Theme Of Chance And Coincidence In Romeo And Juliet

Chance and coincidence has effected everyone before. It can be seen that both in fiction and in reality, people’s lives are greatly impacted and changed by chance and coincidence. In Romeo and Juliet, a play by William Shakespeare, this theme of chance and coincidence is relevant throughout the duration of the story. The two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, are each impacted by this, drastically. Chance and coincidence impact many things between them, including how they meet, why they cannot be together, and ultimately their deaths. Chance and coincidence is first seen largely impacting Romeo and Juliet in how they meet one another. After Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, makes plan for a party, it is considered the utter most coincidence that the

Chance and coincidence stop working in Romeo and Juliet’s favor as it assists them in both committing suicide with thier traumatic “death-marked love” (prologue.9). When Friar Lawrence makes a plan that would allow Romeo and Juliet to be together, he sends Friar John to deliver a letter to Romeo that explains the plan he has made with Juliet. Unfortunately, it is by chance that Friar John is unable to give the message to Romeo as he explains that his “speed to mantua there was stay’d” when the towns health officers believed he had the plague and was not allowed to leave his home: “The searchers of the town/ Suspecting that we were in house/ Where the infectionious pestilence did reign/ Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth” (5.2.12) (5.2.8-11). After receiving no such information on Juliet’s faked death, Romeo believes for himself, death is his own option. When Romeo visits the Apothecary to buy poison to end his own life, the Apothecary explains, “Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law/ In death to any he that utters them” (5.1.66-67). But Romeo is persistent in getting these deadly drugs. The Apothecary is very poor, so Romeo offers him a large amount of money explaining, “The world affords no law to make thee rich/ Then be not poor, but break it and take this” (5, 2, 73-74). It was by chance that the Apothecary was so poor he could not refuse Romeo’s money and in the end, gave Romeo the potion

Countless incidents found in the play, causes of chance and coincidence, decide what happens to Romeo and Juliet including how they meet, why they cannot be together, and the causes of their suicides. It is their story, retold hundreds of times, that prove both in fiction and in reality, one’s life can be forever changed and impacted by the power of chance and