Romeo And Juliet Fate Essay

The story of Juliet and her Romeo is one that is commonly known throughout the world. The tale of their romance and even their tragic deaths have been a staple over the centuries in literature and even just society. A major theme among this play was the recurrent discussion of death and fate. From the start of the play, in the prologue, the audience knows the two lovers are destined to die. Fate appears in how Juliet chose to love the one person she was meant to hate showing how it was meant for them to be together. The idea that their names are what leads them to their deaths takes a major role in the play. Throughout William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the constant discussion of death and fate shows how Shakespeare tied in the ideals of Renaissance into his writing and how this drew the focus of the play towards

Since “they actively decide to be the mortal instruments of their own destiny” (401) they are choosing their own fate. Further this allows the audience to see how they could have tried to fight their fight, yet instead they chose to succumb to their doom. In the Renaissance time period many people saw the view of death and focus on it to be a very paganistic view of death. Meaning that the view of death was thought of to go against the religion of the state, even if that said person was Catholic. Therefore, when Shakespeare incorporated these views into Romeo and Juliet he took on a paganistic side during his time period. However, it was said that, “These religious and philosophical notions of death also combine with death as the crucial, crowning element of tragedy as a literary genre” (401). This shows how while it was not commonly used in discussion the idea of death was critical to writing a tragedy. Overall this revolving theme of death throughout the play ties in the idea of death during the Renaissance and how it impacted the