Death, tragedy, and fate are just some of the themes in the play “Romeo and Juliet”, by William Shakespear, but were the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet really fate? No, Romeo and Juliet deaths were not caused by fate. Their deaths were caused by their own free-will, shown by Romeo’s rash decision making, Friar Lawrence's poor planning, and Juliets bad decisions. Romeo’s rash decision making is a reason for his and Juliet's deaths. This is shown after Tybalt kills Mercutio and, “Romeo kills Tybalt for revenge (3.1.88-142).” The reason that this is such a problem is that Romeo didn’t have to kill Tybalt for him to die. The reason for this happens after the two families have a quarrel near the beginning of the play and the prince declares, “If you ever disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace (1.1.116-117).” Had Romeo not killed Tybalt, he would have been executed anyway, and then Romeo would have …show more content…
Friar Lawrence came up with a plan to get Romeo and Juliet together. While explaining the plan to Juliet, he says that part of it is that, “Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift, and hither shall come (5.2.19-20).” At this point, the plan sounds fine, but he didn’t bring the message to Romeo, but rather sent another Friar to deliver the message. And after running into Friar John who was supposed to deliver the message, Friar John explained that, “I could not send it… nor get a messenger to bring it thee (5.2.19-20).” Friar John’s plan was riding entirely on the hope that Friar John could deliver the message. Had Friar Lawrence taken the message himself, or had a back up plan for if the message didn’t reach Romeo, then everything would have been fine. Fate doesn’t decide whether or not a plan is bad, and a good plan doesn’t ride entirely on one thing going perfectly, especially when that thing is someone who doesn’t know the
After Juliet had drunk the potion, he gave her, Friar Lawrence wrote an urgent letter to Romeo with all of the details of Juliet’s location and when she would wake up. If Friar Lawrence thought it was that the letter was very important, he should've delivered it himself, or talked to Romeo in person. When he finds out that Friar John was taking his time to deliver it, the Friar realizes his mistake by saying, “Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, The letter was not nice but full of charge, Of dear import, and neglecting it, May do much danger.” (5.2.18-21).
but it’s important to remember that Friar Lawrence might have had an impulsive plan but it was very well planned out. If Friar John had not failed to carry out the plan then it definitely would have worked and Romeo and Juliet might not have been a love destined to fail. Their twisted fates were caused by both immaturity and Friar John’s responsibility. Friar Lawrence exclaimed, “Unhappy fortune.” (5.2 15-20).
Without investigating the Mantua plague that was occuring, the Friar sent someone else to deliver the letter on his behalf rather than delivering it himself to ensure Romeo received the message. Friar Lawrence constructed this plan expecting every step to work out as intended but as components of the plan begin to fail, he continues to selfishly make irrational decisions to try and salvage it, resulting in the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet when they could have lived a life
Clearly, the Friar did not inform Friar John of the importance of the letter. If he had told him lives were at stake, Friar John would have stopped at nothing to deliver the message. Lastly, the Friar failed to communicate to Romeo in the manner they had agreed upon. Before Romeo leaves, the Friar tells him, “Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find
Before this Friar Lawrence had agreed to help Romeo and Juliet with their secret wedding. Friar Lawrence also had a letter for Romeo. “Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?”(Act 5, Scene 2) If Friar never depended on someone to take the letter with important information it could have gotten to Romeo to. If he was to never help the two lovers they would have never gotten married.
First his lack of seriousness, this comes in the form of the sending of the letter to tell Romeo the plan. He just handed the letter to friar John, saying that it had to get to Romeo in Mantua, but he left out its urgency. So Friar John didn't leave immediately, he went to go get a friend to go with him this i ended up causing him to get stuck in verona. If Friar Lawrence had made it clear that this letter was urgent, and that it needed to be delivered immediately, Friar John would not have tarried. Because this letter was not delivered to Romeo, he had no idea of the plan that the Friar and Juliet made, though Romeo did not go to see the friar, Friar Lawrence is still the adult in this situation and should have made the importance of the letter clear.
Friar Lawrence asked this to John. Friar John could not deliver that letter because of an infection, the Black Plague. I don’t know why Lawrence didn’t just deliver the letter himself and not put his responsibilities on somebody else. He was just trying to help, but resulted in the death of Romeo, Juliet, and Paris. If Romeo would have got the letter, then he would have never gone and bought that poison and killed himself in the Capulet’s tomb.
This quote shows that the letter hasn’t reached Romeo and the plan has failed. There is a quote that shows that Friar Lawrence has failed to deliver the letter to Romeo. Friar realizes his mistake and sees how much it affects the plan. Friar says that the “Failure too deliver it, could do much damage”(Shakespeare V.II.20). Quote shows Friar has made a mistake, even Friar Lawrence himself realizes, that’s why he is to blame for their death.
He, meanwhile would send a note to Romeo informing him of the hoax that was being perpetrated on the Capulets and Paris, and asking Romeo to meet him at the graveyard where Juliet would greeted them alive and well. Unfortunately, the message never arrived. This was revealed when Friar John told Friar Laurence, " I could not send it, here it is again / Nor get a messenger to bring it thee" (5.2.14-15). Friar Laurence had not told the messenger the importance of the letter reaching Romeo. And, if Friar Laurence had followed the original agreement he made with Romeo: "Sojourn in Mantua; I 'll find out your man, /
After Friar Lawrence gives the vial to Juliet, Friar Lawrence told her that he would write a letter to Romeo explaining the plan, and later when friar john comes back to Friar Lawrence, tasks the letter that he had sent out was given to Romeo, Friar John says no and now Friar Lawrence knows that Romeo now knows nothing about what is going on. "I could not send it - here it is again - / Nor get a
In Doc E Friar Lawrence says ¨ Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, the letter was not nice but full of a charge of dear importance, and the neglecting of it may do much danger.¨ Mentioning fate/fortune in this lets us know that Friar Lawrence knew what would happen to Romeo and Juliet and couldn't do anything about it. While
However, this plan failed due to circumstances that were completely out of his control. For example, the messenger Friar Lawrence sent to Romeo was unable to enter Mantua due to the spread of the plague. Since the messenger could not get to Romeo, word spread to him that Juliet had passed, although she was just in a state of unconsciousness. This caused Romeo to go into a downwards spiral, which ultimately led to the suicides of Romeo and Juliet. As can be seen, this was completely out of Friar Lawrence’s control, which shows why he should hold little to no
Towards the end of the play, Friar Lawrence says, “Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, the letter was not nice but full of charge, of dear import, and the neglecting it may do much danger.” (V. II .18-21). Friar Lawrence found out the letter telling Romeo his plan never made it to Romeo. This is one of the flaws of this plan.
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 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.