Romeo And Juliet Free Will Essay

Hugh Mackay once said, “Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.” This theme is very prevalent in an Elizabethan tragedy. In Shakespeare’s Elizabethan tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, two teenagers from feuding families fall in love, get secretly married, and succumb to the influences of fate and free-will. Over the course of a five day period, there are six deaths and multiple schemes that go awry. In this play, Friar Lawrence, fate, and the feuding families are all to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, ultimately illustrating the consequences of irrational behavior. Friar Lawrence, although not meaning any harm, is partly responsible for the tragedies in Romeo and Juliet. While talking to Juliet about his plan to fake her death, Friar

In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare starts with, “a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” (1.Prologue). In the Elizabethan era, people believed that one’s destiny was already planned out based on the stars. With this introduction, Shakespeare has already let the audience know that Romeo and Juliet will die. This obviously means that the two paramours will die, but it also means that fate is to blame for their demise. Therefore, the audience knows that Romeo and Juliet will commit suicide, and it first starts when Romeo finds Juliet “dead” and states, “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss, I die” (5.3.120). Fate has already stated that their deaths are imminent, and Romeo’s suicide shows that fate played a part in his death. Taking everything into account, fate is not all to blame, as with Friar Lawrence, but it played an important role in the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet. Not all the blame is put on fate, although the Elizabethans would have believed that. In conclusion, fate is to blame more than Friar Lawrence, but not as much as the