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Romeo And Juliet Fate Or Free Will Essay

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Was it fate or free will that killed Romeo and Juliet? In the prologue of this play, Shakespeare refers to Romeo and Juliet as “A pair of star-cross'd lovers.” Star crossed lovers are people whose love is destined to end in tragedy. Free will is when people are able to make their own decisions and have consequences based off their decisions instead of predetermined consequences. Fate was definitely the reason for Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths because of the unexplainable coincidences, uncharacterized choices, and conscious decisions that all lead to the same inescapable outcome. First of all, Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were written in the stars because of all the “coincidences” that occur throughout the play. One of the coincidences is …show more content…

For example, when Balthazar tells Romeo that Juliet is dead, he says “I defy you, stars.” (V.i) He believes that fate is trying to separate him and Juliet. He believes that by committing suicide, he will defy the “stars” because he believes he will be with Juliet, even if it’s not on this earth. The problem with this action is that by trying to “defy” fate and the stars, he is actually doing the exact opposite. Romeo doesn’t realize that Juliet is alive, and that by killing himself, he is actually being a catalyst in their unavoidable fate. While Romeo did make this decision on his own free will, he really just brought about the inevitable end by destiny. The characters may have the illusion that they are making decisions, and while choices are made by the characters, but no matter what decision they end up making, fates result will always prevail. In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet are definitely star crossed lovers, because of the strange events that simply cannot be described as coincidences, choices that seem to be chosen by a higher power, and finally even when they try to avoid surrendering to fate, they always end up achieving exactly that which fate wanted. To sum up, there is no way the story of Romeo and Juliet would have ended this way, if the powerful hand of fate had not played a massive

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In the prologue it states that Romeo and Juliet are “star-cross’d,” meaning that they were doomed from the beginning. (DBQ Doc. A Two Households)Throughout the play, multiple characters blame Fate for various unfortunate events.

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Even Romeo says, “Is it even so? Then I defy you stars!” (Doc. E) because he knows that Fate cannot be changed, and Fate is keeping him and Juliet apart. Therefore, he tries to go against Fate by dying so they can meet in the afterlife.

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For example, Shakespeare writes “The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,” (DBQ: Project, 2013).- Through this short line from the prologue, Shakespeare is leading the reader to believe that the death of Juliet and Romeo was unstoppable, consequently caused by an acting force. Another example that fate was the cause of their inauspicious death was when Balthasar, Romeo’s messenger and servant, explains to Romeo that Juliet is in her final resting place. Romeo responds by saying, “Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!”(DBQ: Project, 2013). When Romeo receives this incorrect information from his servant, he blames the “stars” who represents fate.

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In the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet are at the mercy of the stars. This is shown through the fact that the two lovers are impacted by many circumstances beyond their control, essentially caused by the family feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. However, Romeo and Juliet do choose to control their own lives by the decision’s they constitute and compose without the influence from someone else in the play, such as getting married in secret and taking their own lives. Despite this small amount of control they are still bound by fate shown by the reasons behind the secret marriage, Tybalts’ death and the suicides. Fate is one of the main thematic representations in the play Romeo and Juliet.

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Are people in control of their destiny? Having no power over one’s destiny is an important theme in William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. We are in told in the prologue that fate is going to drive the story. Romeo and Juliet are not in control of their lives. It is predetermined destiny, not free choice that manipulates the lives of these two lovers.

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Later when Romeo hears of Juliet’s death he blames fate and tries to kill himself, “Is it e’en so?-Then I deny you, stars!” (5.1.25). In this example Romeo is taking responsibility for his past actions by defying fate and taking things into his own hands. Juliet is also a naïve and impulsive girl that

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(Prologue.6). This is something a typical modern-day playwright wouldn’t do. However, on a stage during the Shakespearean time, the spoiler does create a sense of suspense that makes the audience wonder what precipitates the death of the lovers and want to follow along with the play. He uses the phrase “star-crossed” to suggest that it was bad luck that leads to the lover’s demise, and that Romeo and Juliet’s stars were not aligned in

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This is why it is so shocking when the two become lovers. The power of pre-determined destiny gets the best of them. Shakespeare did not wait to tell the readers that Romeo and Juliet were a part of pre-determined destiny. For example, in the prologue it says "From fourth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life (Shakespeare prologue). " This means two unlucky children are born into enemy families, they become lovers and commit suicide.

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The story that made many cry and a lot of students think deeper into the story than most, has a lot more meaning and a deeper reasons to every line that Shakespeare wore. There are many reasons for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and this short writing only covered two. Even though they took their lives without any influence from anyone other than themselves, it was the long lasting family feud and fate that killed Romeo and

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Today we are given a privilege to make our own choices. Whether it is as simple as choosing what you want to wear, or what career you would like to pursue. Every day we make these decisions unconsciously. If one day, this privilege is taken away from us, we would not know what to do and how to act upon it. It is essentially a privilege that every person in this world desires.

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The lovers were destined to fall in love and die, and they were of houses that had been cursed by a dying Mercutio. The hurried time span of the story forced all of the events to happen much too quickly for the characters to be able to make reasonable decisions. The numerous times the characters were put into coincidental situations led to a series of events that concluded with the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. For all of these reasons, the blame of who caused the deaths of the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet can be put on no one other than Fate. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is another reminder of the fact that we are all powerless to Fate when the courses of our lives have been

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Throughout everyone's life, decisions are made using free will. But in the end, fate is what determines the outcome of everything. In the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, there are decisions made by the characters using their free will, but no decisions could’ve stopped the tragedy of there love. All of the events leading up to Romeo and Juliet's death were not caused by free will, but they were caused by fate.

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In the line “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars… by some vile forfeit of untimely death” Shakespeare uses foreshadowing to show that fate is controlling the lives of his lovers. Foreshadowing is used as a way to develop dramatic tension leading to the revelation of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic deaths. Therefore the dream Romeo had leads him to believe that he will die young because of something in the stars, something that is beyond his control,

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The theme of Fate vs. Free Will is dominant in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; however the theme of fate is more significant than free will. In the play both Romeo and Juliet meeting was contributed by fate as Shakespeare mentioned in the prologue that Romeo and Juliet were star-crossed lovers that were meant to meet, fall in love and their death would be the reason for the feud to end between the two families. Fate was the reason Capulet’s servant asked Romeo and Benvolio to help him read the invitation for him that contained all the names of the people that were invited to the ball Capulet hosted. “…If you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come and crush a cup of wine.

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