Fate in Shakespeare Essay Example

In Shakespeare’s time fate was a big deal. Fate is defined as something that unavoidably befalls a person or fortune. In these times, people believed that destiny was determined by the stars and God planned everything long before in happened. There were no coincidences; only plans. In “Romeo and Juliet”, fate is a huge part of the plot and is illustrated multiple times. The play’s first example of fate was when one of Capulet’s servants was asked to deliver invitations from a guest list. In order to do so, he had to find someone who could read him the list. Out of all the people on the busy streets of Verona, he happened to ask one of the Capulet’s biggest enemies, Romeo Montague. Romeo played along and read him the list, which got him in an invitation to Capulet’s party. It was at this party where he was destined to meet his true love, Juliet Capulet. After Romeo and Juliet have met, and already fallen for each other, Romeo sneaks out in order to look for Juliet’s room. In another lucky twist of fate for the couple, Juliet is out on her balcony speaking of her love for Romeo. The fact that both of the “star-crossed lovers” were thinking of each other at the same place and time establishes a deeper love between the two and this very fateful night has now changed both of their lives, just as Shakespeare planned it. Finally, fate is exhibited a lot in the end of the play. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet were caused by themselves, but that is exactly where fate comes into play. Shakespeare could have chosen to save Romeo and Juliet rather than having them kill themselves; their deaths, however, were deliberately planned that way because they are crazy about each other and the feud that they could not control between their families was the only thing stopping them from living happily ever after. Obviously, fate is a dominant part of this play, and these are only a few of the many examples in “Romeo and Juliet”. Shakespeare understood a lot about the force of