Romeo and Juliet
Uploaded by Matthew Faferko on Sep 23, 2001
Is Shakespeare’s original description of Romeo and Juliet as being “a pair of star crossed lovers” an adequate explanation for their final tragedy?
Shakespeare’s description of Romeo and Juliet as being ‘a pair of star crossed lovers’ implies that it was pre-determined before their birth that they would fall in love with each other and commit suicide. This idea of fate is not an adequate description of Romeo and Juliet’s final tragedy. This only partially explains the tragedy; the factor’s, which adequately describe the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, include the, involvement of the Friar, the volatility of Tybalt and the Montague’s and Capulet’s ‘ancient feud’.
Fate played an important role in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and there are many events, which highlight this. Throughout the novel Romeo saw himself being manipulated by fate. This is well shown when he was involuntarily pulled into the fight with Tybalt. In rage over Mercutio murder, Romeo killed Tybalt, after he exclaimed to Benvolio “ I’m fortunes fool”. This suggests that fate was toying with him and there was nothing he could do about it. The Friar noticed this as well, he showed this by telling Romeo after the fight. “Thou art wedded to calamity”. Other than that, there were many random events, which were good examples of fate contributing to the tragedy. Like when Friar John was locked inside a sick person’s home, this prevented him from delivering the message to Romeo, telling him about Friar Lawrence’s plans. Or Romeo arriving at the site if the Capulet’s monument and committing suicide minutes before the Friar arrived and Juliet woke from the Friars sleeping potion. This makes it obvious that fate was involved, but again fate was not the only contributing factor to the tragedy.
Friar Lawrence was the main reason for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Friar Lawrence didn’t take the best interest of the lovers into consideration, and his involvement at the end, lead to the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo came to the Friar and told him that he suddenly had no feeling for Rosaline, but loved and wanted to marry the daughter of the Capulet’s, Juliet, the Friar was shocked, “Holy Saint Francis”. The Friar could see that Romeo was too immature for a commitment like that, so at first he refused. As he thought about it he agreed, not for the good of the lover’s,...