Romeo And Juliet

Does love really conquer all or is it destiny who determines the lover’s fate? Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, Play, is a story about two “star-crossed lovers” (Shakespeare Prologue.6) whose love is fatal because of their opposing families and misfortunate events lead the couple to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses the motif of destiny to suggest that destiny is inevitable because everyone has their own fate for a reason which cannot be altered no matter the great lengths taken.

SAMPSON A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s.

Young lovers defy their families’ long-established vendetta and jeopardize all they have to continue their relationship. The violent commotion between the two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, finally bring peace to their feuding families, with their own death. Like with many suicide cases, there are challenges and decisions being made that lead up to this decision. Often times, we question who contributed to the suicide. Regardless, others argue that Romeo and Juliet should be held accountable for their ultimate decision. Then again, there is no definite reason to assign fault to Romeo and Juliet. Not only are their brains not fully developed, but pressures from outside forces caused such stress within the relationship.

In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, many characters meet their tragic end as a result of a plethora of factors, from old rivalries to new love. It is a tragic story of two lovers, destined to complete each other, but also to end a bitter feud through their deaths (Prologue.3-6). However, if the blame had to be ascribed to one person in particular, that person would be Romeo Montague. Throughout the play, Shakespeare showcases Romeo’s irrationality and poor decision making, leading to the gruesome deaths of his loved ones. Romeo is most to blame for the tragic slew of deaths because he is oblivious, quick to act, and too urgent in his relationship.

Friar Lawrence’s well-intended plans seemed feasible but ended up being unmanageable. Although the attempt to prevent the conflict between the two oppositions was successful, the death of Romeo and Juliet is evidently not what Friar Lawrence had intended. In the tragic play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the struggles of the two ill-fated lovers are clearly portrayed through a series of misfortunate events. Romeo and Juliet immediately express their overwhelming love towards each other, shortly after their first unexpected encounter. However, since Romeo’s family, the Montagues, and Juliet’s family, the Capulets, are in a hostile feud, they decide to consult Friar Lawrence for help and support. Ironically, due to the Friar’s ill-conceived

Romeo says that the moon is pale and sick with grief because Juliet is more beautiful than the moon. (Line 4-7 "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."), as the sun out shines the moon exemplifying that the moon is jealous of her beauty

Fate in Romeo and Juliet plays a central and major part of many of the character’s lives. The audience is given the idea that the lives of the characters are controlled by a higher power. The two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet are branded the ‘star – cross’d lovers’. Named as such, because their relationship is written in the ‘stars’ and doomed to fail. The fate of Romeo and Juliet were foreshadowed throughout the play especially Romeo’s premonition in 1.4, ‘my mind misgives/ some consequence yet hanging in the stars/ shall bitterly begin his fearful date’. However, Friar Lawrence, also contributes to the lovers’ downfall unknowingly. He appears to the audience as a calculated and careful man, but like all other characters he is controlled by fate’s hand.

The foreshadowing illustrates that true love can cause two lovers to act recklessly, out of love, for each other even to the point of suicide. When Romeo and Juliet ask the Friar to marry them, he attempts to warn them that if they do not take their time with love, their love may tragically end, “Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast” (2.3.94). Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that he needs to slow down and get to know Juliet to ensure that he truly loves her or else their marriage may thrive. Shakespeare not only foreshadows a future tragedy in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, but he also implies that they feel lust for each other rather than love.

Most of Shakespeare's plays are conceived around a foundation in either tragedy or comedy, this polarity of themes allowing him to experiment with the full range of human emotions. Typically, an integral part of a Shakespearean tragedy is love, which is frustrated by a breakdown in order, or the character of the hero, due to some human limitation. The play Romeo and Juliet has all these typical characteristics. However, the resultant conclusion of events for the characters in this tragedy is adversely affected by the hands of fate, and not solely the product of human limitations. Fate in fact has a decisive role in the events of the play; it is a series of rapid coincidental events, which lead to the final tragedy.

Throughout the entirety of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare is hinting at the “star crossed” deadly fate of the lovers spoken of by the chorus in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are also constantly mentioning their uneasy feelings and how they can sense that something bad will happen, which confirm the aforementioned conclusion. This foreshadowing not only tells us this tragedy planned, but there must be pawns of fate that have to drive Romeo and Juliet together, while at the same time leading them to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, their deadly destiny was written by the universe and characters along the way, such as Capulet, Montague, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Friar John, and Mercutio.

In the opening lines of the play, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, ....Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love,” The Chorus articulates that the lovers were doomed from the beginning. From then on the audience is aware that no matter occurs Romeo and Juliet will take their lives, as verified by the Chorus. Other characters illustrate the future of Romeo and Juliet by using what the audience sees as irony. After spending the night at the Capulet household, in the midst of sneaking out, Romeo tells “My life were better ended by their hate than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.” emphasising his impending death. Another instance where this technique was implemented was when Juliet’s Nurse explained to her the banishment of her husband-to-be, she replied by saying “Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love...And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!” The characters’ destiny was expressed in the beginning of the play, it almost appeared as if they were aware of it, shown in the language they

The intricacy of Romeo and Juliet is only comprehensible when both tragic and comedic elements are analysed and juxtaposed, this can reveal further details and convey human experience. Contained in the prologue, is the quotation “death-marked love”, which proposes the realism of how vulnerable and lack of control Romeo and Juliet maintained in their own lives. Romeo and Juliet failed in predicting their deaths caused from their cherished, undying love similar to Tybalt’s misprediction of his death caused by Romeo’s sword. The prologue featured in Romeo and Juliet is intertwined with fate and demonstrates its capabilities and influence on the play. Yet another example of fate in tragedy Romeo and Juliet arises in the first act.

The characters in Romeo and Juliet grow and change throughout the story, some are forced to mature very quickly and others must decide which side they stand with in important matters. At the end of a story, the characters usually develop and are different than the beginning, this is what causing the story to be interesting while also moving it forward. If characters were to stay the same, they would appear two dimensional and uninteresting to readers. When they are put into a crossroad and not sure what way to go, the audience can relate to them, if characters always immediately knew which path to take the story would be unrealistic. When characters are not sure of themselves, audiences can better understand them and bring them to life. Some of the characters who face the most difficulties and changes are Romeo, Juliet, Lord Capulet, Mercutio and Friar Lawrence. Romeo and Juliet must decide how they are going to keep their relationship a secret due to their family 's feud while Lord Capulet has to decide what is best between forcing Juliet to marry Paris although she is too young and letting Juliet grow up a little more before their marriage. To decrease tension when Montague and Capulet start fighting in the streets, Mercutio tries to calm things down using humor which end with his death while Friar Lawrence must decide to help Romeo and Juliet in hope it will stop the feud or leave it to themselves so he does not end up getting mixed in with the families’ quarrel. Each

William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet is completely compressed in Shakespeare 's preface: "Two family units, both alike in respect, in reasonable Verona where we lay our scene. From old resentment break to new uprising where common blood make common hands unclean. From forward the deadly loins of these two adversaries, a couple of star crossed darlings who take their life" (Universal, 1996). This film is a wonderful finish of the chief 's amazing capacity to make an effective presentation, to choose a practical, however dreamlike setting, to pick sensible on-screen characters, and to authorize specific emotional impacts.

Romeo and Juliet was Shakespeare’s most famous play which is about love of two teenagers of two rival families. Since Romeo’s family and Juliet’s family are rivals, their families don’t agree with the marriage of their children to each other. However, Romeo and Juliet despite the opposition of their families secretly get married at church and insist on reaching their goal of being together. The whole story is played in the theatre style of the Renaissance; audiences could see violence, young boys are playing female rolls without wearing masks, many scenes and time change. However, if it was played in Greek theatre style, the audience could see a different style of performance and there would be a different effect. In Greek Theatre we would