Theme Of Fate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

In William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers meet at a masquerade ball in Verona, Italy amidst a longstanding feud between the Montagues and the Capulets. Despite their forbidden union, they carry on a secret relationship. They profess their love for each other, unable to part though their families warn them to stay away. The tragic demise of Romeo is self inflicted as the conflict between the Montague and Capulet families escalates, culminating in Romeo’s false impression that Juliet has taken her life, causing him to deliberately commit suicide as a last effort to remain with Juliet for eternity. When Romeo first meets Juliet, his passionate and idealised love for her is a choice he makes, knowing that the clash between his family and Juliet’s will lead to misfortune for the couple. After the meeting Romeo declares,

It is the east, and Juliet is the Sun!(2.2.1-2) Through Juliet, Romeo finds light and love and all seems hopeful. Initially, it does not occur to the young couple that they will face

Romeo chooses to love Juliet, a member of the family that has been rivaling his own for many years. Furthermore, he made the decision to kill Tybalt out of revenge, despite the repercussions he knew he would face for killing Juliet’s cousin. When he made this choice, he doomed their love, knowing this would further seal the hatred between families. Finally, Romeo acts with impulse and emotion instead of ration when he assumes Juliet has died, by choosing to drink poison, thus resulting in Juliet’s death by dagger. Fate does not control Romeo’s actions, though he seems to blame fate; rather, his destiny is chosen by his own careless decisions. If Romeo wanted to change his destiny, he would change his actions in order to prevent his tragic