Romeo And Juliet Individualism

In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, It is the play's ideological flux that allows Shakespeare to thread ideas of fate and free will throughout. Shakespeare traps Romeo and Juliet in this conflicted world to illuminate how fate and free will can be shared rulers of Verona. Though the Greek chorus states that the lover's fate has been preordained, there is still uncertainty amongst many for their ending. Within the play, dominant ideas from providentialism are evident through the power of fate as an overarching and destructive external force. However, Shakespeare then challenges this idea by representing individualism and humanism as an alternate forces in competition, thus creating tension between the two ideologies. The ambiguity still lies

Within “a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”, the utilisation of celestial imagery illustrates the importance of the role possessed by fate and providence in the outcome of the play and the lovers’ deaths. This represents Providentialism’s belief that individuals possess limited agency and that outcomes are dictated by a divine force. Additionally, within “In gold clasps locks in the golden story”, the symbol of the “story” indicates the prewritten and unchangeable nature of love and a predetermined narrative, while the symbol of the “clasps” indicates the restraint and imprisonment of individual rights, further aligning with the values of providentialism. How Romeo and Juliet’s future was locked in and that they were destined to die. Furthermore, within “Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife/The fearful passage of their death-marked love”, a lexical field of fate again re-emphasises that an external divine force resulted in the play’s tragic end, not a mere accident or internal

Being stuck in the middle of the shift to Renaissance Italy meant individuals were confused as to which ideology was true, whether some divine force ruled all or if they could choose their path. Humanism means allowing one to make all their own decisions. “From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”. Here, the lexical field of conflict and violence illustrates the potency of human hatred, and depicts death and destruction as a concrete result of the manifestation of societal enmity and disorder, suggesting that not fate made the play so tragic but an individual’s choice and decision. That individualism caused the outcome of the two lovers. The civilians infected the world and now their death-marked relationship will be the sacrifice. Shakespeare establishes the idea of individualism throughout the play at many points such as the friar’s choice to marry Romeo and Juliet. At that point in the play, Romeo begs Friar to marry him and Juliet, but Romeo refuses to go “wisely and slowly" Instead the Friar oversteps his role as a holy man and tries to create peace between the two families. This is demonstrated through the antithesis “for this alliance may so happily prove to turn your household’s rancour to pure love” Here it’s the Friar’s free will that allows him to make this decision instead of letting an external force help the civil split he tries to help it. This is