not truly in their hearts, but in
their eyes.” (2.3.67-68)
The Friar realises that Romeo has a fickle nature in him, and therefore tells him that his love is not in his heart, but in his eyes. What he sees makes him believe he is in love, but in his heart, he is not in love. Then the Friar goes on to warn Romeo not to hurry things with Juliet. Although he advises Romeo not to rush into things, he himself seems quickly convinced that the marriage is a good idea.
His plans weren’t bad plans, but they were a little over-ambitious. He didn’t think things through properly. In the penultimate scene, Friar Lawrence sent Friar John to deliver a very important letter to Romeo. This letter had to be delivered urgently, and yet Friar Lawrence still sent an irresponsible person to deliver it. If the Friar had wanted, he could have even sent two messengers, and then one of the two messengers definitely would have delivered the letter. As this letter was not delivered, Romeo thought Juliet was really dead, and killed himself, which led to Juliet killing herself. Really, it was this plan of the Friar’s that went wrong and caused the tragedy. Ultimately, it is his plans that go wrong and contribute, if not cause the tragic conclusion.
In the final act, the Friar leaves Juliet alone in the tomb, isolated and frightened. He is afraid and flees leaving a vulnerable girl alone with the dead body of her husband. He may well have been able to prevent Juliet’s death had he insisted on her leaving.
As Romeo’s confidante, he should have realised the position of responsibility he was in and acted accordingly.
However, it is significant that the Prince does not entirely blame the Friar, suggesting “we still have known thee for a holy man.” The Friar’s actions were prompted by good intentions, but it was still his fault for not earlier recognising the role of fate and the responsibility he had if the plans went wrong.
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In conclusion, it could be said that no one person was to blame. Indeed, it could be conjectured that it was not a person as such, but an attitude – or attitudes. Selfishness, arrogance, disobedience, intransigence, and impetuosity all feature strongly and contribute to the tragedy. That these attitudes are displayed variously by the characters is less important than the attitudes themselves. These are the real culprits.
