People ultimately have control over their life choices, something that is easily observable within both William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021). Throughout the play, the major theme of fate versus free will has been a focal point. Several times, the play mentions the lovers Romeo and Juliet being ill-fated in their pursuit of love. However, they manage to push through upon their own accord and determination, therefore within this play, the strength of free will overpowers that of fate. It can be argued that fate overpowers free will due to several instances within the play where the lovers feel hopeless against what has been decided for them, along with the lovers in the movie feeling a deeper sense of loyalty to their own …show more content…
For example, as Juliet rambles about her sadness that the man she loves is of her family’s hated enemy, she says, “Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet,” and when she speaks to Romeo after he emerges from his hiding spot, she says, “Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?”, to which Romeo responds with, “Neither The last names Capulet and Montague belong to the central opposing families in this story, they symbolize hatred for each other and therefore imply both Romeo and Juliet would be unable to be together due to their family’s long-lasting feud. Later on when Romeo kills Tybalt, he and Juliet reconcile and spend their first night as husband and wife together, and both express reluctance as Romeo prepares to leave for Mantua, Juliet saying, “Therefore stay yet. Thou need’st not be gone”, to which Romeo replies “Let me be ta’en; let me be put to death. I am content, so thou wilt have it so.”