ipl-logo

The All Powerful Force In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

1178 Words5 Pages

The All Powerful Force
“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor 161-180 A.D. Many people believe in destiny, and that everyone was meant for something. Shakespeare based his play Romeo and Juliet off of the concept of fate and destiny. In his play, the main characters are guided by an all powerful and inescapable force, called fate. In Romeo and Juliet the theme of fate has brought the two main characters together in the most unintentional way. After Mercutio’s notorious queen mab speech, Romeo has an aside that overtly states fate having a larger role in the story. He says, “I fear too early, for my mind misgives …show more content…

Throughout this play, Shakespeare has given countless examples of how fate has a larger and more in-depth grasp on the story than other themes or ideas. Fate has brought the two “star crossed lovers” together, and it also spells their end. By the first scene, the reader is already given an idea of how big of a role fate has in this story from Romeo’s aside, and this is only further enhanced as the story progresses. The relationships between characters throughout the story have tiny details of how fate has a more prominent role. Relationships between Romeo, Juliet and the Friar are some of the most potent and detailed in Romeo and Juliet. The story would be completely different without them. Another way that fate has contributed to the overall depth and genius of this story, is how the reader interprets the word. Fate also means the end or death of someone, and Romeo and Juliet’s fate has forever changed the lives of the Montagues and Capulets, disintegrating their rivalry. Change is one of the big themes in Romeo and Juliet, and fate plays right into that theme making it very noticeable and potent. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor 161-180

Show More
Related
663 Words | 3 Pages

One reason that the tragedy was due to fate was because at the very beginning, Romeo met a servant of the Capulet family asking Romeo to read something for him. If Romeo hadn't met that servant, he wouldn’t have heard about the Capulets having a party tonight, him going and seeing Juliet. In Act 1 Scene 3, The servant says to Romeo “Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry!”

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

Evidence to prove how Fate played a huge role in the lives of Romeo and Juliet is given thoroughly in the Prologue: “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life (Doc A).” With that term star-cross’d means either doom or unluckiness. Another would be when Friar John was supposed to deliver the letter informing Romeo that Juliet is not actually dead, but he was unable to deliver due to a plague and was held quarantined: “I could not send it, ---here it is again,---...

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

Romeo knew he could not have Juliet’s heart because of a “greater power than we can contradict”(DBQ: Project, 2013). The treacherous fate did not stop the strong feelings between Romeo and Juliet, however fate did win the battle of love. Romeo and Juliet’s love were destined to crumble. Everything terrible that happened to them was for a reason, fate caused Romeo to fall in love with his families greatest enemy. Fate also caused Romeo to find Juliet after she had drunk the sleeping potion and his confusion and mortification with her “death”.

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

Fate is just a way to be rude to someone with a reasoning behind it. The family feud is also responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet struggles with knowing the difference between loving Romeo and that he is an enemy to her family.

Read More
1034 Words | 5 Pages

It controlled every event in their lives, from the beginning of their families’ ancient feud, to when they met and when they died. The story of Romeo and Juliet had long before been written by fate ever since the start of the dispute between the Capulets and Montagues. Had it not been for this feud, the couple would not have been forced to make such drastic choices to end their lives just so they could be together. This meant anything, even killing themselves. For them to spot each other from across the room in a place where Romeo would normally have been forbidden, is concrete proof that fate was in full command.

Read More
253 Words | 2 Pages

Fate is one of the many themes in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In the play Friar Laurence says, “Wisely and slow. / They stumble that run fast.” (2.3.93-94). This quote establishes the theme of fate because it shows that Romeo and Juliet are going very fast with their relationship and are fated to stumble.

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

Fate Affecting Romeo and Juliet In Romeo & Juliet, fate plays an extraordinarily compelling role throughout the story. In Shakespeare’s literature he uses foreshadowing/events that contribute to fate in the play. The duo is faced with many challenges that causes many unfortunate complications to occur in the city of Verona, which are foreshadowed to warn the reader of the outcomes in the future. The play is infamously known tragedy that concerns the ‘star-crossed lovers’, involves love vs lust, and also the role that women take on in the play, and lastly passage of time.

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

The fearful passage of their death-marked love, and the countenance of their parents’ rage, which but their children’s end, naught could remove, is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage; the which if you with patient ears attend, what here shall miss our toil shall strive to mend. (Romeo and Juliet. Prologue. 1-14) This quote shows that fate is present in Romeos life because he meets the love of his life Juliet at a party he happened to be at by choice.

Read More
462 Words | 2 Pages

Fate falls into place in “Romeo and Juliet” because they both predicted their deaths. “I have feeling this party tonight will be the start of something bad something that will end with my own death.” This shows that Romeo had a bad feeling about going to the party. Fate is telling him that something bad might happen if he goes to the party. “I think I’d

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

Are our lives already determined by fate? Or do our choices affect our lives. In William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet there are many tragic events, that seeme to happen by fate, but if fate wasn’t the cause then what or who was was the cause? Lord Capulet is the character most to blame for the tragic events in Romeo and Juliet because he was one of the main people who kept the feud going, it was his party that Romeo crashed, and he was the one who was forcing Juliet to marry Paris, causing her to want to make rash decisions. Lord Capulet is the most to blame for the events that occur in Romeo and Juliet because he was one of the main people who kept the feud going This feud has been going on for years, Lord Capulet has been keeping it going it the prologue of act one it says “From ancient grudge break to new mutiny” and from what this is saying it hasn't been getting any better.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
704 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

Romeo found no alternative reason to live if he could not be with her, and planned to kill himself. This was one of the most important pieces of information that determined the future of the young lovers, but was not interpreted in a conscientious

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about The All Powerful Force In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Related Topics

Open Document