fate
Uploaded by Luthien930 on Mar 03, 2004
Fate is not a question of chance, but a question of choice. In Romeo and Juliet, the story was developed by the choices made by fate, not Romeo and Juliet. Some of the choices were crucial to the development of the play’s outcome, for instance Romeo’s banishment and Paris’s engagement to Juliet. By killing off Romeo and Juliet, it meant that Shakespeare was able to reveal the other characters’ true identities. Romeo and Juliet were fated to be with each other, but they were also fated to be with each other after death. Shakespeare showed that Romeo and Juliet’s fate was controlled through signs, dreams, and premonitions throughout the play, nothing to do with the couple’s actions.
From the beginning of the play, it was already stated that the young couple were destined to die. “A pair of star-crosses lovers take their life/Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/Doth with their death bury they parents’ strife” (Prologue.6-8) To be able to die of fate, one has to believe in fate itself. Romeo believed in the stars by saying this before leaving to the Capulet’s ball: “I fear too early, for my mind misgives/ Some consequence yet hanging in the stars/ Shall bitterly begin this fearful date.” (1.4.113-115) Romeo knew that his actions weren’t because of him, but the stars, “...he that hath steerage over my course/ Direct my sail…” (1.4.119.120) Romeo believes that he is not the one making his decisions, but something beyond his control: fate.
The theme of death images is echoed throughout the play. First with Juliet saying how the love between her and Romeo were “too like the lightening, which doth cease to be ere can say, ‘It lightens.’ ” (2.3.126-127), meaning that as quick as their love came is as quick as it will go. Then Friar Lawrence echoes how their love is like gunpowder, by saying, "These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder." Romeo and Juliet both have dreams related to their deaths. Juliet says, "Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, /As one dead in the bottom of a tomb." (3.5.55-56), which means that Romeo to her looks like he’s in a tomb when he’s talking to her and he eventually ends up in one. The images of death haunt Romeo and Juliet until they actually do die.
Romeo and Juliet’s fate also resulted in the...