Romeo And Juliet Fate Vs Free Will Essay

Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian lyricist and novelist, once stated, “I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfill our destiny, but our fate is sealed.” This means that destiny is controlled by our actions and how we choose to do something but fate is not able to be controlled and is something that occurs without us knowing about it. A topic of debate has been whether or not our emotion influences or motivates our action and causes us to make illogical decisions which cause other harm and despair due to those particular actions. William Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, discusses the topic

Many characters in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare has acted out illogically due to their emotions, one of which is the emotion of desperation shown by Friar Lawrence and Juliet. When Friar Lawrence hears about Romeo and Juliet's love for each other even if they were from enemy houses he becomes desperate to stop the feud so he agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet without thinking of the consequences of marrying them. Friar Lawrence says, “O, she knew well/Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell./But come, young waverer, come go with me./In one respect I’ll thy assistant be;/For this alliance may so happy prove/To turn your households’ rancor to pure love”(II.iii.90-95). This ancient feud between the enemy houses the Capulets and the Montagues has been going on for as long as the citizens of Verona remember. And has leads to lots of violence and death to both the Montagues and the Capulets families in the streets of Verona. Since this feud has been going on for so long even the servant of both houses hates and seeks violence for the opposite house. Friar Lawrence has been there to witness all the

When he heard about Romeo and Juliet's love for each other even if they were from enemy houses he saw an opportunity to end the feud. This is supported by when Friar Lawrence said,”...For this alliance may so happy prove/To turn your households’ rancor to pure love”(II.iii.90-95). The Friar is willing to take the chance of marrying Romeo and Juliet because it “May” turn the household hate for each other into pure love. Which shows that Friar Lawrence's desperation clouds his decision to end the feud that he didn’t think of the consequence of marrying Romeo and Juliet in secret. Another example is after Juliet got home and told her father Lord Capulet that she accepts Paris' will and will be his bride she went straight to her room and took out the poison that she was given by Friar Lawrence and a dagger that she had in a drawer and starts to procrastinate about drinking the poison. Juliet says.”O, look! methinks I see my cousin’s ghost/Seeking out Rome, that did spit his body/Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!/Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee”(IV.iii.56-60). Juliet was so fearful of drinking the poison that is provided by Friar Lawrence that she almost didn’t drink the poison and almost