When Romeo first spots Juliet, he sees her straight away as the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen, and declares his love for her to himself.
“Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!”
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”
The most unfortunate part of the first act happens here, as Tybalt, Juliet Capulet’s cousin, notices that Romeo is in fact a Montague, and is about to start a fight with him, when Sir Capulet intervenes, and when finds out that Romeo is a Montague, actually seems to not be bothered, and says that there is nothing wrong with him.
“Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone; he bears him like a portly gentleman and, to say truth, Verona brags of him to be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth.”
If this was Sir Capulet’s view on Romeo, then if Romeo and Juliet had told him the news of their love, they may have been allowed to continue with their love affair without having to die because of it. This shows that it was fate that intervened because they didn’t see any of this happen, therefore couldn’t make it so they could be together.
When Juliet, after meeting Romeo for the first time and immediately falling in love with him, is pulled away by the nurse to see her mother, the urgent meeting is about Paris, a very well-known and rich man. Her mother insists that the two of them would pair perfectly, and that now Juliet could marry a good and proper man. Romeo at the time is, too, horrified – he realises that Juliet is a Capulet, the only family that he must avoid due to a long-standing family feud.
“Is she a Capulet? O dear account! My life is my foe's debt.”
The line that I’ve emblazoned in bold is a big clue that he will die for his foe, i.e. the family Capulet. Juliet is a Capulet, and he dies for her – his life is a debt for Juliet.
I think from then on, it is so pure and they are so in love so quickly, that it really is due to fate that all this is happening. I don’t think that alone two teenagers could fall in love within a space of a few hours, so fate has something to do with their relationship.
When Juliet and Romeo meet up at the balcony, Romeo proclaims after being told that if he is found he would be killed,
“My life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.”
In a way, the hate of the Capulets’ against the Montagues’ is fate. They have been loathing each other because of a long-held family feud; the ancestors that are actually alive at the time have no recollection of what the feud was actually about. Their hate seems to be controlled by fate, because if they forgave and forgot, Romeo and Juliet could be together.
After Romeo and Juliet have married, Tybalt threatens to kill Romeo for his appearance at the Capulet mansion the night before. As Mercutio and Tybalt fight, Romeo is desperate to keep peace, but when Mercutio is stabbed, Romeo is delivered scalding words from his best friend.
“A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me: I have it, and soundly too: your houses!”
Mercutio has almost told them of their fate – that they, like him, will be ‘worm meat’.
After Romeo and Juliet consecrate their marriage, Juliet almost foresees their fate in the future when she asks,
“O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?”
And when Romeo replies that there is no doubt about it, she replies,
“O God, I have an ill-divining soul! Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb: Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.”
This is like Juliet’s final goodbye; this is the last time she sees him alive before she takes the sleeping-dead draught that Friar Lawrence gives her. She has told him what is to happen to him, but as they know nothing of their fate, they cannot change their plans. If Romeo had seen Friar Lawrence once more before leaving, he could’ve saved himself and Juliet.
When Juliet is forced to marry Paris, she goes to the Friar Lawrence for help. He gives her the draught, and tells her he’ll send a messenger to Romeo so he does not hear the news and do anything stupid. Relieved, she takes the draught and is seen to be dead the next morning.
The messenger does not get to Romeo, as he is not allowed entry to Mantua due to diseases. Because of this, Romeo doesn’t get the message sent by Friar Lawrence telling him that Juliet is not dead at all, but waiting to re-awaken and to be with Romeo once more. He is told by a friend that she is dead, and plans to kill himself by her side.
When he arrives, she is close to awakening, but he does not realise; he takes the poison he purchased from the apothecary and dies beside her. When Juliet awakens, she sees her love dead below her, and looks at the poison vial. When she sees that he did not leave any for her, she takes his sword and impales herself with it, the two star-crossed lovers dying together.
The play ends with Prince saying,
“Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.”
He proclaims that it is the fault of their parents for hating each other for no reason, and blames himself for shutting an eye to their constant arguments. Because of their carelessness, they have lost their children, two that were happy in each others company, and being torn apart by the family drove them to insanity.
The whole play is based on love, and what fate can do to intercept between two lovers. I think that fate played the most important part in the play, and that had fate not been playing a part, the two star-crossed lovers would have been together happily, overcoming any obstacles thrown their way by coincidence.
