As this play was written for the Elizabethan audience, it may be a little outdated but most of the themes apply today, like the feud which could relate to having a grudge with a neighbour. A theme that isn’t as strong in today’s terms is the role of the father over the daughter, which then meant the father could have the final say in who his daughter married whereas in modern days the daughter is more likely to marry who she wants.
The play starts off with a feud between Romeo and Juliet’s families. There is a huge fight between the two at the beginning which is there to affect the surrounding society as is shown by the chanting crowds engaging in battle:
“Clubs, bills and partisans! Strike! Beat them down! Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!”
This quote from Act One Scene One shows that there was a fight between the Montagues and the Capulets. This feud had been happening for years and Romeo and Juliet were born into the two families and the “ancient grudge”. This shows their innocence as their parents are continuing the feud along with others like Tybalt so it is their fault and not Romeo or Juliet’s. The feud between the two families obviously gets out of hand as in Act One Scene One the fight is quite violent which shows the intensity with which the two families hate each other: “ As I hate hell, all Montagues and thee” said by Tybalt. Also the fact that neither Romeo nor Juliet was present at the fight also shows their innocence and proves their families and parents are at fault. This relates to the fact that later in the play Romeo and Juliet go to great lengths to hide their love from their families.
In Act One Scene One Romeo and Benvolio meet up with a Capulet servant. This is where Shakespeare engineers fate into the story again. He does this because fate is a popular and romantic theme that would interest his audience. As they walk along they see a servant of the Capulet house handing out invitations to a Capulet party:
“Now I’ll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montague’s, I pray come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry!”
This quote shows irony. It is ironic that the servant from the Capulet household is giving out invitations and is not allowed to give them to Montagues but does without knowing, this is irony as the audience know the degree at which the two families hate each other. It is fateful that Romeo and Benvolio meet the servant and that the servant asks him if he can read. If they had not met then Romeo would never have gone to the party and would have never met Juliet. He may also have not gone if Mercutio had not convinced him to go. The reason he does go his to forget love which is ironic as he finds it in Juliet. Mercutio says:
“Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.”
This shows that Mercutio is trying to get Romeo to go to the dance. He is doing this so that Romeo can forget his unreturned love for Rosaline. Mercutio convinces Romeo in the end and they go to the party. It is ironic that Romeo goes to the party to see Rosaline but actually he meets Juliet there. I feel that Shakespeare engineered this to be fate by suggesting that Romeo was destined to meet Juliet at the party and not Rosaline. If he had met Rosaline he may never have met Juliet and the love story would never have unfolded.
I have seen the film version of Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrrman. I think this version is very enjoyable because of its modern day setting and its fast action screenplay. For these reasons I think the film is successful but it is also successful in its accuracy compared to the play and has been well transformed from a play to a film. From the screenplay I can see that the two lovers fell in love at first sight at the Capulet party. This is a romantic way of falling in love and would have been popular to the Elizabethans. This may be just one interpretation of the play but I feel that it is correct. So if Romeo and Juliet had not met, of the tragic events would have happened as they would not be together and so would not get married and the tragedy could not occur.
In Act Two Scene One Romeo finds Juliet again because of fate. She is on a balcony speaking to herself and Romeo who is waiting for her in the courtyard beneath the balcony. Juliet calls out for her lover not knowing he is there: “Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo”. He answers her and then they meet. This is fate because Juliet did not know he was there and she called out for him, if she had not he may not have spoken out back to her and they wouldn’t have met again. When they meet they decide they must marry soon.
Later Romeo visits his friend Friar Laurence, where he makes plans for the Friar to marry him and Juliet. This all happens very quickly and their actions could be described as rather hasty. Towards the end of the act they do get married. All of this is kept secret as their families are feuding and it would cause great upset at this moment in time. In Act Three Scene One Mercutio gets killed because Romeo and other Montague’s turn up to the Capulet only party. This angers Tybalt and causes him to go after Romeo but Romeo will not fight because he is ironically Tybalt’s cousin in law but Mercutio steps in and gets critically wounded by Tybalt. Mercutio was innocent as he was not related to either house but he got caught up in the fight. After this Romeo says:
“This day’s black fate on mo days doth depend”
This shows that Romeo views the incident as being down to fate. Shakespeare uses fate in the quote to keep the audience interested. It tells us that fate that that was obviously bad happened on that day and will probably happen again on more days, suggesting that more bad things will happen. This helps to prove that the tragedy is down to fate as it is an example where the characters believe that fate is causing the tragic events of the play. I think this point in the play is very important in terms of the rest of the play. If Tybalt had not slain Mercutio then Romeo, who is ironically Tybalt’s cousin in law, he would not have angered and attacked Tybalt, which caused him to kill Tybalt and hence he got banished for this by the Prince. This obviously did not help Romeo’s relationship with Juliet, as it made it difficult for them to be together. As they could not be together in Verona they became desperate to see each other and this caused them to do desperate things, which lead to their deaths.
In Act Three Scene Three Romeo talks to the Friar Laurence who straightens him out and prevents him from committing suicide. He tells Romeo to go and live in Mantua until he can get the Prince’s pardon. In Act Three Scene Four ironically Juliet’s father gives his daughters hand in marriage away to Paris unknowing she is already married to Romeo. They are to marry on the Thursday.
“My Lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.”
Shakespeare engineers this fate and it is another critical point in the play, as it makes the whole situation worse as Juliet needs to find a way to stop the wedding as she has already committed her love to Romeo, who doesn’t know about the proposed marriage to Paris. Juliet does not find out until the day after the night she spent with Romeo. Whilst Romeo is in Mantua in Act Four Friar Laurence comes to Juliet’s rescue by suggesting a plan to make everyone think she was dead the night before the day their supposed to get married and so can’t go through with the marriage.
“Take thou this vial, being then in bed …… No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv’st”
This shows Friar Laurence’s plan. Juliet has to take a potion of his making, which will make her appear dead when she is in a state of animation. This is a critical point in the play as if the Friar hadn’t suggested the plan; Romeo and Juliet would have lived even though the whole situation would be quite dire. The Friar tells Juliet that he will send another Friar to tell Romeo to rescue Juliet. When Juliet takes the potion on the Wednesday, Balthasar Romeo’s servant hurries to Mantua and tells Romeo that Juliet is dead in Act Five:
“Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument”
“Is it e’en so?”
This shows that Romeo found out Juliet was dead even though she wasn’t before he knew of the plan made by Friar Laurence. This is part of the play is engineered by Shakespeare to be down to fate as obviously the Friar that Friar Laurence sent did not find Romeo or make it on time. This an extremely important part as it means Romeo is very upset and thinks Juliet is dead which isn’t true and could cause him to do something stupid. Which he does because he is so intensely in love with Juliet to the extent that he could not bear to be without her. Romeo rushes off and buys a poison from an apothecary and the rushes to Juliet in the Capulet family vault. There he duels with Paris and wins and takes the poison next to Juliet and dies.
“O, comfortable friar! Where is my Lord?”
Juliet wakes up from her deep sleep just after Romeo dies. This is definitely down to fate as it could have only have been fate that would have caused this. Only fate or the family’s hatred in this story would have caused something so cruel. If Romeo had spared some time he and Juliet may have still survived, if he had waited till Juliet had awoken then there would have been a happy ending but he was too premature for that to be the case. But he didn’t know when Juliet was going to wake and fate, which was engineered by Shakespeare, made this terrible thing happen. When she awakes she asks the Friar Laurence who had just arrived where Romeo was. When she sees he is dead, she takes Romeo’s dagger and kills herself. This is a tragic ending which I have shown was caused by fate.
Conclusion
In the play Romeo and Juliet the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet occur. My argument was that these tragic deaths were caused by fate which was engineered by Shakespeare. Shakespeare uses fate to gain the audiences attention as it was a popular and romantic subject in Elizabethan times as many Elizabethans believed their lives were run by fate or the stars. This was because they had no scientific evidence to prove that theory wrong. So I think fate was the direct cause of their deaths and shall prove this once more. In Act Five Scene Three right at the end where Juliet finds Romeo to have killed himself with poison Friar Laurence tell us that fate was the cause of Romeo’s death:
“A greater power than we can contradict Hath Thwarted our intents: come, come away”
This quote shows that fate was definitely the cause for Romeo’s death. It shows that fate has opposed their intentions. It shows that fate engineered by Shakespeare has caused things to go wrong like Romeo’s death. This could also mean that fate has been opposing all of their intentions for the whole of the play, which is exactly what I think, happened.
I think I have proved my argument is correct and more important than free will, people and circumstances. So I conclude that Romeo and Juliet’s downfall was due to Fate which was engineered by Shakespeare.
By Jamie Featherstone 10D
WORD COUNT: 2,546
