Fate in "Romeo and Juliet"
Fate in Romeo and Juliet
Fate: An inevitable outcome determining how things come to be. Love: The strong affection between to people. These are two very powerful things that carry out through history and literature. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet fate and love are very powerful reoccurring motifs which shape the young lovers life. But when discussing this play a common question forms, why did these tragic misfortunes happen to this young couple? Romeo’s and Juliet’s infatuation for each other, not fate, clouded their better judgment affecting not only how they made their decisions, but also how they faced their conflicts, and how their decisions affected others, and all of these factors led to their deaths. We can see infatuation and flawed decisions in multiple scenes in the play that emphasize Romeo and Juliet’s obsessive relationship and the position of danger it puts the people close to them in. These scenes are 2.2, the decision to get married, 3.1, the murder of Tybalt, 3.5, the ultimatum to marry Paris and 4.1, Friar Laurence’s decision to give Juliet the powerful sleeping potion.
At the beginning of this play Romeo and Juliet made some very hasty decisions that change their life quite dramatically. The first place we can really see the their obsessive behavior affecting them is when Romeo and Juliet get married within hours of meeting each other. As they talk after the Capulet party in the garden They make a vow of marriage and Juliet asks him to go set up their marriage and inform her what to do.
“If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.”
(2.2 143-48)
When Juliet says this she is being rushed by the nurse to come inside, but Juliet is also rushing to be married. She wants to quickly know when and where they
Fate: An inevitable outcome determining how things come to be. Love: The strong affection between to people. These are two very powerful things that carry out through history and literature. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet fate and love are very powerful reoccurring motifs which shape the young lovers life. But when discussing this play a common question forms, why did these tragic misfortunes happen to this young couple? Romeo’s and Juliet’s infatuation for each other, not fate, clouded their better judgment affecting not only how they made their decisions, but also how they faced their conflicts, and how their decisions affected others, and all of these factors led to their deaths. We can see infatuation and flawed decisions in multiple scenes in the play that emphasize Romeo and Juliet’s obsessive relationship and the position of danger it puts the people close to them in. These scenes are 2.2, the decision to get married, 3.1, the murder of Tybalt, 3.5, the ultimatum to marry Paris and 4.1, Friar Laurence’s decision to give Juliet the powerful sleeping potion.
At the beginning of this play Romeo and Juliet made some very hasty decisions that change their life quite dramatically. The first place we can really see the their obsessive behavior affecting them is when Romeo and Juliet get married within hours of meeting each other. As they talk after the Capulet party in the garden They make a vow of marriage and Juliet asks him to go set up their marriage and inform her what to do.
“If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world.”
(2.2 143-48)
When Juliet says this she is being rushed by the nurse to come inside, but Juliet is also rushing to be married. She wants to quickly know when and where they