The Results of Fate In Romeo and Juliet Essay

In Shakespearse’s classic play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the two star-crossed lovers created one of the most notorious tragedies known to man. Romeo and Juliet met as an act of a single force known as fate. Fate is the idea used to describe a circumstance when it is meant to happen; fate is the living body responsible for controlling everything, except the decisions you personally make.

     Fate, for better or worse, interrupts everyone’s daily life, whether he/she chooses to acknowledge it or not. Thinking about fate conjures up different feelings for different people; some people believe strongly in it, some people think of fate as ridiculous, and some do not care one way or the other. However, in many instances, such as in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, far too many coincidences occur to be strictly coincidental. Fate creates a powerful effect throughout the entire play, starting in the prologue, continuing as Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, and tragically ending in the lovers’ deaths.

In the book Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, fate plays a large role in moving the plot along. It does this by bringing people together. Fate also plays a role in a couple people’s deaths, including the main characters, Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story written by William Shakespeare, in the Elizabethan era of English history. The work tells of the fatal attraction between Romeo and Juliet, how they met and why, their falling in love and their ultimate sacrifice for each other’s love, their actual lives. Fate has complete control, is a theme that is riddled throughout the text written by Shakespeare. It is essentially pointing out the view that everything we do or will, is at the mercy of fate, and whatever we do to counteract it, fate still holds the final judgement over our lives. This theme is also prevalent in cinematic codes written into both the visual representations of the Shakespearean love story by Franco Zefirelli and Baz Luhrmann. Two

In the play, Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, is about two “star crossed” lovers who are destined to end in a tragic accident. Fate is the path that leads to the future and cannot be altered no matter the outcome. Set in Shakespearean time, fate was believed to be in control of people’s lives. The fact that Romeo and Juliet would never live a peaceful life, none of the tragedies would have not taken place if they had not met. In the prologue of the play, Shakespeare outlines that “two star’d crossed lovers take their life”. This foreshadowing creates the sense that fate shall claim superiority. The powerful nature of Romeo

In William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”, fate plays one of the largest roles in the plot. In order to understand how fate plays a role it is important to examine how the story begins, when Romeo meets Juliet, and when Romeo fights Tybalt after Tybalt kills Mercutio.

In the play of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, William Shakespeare explores the idea of fate, through the characters experiences. The play was taken place during the Elizabethan Era where the social norms were completely different to those today and the idea of fate was well and truly believed by the society. Shakespeare incorporates this concept of fate in different ways, he makes references to celestial bodies, employs premonitions and orchestrates events where Romeo and Juliet have no prior knowledge off. He introduces the two young lovers as ‘star-crossed’, which means their relationship is destined to end in tragedy and this is supported by events that occur in the play. Specific events

Everyone wants to marry the love of their life. Seeking the approval of our family and friends, we all look ahead fondly at the idea of living a long and happy life with our soulmate. Unfortunately, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet this is not the way life played out.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet focus on the two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who fall in love and die within a span of three days. Romeo and Juliet illustrate how the love brings them together to over power the control of their relationship. The moment that Romeo and Juliet declare their love for one another, they try to keep their love a secret since they are the children of the feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Initially their families would be outraged against their relationship that Romeo and Juliet propose to hide the truth of their love. Once Romeo and Juliet reveal to the Nurse and Friar Lawrence their plans to marry, their relationship is nothing but a risk of problems. Romeo is unafraid to show his love that he teases Tybalt teasing him about falling in love with Juliet, although not explicitly. However, the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt, occur when Romeo and Juliet take actions to protect themselves, but they are not however, protected. Juliet protects her relationship by committing a false death only for Romeo to believe it as true. As a result, the act to protect Romeo and Juliet’s relationship a secret are examples of the failed actions both Romeo and Juliet try to prevent; however, it is not ‘fate’ that control their lives and deaths.

Fate has always been of interest to society, and even today, people continue to question whether someone’s life is destined for a certain fate, or if it is shaped by their own free-will. Such thoughts come into play throughout various acts and scenes of Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare’s play often strongly suggests that Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is built upon fate and free-will. There are many critics who argue fate is what makes up this play in its entirety due to the various fate related ideas evoked throughout it. Although fate does indeed play some roles in the shaping of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, overall, it is free-will that plays a much greater role throughout their tragedy and is ultimately at work in this play.

From fate representing Romeo and Juliet's encounter, to their love, and finally representing their untimely death, fate and fortune has been a contributing factor towards all the tragedies in Shakespeare's play, possibly being the main clause. Throughout the play, several references of fate and the stars are mentioned when characters show terrible grief and heart break. For example, mere seconds after Romeo slew Tybalt in a blind fit of rage, he exclaimed, "O, I am fortune's fool." He is saying that he is being controlled and forced to do things not in his control to change, and that he is a victim of circumstance (which in this case is fate). In which, he is. Time and time again it seems that Romeo and Juliet's love is in fact dependent on fate and fortune, since in the Prologue itself mentions that "...their death bury their parents' strife." It seems that even from the beginning, Romeo and Juliet were destined to die. No matter what they tried, and no matter how hard they wanted to stay together, fate always found a way to ruin their plans. Just after they get married, Romeo just so happens to run into Tybalt and Mercutio. Just after the couple consummated, Juliet was to be married to Paris on Thursday. Just after Friar Lawrence made a plan to reunite Romeo and Juliet, the wedding of Juliet and Paris moved one day forward! The letter

Juliet is also sent a vision by fate, causing her to drink Friar Laurence’s potion during a moment of doubt. Juliet is almost about to talk herself out of swallowing the potion when she says, “O, look! Methinks I see my cousin’s ghost, seeking out Romeo…stay, Tybalt, stay! Romeo, I come! This do I drink to thee,” (Iv. iii. 55-58) and takes the drink. Fate’s plan could have been ruined if Juliet did not take the poison, so a vision is sent to her, insuring that the plan stays on track. Farther along in the play, Fate sends yet another dream to Romeo. However, this dream is of good tidings. The dream shows a dead Romeo, but then Juliet, “breathed such life with kisses in my lips that I revived and was an emperor.” (V. i. 8-9) Fate sends this dream to leave Romeo in an upbeat mood, before he is told the news of Juliet’s death. This causes Romeo to be put through an emotional roller coaster. At one moment he is extremely happy, loving being in love, and then the next he is distraught, desperate, and ready to commit suicide. The series of good news and then bad news puts Romeo in a befuddled state of mind in which he is not thinking clearly. Otherwise, Romeo would almost certainly check in with Friar Laurence prior to committing suicide. Fate masterfully manipulated these events and sent the dreams and visions at all the appropriate times to cause the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

In the story Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the “star-crossed” lovers took their life in an unfortunate series of events. Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence were all involved with the death of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo was impetuous and did not try to find the cause of Juliet’s “death”. Friar Lawrence was also unknowing of the future, but still gave an extremely important message, one that would define life and death, into the someone else’s hands. Certain actions, such as finding out about the Capulet party was fate. Although many events were caused by the lovers’ immaturity and impulsiveness, fate was the major cause for their deaths.

Shakespeare’s concept of tragedy is one of which inescapable fate merges with character flaws and harrowing sorrow, which ultimately leads the protagonists’ to their untimely death. The well-known tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, is one of many that fulfils this definition. There is fate as well as character flaws and great sorrow in Romeo and Juliet. It displays these traits through its themes, personality flaws and foreshadowing.

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.