William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare is one of the

most popular love stories of all time. It is a story about "A pair of

star-crossed lovers", Romeo and Juliet. From the opening scenes of the

play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall in

love together and eventually die together. In the play Romeo and

Juliet's lives are based according to the stars, fate, chance and

coincidence. One of the oldest and most debated questions of all time

is whether our lives are governed by fate or by our personal choice. A

definition of fate would be a power that is believed to settle ahead

of time how things will happen. William Shakespeare, in Romeo and

Juliet, brings this question to the surface.

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher who had numerous theories

on the idea of fate and tragedy in a play. He said that tragedy was to

be told "in a dramatic rather than narrative form, with incidents

arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these

emotions." Aristotle believed that in every tragedy, the protagonist

has a hamartia. A hamartia was a term used by Aristotle to describe

the character flaw that would cause the tragic end of an otherwise

noble hero. He also believed that in all tragedies, the spectator

would pity the protagonist, as they would be led to think that the

central character suffers more than they deserve to, during the play.

This was known as a catharsis. Aristotle also introduced the idea that

the protagonist has a 'hamartia', a defect in character that leads to

his eventual destruction.

Is the tragic outcome of Romeo and...

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...character in the protagonists. Fate

couldn't be avoided, but if the protagonists had done things

differently, the outcome of the play wouldn't be as tragic.

One often wonders if the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet could have been

avoided , without the seemingly vital need for bloodshed. Could Romeo

have not acted too hastily throughout the play, or Juliet, not have

deceived and disobeyed her parents? The answer is that the tragedy was

not the fault of any one individual , it was fate that Romeo and

Juliet met and fell in love, and fate that they departed.

"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardoned, and some punished:

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."