Fate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Fate is the development of events beyond a person’s control. In the Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, there are “two star-crossed lovers” who fall in love. Romeo and Juliet are from different families of the same status and their love is essentially forbidden. After all these misfortunate events trying to tear their love apart, they eventually take their lives as a result. Every character in the story made choices out of free will but these choices ultimately lead to fate. Fate was the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because it is depicted by foreshadowing, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets and the power of the future. Foreshadowing in Romeo and Juliet was used to make the audience aware of what will happen in the story prior to the events unfolded. For instance, a part in the story that exemplifies foreshadowing is in the prologue. In the prologue of the story, the Chorus
implied that fate would be one of the major roles of Romeo and Juliet’s destiny. The Chorus states, “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows...The fearful passage of their death-marked love” (0.0.6-9). This quote foreshadows that Romeo and Juliet’s love were death marked by fate which means their love would end in the tragedy of death. Before the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, Balthasar came to tell Romeo that Juliet had died, unknowingly telling Romeo the wrong information. Romeo begins to tell Balthasar that he had a dream about dying. This is the second time Romeo has dreamed about his death. The first time was at the Capulet party when Romeo says, “Of a despised life closed in my breast. By some vile forfeit of untimely death” (1.4.110-111). The second time was when Balthasar came to tell Romeo that Juliet died, Romeo said, “I dreamt my lady came and found me dead-” (5.1.6). These quotes implicate foreshadowing because the play ended in death. All of the signs and misfortunate events led up to this very moment. Therefore, Shakespeare used the literary device, foreshadowing to remind and warn the reader what was about to happen. However, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets contributed as well. The role of the feud between the Capulets and Montagues represents fate. This feud caused a lot of things to go wrong with the main characters. The Montagues and Capulets had an ancient feud that dated back so long they didn’t know the reason why they were fighting. When Romeo was at the Capulet party, Tybalt was furious he was there. Due to the terms of their feud, a Montague is never invited to a Capulet party so seeing Romeo at this event made Tybalt enraged. The Montagues and the Capulets, have had a feud for a long time, but Romeo underestimated the power of their hatred for one another. Tybalt was invested into standing up for his family no matter the circumstances. Tybalt threatens Romeo for coming to this event by saying, “But this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall” (1.5.92-93). This essentially leads to the death of Romeo and Juliet because they wouldn’t have had to sneak around if their families had no feud between the two. In Act 3, Tybalt comes to the streets of Verona looking for revenge of Romeo. Romeo isn’t there when he comes so Mercutio picks a fight with Tybalt. Romeo comes and Mercutio and Tybalt are fighting and Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo is boiling with rage so he decided to kill Tybalt. “Romeo, away, begone! The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain,” (3.1.124-125). This scene causes major issues for Romeo because after this happened, he was banished to Mantua leaving Juliet without her one true love. Fate is depicted through this scene because if Romeo didn’t kill Tybalt he would’ve never been banished. The miscommunication of his banishment caused him and Juliet to kill themselves. The feud of the two families caused Romeo and Juliet to take their lives because their love was forbidden by them which made it hard for Romeo and Juliet to be together. Lastly, the power of the future exhibited fate as well. The power of the future was very important in the play. Romeo and Juliet tried to find different ways around their destiny, but these things were meant to be. In Act 4, Friar Laurence devised a plan for Romeo and Juliet to be together again. Friar John comes back from fulfilling his obligation in the plan which was to send Romeo a letter explaining the plan to get him and Juliet back together and to get Juliet out of marrying Paris. When he comes back, he says he was not able to deliver the letter he was supposed to get to Romeo. He says, “Suspecting that we both were in a house, where the infectious pestilence did reign” (5.2.10-11). He was not able to go into Mantua because he was quarantined in a house due to the plague. In this particular scene , fate is shown to be even more powerful because it of all the ways Friar John could’ve gone, he ended up there, where they wouldn’t let him in. This issue caused Romeo to believe Balthasar when he said Juliet did, which lead to Romeo’s suicide and even Juliet’s. Also in Act 5, Romeo decided to kill himself after Balthasar warns him about the death of Juliet. Romeo says, “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you stars!” (5.1.24). Romeo is referring to fate as the stars. This is a significant quote because Romeo claims his opposition to fate, but this has been just his destiny. To conclude, Romeo and Juliet is one of the most romantic and tragic love stories.
Their endings were based on their actions as characters, but fate trumped all of the impetuous actions. It was just their destiny to fall in love and essentially die on the terms of love. Some may argue that free will is the most responsible for their death, however this is not so. Yes, Romeo and Juliet made some impulsive and self oriented decisions that lead them to their death, but there was already a predestined plan for their lives. Throughout the story Shakespeare hinted at the idea of fate, which makes it a stronger point because of how it is emphasized. However, Romeo and Juliet went through so many obstacles to be together in the story because they didn’t care what anyone said or did to stop them. Even though their love was only beginning before it ended abruptly, fate played a major role in it. Fate was most definitely responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because of foreshadowing, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets and the power of the
future.