Are people in control of their destiny? Having no power over one’s destiny is an important theme in William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. We are in told in the prologue that fate is going to drive the story. Romeo and Juliet are not in control of their lives. It is predetermined destiny, not free choice that manipulates the lives of these two lovers. In Romeo and Juliet, the idea that the main characters have no control over their destiny is proven through the long existing feud between the families, Romeo and Juliet’s chance meeting and Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths. The long existing feud between the Capulets and Montagues is one of the factors that Romeo and Juliet have no control over, but which influences their fate. Romeo and Juliet …show more content…
The fact that these two lovers still had the chance to cross each other’s paths despite the clash of their families, shows that fate was in full control of their lives. In the first act, a Capulet serving man comes across Romeo and Benvolio and unaware that they’re Montagues, he invites them to the Capulet party, “My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine.” (l.ii.80-82). It is by fate that Romeo and Benvolio ran into the illiterate Capulet serving man who asked for their help and by gratitude, invites them to the party, at which Romeo is destined that he will meet his love, Juliet. When Romeo attends the party, he already foreshadows what destiny had in store for him, “With this night’s revels and expire the term/Of a despised life clos’d in my breast,/By some vile forfeit of untimely death.” (I.iv.109-111). Romeo unconsciously predicts that something bad might happen if he shows up at the party, where he meets Juliet. Romeo says it himself, so it’s fate that they meet. Their deaths are the “consequence” that he speaks of. Since they are supposed to be foes, the bitterness that starts the pathway to their ultimate tragedy is their first encounter. Romeo and Juliet’s first meet not only sparked a fiery romance between the two, it also dramatically affected the fight and tension between the Montagues and the …show more content…
It controlled every event in their lives, from the beginning of their families’ ancient feud, to when they met and when they died. The story of Romeo and Juliet had long before been written by fate ever since the start of the dispute between the Capulets and Montagues. Had it not been for this feud, the couple would not have been forced to make such drastic choices to end their lives just so they could be together. This meant anything, even killing themselves. For them to spot each other from across the room in a place where Romeo would normally have been forbidden, is concrete proof that fate was in full command. There are many deaths in the story of Romeo and Juliet. Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s had been one of those that were most influential to the story. The passing of Tybalt created chaos between the two families, especially the two lovers. With Romeo banished, Juliet came to the resort of faking her death so that Romeo could save her, but as we all know, that plan
To demonstrate, the author of “Essential Secrets of Psychotherapy: Fate, Destiny, and Responsibility” mentions how “fate refers to the existential givens of life, those aspects of existence…over which we can exert little or no control” (Doc E). One’s fate is something that they can’t control, so the negative outcomes from it are inevitable. Fate was never on Romeo and Juliet’s side, which set them up for their devastating deaths at the end. However, even though fate played a part in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, the impact love had on their brains was responsible for their deaths since it caused them to be possessed and react poorly to fate. As mentioned earlier, Helen Fisher’s TED Talk discusses how love can possess one and cause them to do things they wouldn’t normally do.
Are our lives already determined by fate? Or do our choices affect our lives. In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet there are many tragic events, that seeme to happen by fate, but if fate wasn’t the cause then what or who was was the cause? Lord Capulet is the character most to blame for the tragic events in Romeo and Juliet because he was one of the main people who kept the feud going, it was his party that Romeo crashed, and he was the one who was forcing Juliet to marry Paris, causing her to want to make rash decisions. Lord Capulet is the most to blame for the events that occur in Romeo and Juliet because he was one of the main people who kept the feud going This feud has been going on for years, Lord Capulet has been keeping it going it the prologue of act one it says “From ancient grudge break to new mutiny” and from what this is saying it hasn't been getting any better.
In the Prologue, we learn that Romeo and Juliet are doomed, and this is reinforced throughout the play both by unlucky events and where blame is placed by other
’s free will? In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the use of free will throughout the play would give Romeo and Juliet a one way ticket to their deaths. Their “fate” was determined by events that could have been prevented by some people’s decisions. Romeo and Juliet led towards the path of death because of their own choices! Times in the play when the characters use their free will include Tybalt’s decision to fight Mercutio, the Prince ordering Romeo to be banished (instead of being executed), and, Juliet’s decision to disobey her parents to marry Romeo.
Throughout everyone's life, decisions are made using free will. But in the end, fate is what determines the outcome of everything. In the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, there are decisions made by the characters using their free will, but no decisions could’ve stopped the tragedy of there love. All of the events leading up to Romeo and Juliet's death were not caused by free will, but they were caused by fate.
The long standing-family feuding and fate is ultimately to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. Some people may think that Romeo and Juliet are ultimately to blame for their own deaths, because they both killed themselves. They are wrong, the
In the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet are at the mercy of the stars. This is shown through the fact that the two lovers are impacted by many circumstances beyond their control, essentially caused by the family feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. However, Romeo and Juliet do choose to control their own lives by the decision’s they constitute and compose without the influence from someone else in the play, such as getting married in secret and taking their own lives. Despite this small amount of control they are still bound by fate shown by the reasons behind the secret marriage, Tybalts’ death and the suicides. Fate is one of the main thematic representations in the play Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo agrees to go and sees Juliet, Lord Capulet’s daughter and falls in love instantly with “her true beauty” (Shakespeare. I.v.51) and pulls her into the other room where they kiss. This meeting results in a prolonged love affair which springs a whole event of scandal including Juliet’s push back to marry Paris, but ultimately it results in Romeo and Juliet’s
Angel Salazar Mr. Young English I Have you made a bad decision, then wondered what the opposite decision would be? In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, bad decisions are everywhere. These include the main characters getting married after knowing each other for less than a day, killing themselves, and letting lust run their lives. Nevertheless, even after all these bad decisions some still believe it was fate that led to this tragedy, because Romeo and Juliet would have never met if not for fate.
The lovers were destined to fall in love and die, and they were of houses that had been cursed by a dying Mercutio. The hurried time span of the story forced all of the events to happen much too quickly for the characters to be able to make reasonable decisions. The numerous times the characters were put into coincidental situations led to a series of events that concluded with the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. For all of these reasons, the blame of who caused the deaths of the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet can be put on no one other than Fate. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is another reminder of the fact that we are all powerless to Fate when the courses of our lives have been
Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel and he declines the challenge and insists that he won’t fight Tybalt. Mercutio is angered by Romeo’s “cowardice” and takes on Tybalt himself. Romeo wants Mercutio to stop fighting Tybalt so he decides that it’d be a good idea to block his arm in mid combat and Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under Romeo’s arm and Mercutio falls dead after rambling about plagues and a pun or two. Romeo doesn’t realize that it is his own fault that Mercutio died after Mercutio even blamed his wound on him. Romeo lets his emotions decide his actions and becomes enraged and ignores that Tybalt is now his family and fails to see that he was the reason Mercutio was killed.
Fate is just a way to be rude to someone with a reasoning behind it. The family feud is also responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet struggles with knowing the difference between loving Romeo and that he is an enemy to her family.
Was it fate or free will that killed Romeo and Juliet? In the prologue of this play, Shakespeare refers to Romeo and Juliet as “A pair of star-cross'd lovers.” Star crossed lovers are people whose love is destined to end in tragedy. Free will is when people are able to make their own decisions and have consequences based off their decisions instead of predetermined consequences. Fate was definitely the reason for Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths because of the unexplainable coincidences, uncharacterized choices, and conscious decisions that all lead to the same inescapable outcome.
Star Crossed Lovers In Romeo and Juliet their are not many events that are coincidental. Romeo and Juliet are the result of pre-determined destiny. Some people compare pre-determined to fate, this means people can not change things. The two teens could not control which families they were born into. The Montague's and the Capuley's have been enemies for some time.
The theme of Fate vs. Free Will is dominant in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; however the theme of fate is more significant than free will. In the play both Romeo and Juliet meeting was contributed by fate as Shakespeare mentioned in the prologue that Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers that were meant to meet, fall in love and their death would be the reason for the feud to end between the two families. Fate was the reason Capulet’s servant asked Romeo and Benvolio to help him read the invitation for him that contained all the names of the people that were invited to the ball Capulet hosted. “…If you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine.