Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Fate in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Before starting to decide to what extent fate was responsible for the

deaths of Romeo and Juliet, I should first decide what is fate?

According to the dictionary, fate is the 'inevitable destiny or

necessity destined term of life; doom.' This basically means, that

fate can be described as a pre-planned sequence of events influencing

ones life. In Romeo and Juliet, it is obviously true to say that fate

was a contributor to the deaths of the young couple, but could it have

been the sole contributor?

From the beginning of the play it is clear that Romeo and Juliet are

doomed to die, They are considered victims of circumstance but the

question is did they have responsibility for their fate? Could things

have been different? Was it a bad series of events, was it a

coincidence that fate was against them, were outside forces against

them, It is not just a coincidence the language used in the prologue

'star-crossed lovers' and 'death-marked love' shows that it was all

meant to happen from the beginning of the play, the words

'star-crossed' refers to an astrological outlook on destiny that was

widely accepted in the period the play was written in, reference to

this so early in the play creates a sense of anticipation for the

audience and from the start they know what is going to be the outcome

of the play but the question left on their minds is 'Why?' and 'How?'

these are answered as the play progresses. There were many outside

forces against them a main one being characters in the play who

intensely manipulated the tragic path of Romeo and Juliet, these

characters being apart from Romeo and Juliet themselves, Mercutio, The

Nurse, Tybalt and The Friar.

Mercutio, being one of Romeos friends, is very influential in the

decisions he makes he was a firm supporter of the Montague household

and it was him who encouraged Romeo to attend the Capulet families

gathering where he met Juliet, if Romeo had not attended he would have