Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Were Romeo and Juliet victims of fate, society or their families? That

question has been the topic of many discussions and arguments over the

years; the answer is all three plus the interaction and complications

of other characters in the play.

Fate plays the first and maybe most important role in the play, it is

the foundation and explanation as to why Romeo and Juliet fell in

love. At the very beginning in the prologue is the first mention of

fate, 'a pair of star crossed lovers,' (Prologue, line 6) this shows

that later on in the play there will be something in the stars that

will guides the lovers together. Even in this line the assonance of

's' gives the line a smooth, sensuous flow.

Just before the Capulet party it all begins to make sense as Mercutio

talks of Queen Mab the fairies midwife who goes through lovers minds

at night so they dream of love,

'O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

She is the fairies' midwife, …

And in this state she gallops night by night

Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;

O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,

O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,

O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,

Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,

Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are'

(Act 1, Scene 4 Line 53-76)

Mercutio is teasing Romeo here over his dream of true love and goes

through a large over expressed speech to prove that Romeo is just a

victim of fate.

In the modern film the director, Baz Luhrmann, has shown Queen Mab as

a hallucinogenic drug that takes ...

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...th her daughters' opinion and tells her

to tell Capulet as he was coming. Lady Capulet then explains to her

husband that Juliet does not want to marry Paris. Capulet at this gets

very angry, portrayed violently in the Zeffirelli film, and starts

questioning if Juliet is really proud of her family and thankful of

what they have done for her. He insults her and threatens her a lot to

get his pint across and tells her that if she does not go to the

church to marry Paris willingly he will drag her there.

This is the reason Juliet has for taking the temporary death poison,

because she hated the idea of marrying Paris so much when she loved

Romeo.

This is why family duty is so important to the play because without it

Juliet wouldn't of needed to take the poison and the events trailing

from that would not of happened.