One main scene in Romeo and Juliet that shows their fate is Act I, Scene V. This is the scene in which the Capulet’s party takes place and Romeo and Juliet first meet. When they first meet, Romeo struggles to find words to describe Juliet as love has such a powerful effect on him. He eventually decides on comparing her to an earring full of jewels, and is too valuable and precious to use. This shows that there could be a tragic conclusion in store for the couple as the love between them is so powerful that it makes them lost for words for a short period of time. A love this powerful will surely mean that the couple will do anything for each other in order to continue to be together. The scene continues with Romeo and Juliet sharing a dance and kissing each other afterwards. Just after their meeting at the Capulets’ “feast”, Juliet is wondering who the masked Romeo is and so says that if Romeo is already married then her “grave is likely to be [her] wedding bed”. This is referencing what is to come for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship when they both die, a few days after their marriage.
Juliet also says that Romeo is her ”only love sprung from her only hate”. This means that as both Romeo and Juliet have been brought up to think of each other as savages and evil, though when they finally meet each other for the first time, they find each other attractive. The use of the word ‘sprung’ implies that she does not hate Romeo but his parents and Romeo has merely been made by them, the Capulet’s two enemies.
Although the couple have not known each other for even a day, there is a mutual attraction between each other, and Shakespeare wants to convey the message of ‘love at first sight’. The couple use poetic language about each other as shown in act two – scene two when Romeo describes her eyes as ‘two of the fairest stars in all the heaven’. This language shows of how much Romeo and Juliet have feelings for each other though Romeo has only looked at her eyes once. Romeo’s love for Juliet made him risk his life in this scene when he climbed over the wall into the Capulet household by ‘love’s light wings’. Romeo was not planning to even speak to Juliet, just wanting to look at her and at any time a member of the Capulet house, like Tybalt, could have came across him. This immediate attraction that Romeo has for Juliet makes him prone to do more outrageous things than he would usually do. This can be referenced when he comes back from his wedding with Juliet and although he tries to stop the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt, when Mercutio has died, he decides to kill Tybalt in vengeance.
We first meet Friar Lawrence the morning after the feast, when Romeo is still elated by meeting his love. Friar Lawrence is, as well as monk, a herbologist making him good with making potions. This means that when Juliet is in need of a solution, she believes that the Friar is possibly the best person to ask as he may have a solution. Romeo asks the Friar to marry him and Juliet, something that he is initially against. However, when he realises it may heal the wound between the two families, he agrees. This decision may have made their love come to a premature end as it shows how quick they were getting married, and if perhaps they had prolonged their courtship, the tragic set of events may not of being put to play.
During the wedding of the two lovers, Friar Lawrence calls Death ‘love-devouring’. The word ‘devouring’ implies two things: that death can happen even when someone is extremely happy and in love; and that death can eat away two people’s love for each other. When Juliet enters the scene, her and Romeo enter a kiss so passionate that the Friar believes he cannot leave them alone until they are married in case they have other intentions. This shows that their love is very powerful and if they lose each other then they would be distraught, this could explain the decision by each of them to commit suicide when they think the other is dead.
During the wedding of Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio and Mercutio meet Tybalt and other Capulets in one of Verona’s streets. Though Tybalt hates the Montague, he does not wish to fight them, only Romeo. When Romeo arrives, he refuses to fight, knowing that Tybalt is now part of his married family. Tybalt tries to provoke Romeo by calling him a “villain”. Mercutio fights Tybalt instead, and, when Romeo tries to stand in the way of them fighting, gets stabbed. After Mercutio’s death, Tybalt returns and Romeo kills him in vengeance. Before Mercutio dies, he says “a plague a’both your houses”. He says this curse three times, in Shakespeare’s time the number three was said to be unlucky, so saying this curse thrice could be an indicator of the deaths that would occur with members of both houses.
This scene shows that no matter how Romeo tries to stop tragedy happening, it still does. Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, trying to show comradeship to his new family, and when Mercutio and Tybalt fight, he stands in-between them, allowing Mercutio to be stabbed. However, Romeo kills Tybalt and, though the Prince promised they would be killed, decides that instead Romeo will be exiled from Verona. This banishment splits the two newlyweds meaning that they will not be able to spend their lives together unless they find a plan.
Just before Juliet hears the recent news, she asks the night that is she dies, to take Romeo and “cut him out in little stars”, something that could be seen as ominous to the fact that Romeo kills himself when he thinks she is dead. When the Nurse tells Juliet of Tybalt’s death and Romeo’s banishment she first defends Tybalt and her family saying “Shame come to Romeo!” However, she then defends Romeo and decides that Tybalt deserved the death.
Meanwhile, Romeo is hiding in the Friar’s cell, waiting to hear his fate. When he is told that Prince Escales decided on exilement, he is saddened, saying that if he was killed, he would at least not have to live without Juliet. This reinforces the strong bond the two have between them though they have just met. The Nurse arrives and Romeo offers to stab himself, so that he does not have to live alone. The Nurse however takes the knife off him and the Friar tells him that he can have one night with Juliet, before he flees to Mantua, allowing the couple to spend their wedding night together.
Though Juliet is already unhappy about Romeo’s banishment, that Monday gets worse for her by Capulet allowing Juliet and Paris to marry. He sets a date of Thursday so that Juliet has time to grieve Tybalt’s death. The marriage of Paris and Tybalt would cause Juliet to be a bigamist, as well as the fact that she loves Romeo. Juliet tries a variety of methods to avoid marrying Paris, each of them making their deaths more likely. She tries refusing to marry Paris, though Capulet states that he will drag her on a “hurdle-thither” to the church or disown her. When the family leave her to think about what she should do, she visits Friar Lawrence in the hope that he will be able to think of a solution to Juliet’s problem. Juliet tells the Friar that if he does not think of a solution she will kill herself, much like Romeo threatened to do in the same cell earlier. The Friar makes a plan which he believes will work, though it will be dangerous. The creation of this plan points to a tragic conclusion as it all depends on fate, which, though the couple have a lot of it, does not bode well for Romeo or Juliet.
The first part of the plan to not succeed is the setting of the wedding day. When Juliet next speaks to Capulet, she apologises for her previous behaviour and agrees to marry Paris. Capulet, delighted at his daughter’s change of heart, decides she does not need a day of grieving and makes Wednesday the wedding day. This means that the Friar’s letter must get to Romeo quicker than expected or those involved in the plan must hope that Romeo id not told of the ‘death’ of Juliet. When Juliet is found dead, the Friar insists on her being placed in the sepulchre quickly so that she will not wake up in front of her family.
Friar John was asked to deliver the letter to Romeo in Mantua, but fate means that Friar John is instead quarantined in a house that carried the plague. When he tells Friar Lawrence, he is not anxious about what might happen but instead asks John to get a crowbar so that he may break into the vault and hide Juliet in his cell. However, Balthasar, one of the Montague’s servants, delivers the news of Juliet’s death to Romeo and Romeo manages, by bribing a poverty-stricken apothecary, to obtain a fatal poison. Fate is shown multiple times during those scenes, with Friar John being quarantined so he could not deliver the letter and Romeo managing to bribe the apothecary. By this point, the fortune of Romeo and Juliet is almost set in stone as Romeo has now obtained the poison, with the only hope of happiness being from Friar Lawrence finding Romeo or Juliet awakening before Romeo takes the poison.
The final scene takes place in the graveyard where the Capulet’s sepulchre is located. Paris is already in the graveyard when the scene opens, covering the vault in flowers. When Romeo arrives, Paris begins to fight him, sealing Paris’ destiny. Romeo once again shows his sword skill and slays Paris. Romeo then goes down into the vault and sees Juliet’s lifeless body. The body is described as “crimson” which would imply that the Juliet’s 42 hours of death-like symptoms are beginning to wear off. Romeo then takes the poison, killing himself so that he can be with Juliet. When Juliet awakens, she finds Romeo dead on top of her and so kills herself also.