Romeo and Juliets Fate
“Fate plays a large part in Romeo and Juliet, discuss”
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two “star-cross’d” lovers who take their lives. As the prologue at the start of the play indicated, Romeo and Juliet had fate against them. In that epoch, people were very wary of what the stars said. If two people’s stars were crossed in the sky, they would never linger. Throughout Romeo and Juliet there are many contributing factors that are responsible for the outcome of the play. All events surrounding the lovers such as, the premonitions that are had, the incidents that affect the outcome of the play and the way the two are brought together all work in the hands of fate. There are many events that influence the ending of Romeo and Juliet, ultimately ending in their demise.
The premonitions had by each Romeo and Juliet were ignored and therefore contributed to the outcome of the play.
Romeo and Juliet are both helpless victims of fate; they were also agents of fate. Before the Capulet ball Romeo has a premonition of “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars”, that he thinks will “expire the term”. Romeo suspected that there would be consequences of the party, yet he chose to ignore his feelings. After Romeo kills Tybalt he reacts by saying, “O I am fortunes fool" yet it is due to Romeo's impetuous nature that led to this calamity. When Friar Lawrence performs Romeo and Juliet’s marriage ceremony, though he thinks the marriage will turn the “households rancour to pure love”, he is still reluctant and warns that “these violent delights have violent ends”. Romeo and Juliet are so overcome by their love for one another that they are neglecting the negative aspect of their marriage. After Romeo and Juliet spend their last night together, Juliet has an “ill-divining soul” she thinks she sees Romeo dead in the bottom of a tomb. Juliet’s premonition of her husband’s untimely death is again pushed aside with no further thought. Juliet realizes that heavens are against her when her father forces her to marry Paris she says, “Is there no piety sitting in the clouds that sees into the bottom of my grief”. Romeo and Juliet's intense and endless love was of such a great nature that it could only be preserved by death. The chorus calls Romeo and Juliet "star-crossed lovers" and the recurrent...