Choices in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

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In every story, the character’s choices determine the outcome of that story. It is the author’s job to use these choices to drive the story, sometimes in a direction that is not immediately clear to the reader. In both Romeo and Juliet and “A Matter of Honor: Murder as a ‘Way of Life’”, the author of those texts demonstrated the impact of choice in many different ways. Authors usually demonstrate the impact of choices on the outcome of the text in a very drastic way.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare shows how choices impact the outcome of the text. One example of how Shakespeare portrays choice and impact is when Shakespeare chose to have Prince Escalus banish Romeo for killing Tybalt. After Tybalt killed Mercutio and left, Romeo started feeling revengeful. A little while later Tybalt came back wanting to fight Romeo. Romeo knew it would be a fight to the death when he agreed. Because Romeo killed Tybalt, Prince Escalus banishes Romeo from Verona stating “And for that offence / Immediately we do exile him hence” (3.1.183-184). In this quote Prince Escalus chose to banish ...

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