Preview

Romeo and Juliet are ' Star-Crossed Lovers

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1067 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Romeo and Juliet are ' Star-Crossed Lovers
Romeo and Juliet are victims of fate, which is a dominant force from the beginning of the play. In the opening prologue we are told that Romeo and Juliet are "star-cross'd" and "death-mark'd". The audience learns that the young lovers are doomed to destruction and tragedy.

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life." (Prologue line 5-6)

Many characters believe they are controlled by the stars. The plot stresses the power fate has on Romeo and Juliet's lives. Although the characters foresee the future, they are not able to change the outcome. Even the power of love is not able to change their fate. Romeo and Juliet are destined to die and end their parents' feud.

The characters make references to the stars and express premonitions of doom. Romeo becomes a pitiful puppet in the hands of fate when he says:

"I fear too early; for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet handing in the stars

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date...

By some vile forfeit of untimely death." (Act 1 Sc 5 Line 106)

Proving that Romeo feels uneasy about going to the Capulet party but he does not follow his instincts. Even Friar Lawrence tries to reassure himself with prayers, yet he notes that:

"These violent delights have violent ends."(Act2 Sc 6 Line 9)

As Romeo leaves for exile, Juliet looks down from her window and murmurs:

"Methinks I see thee, now thou are so low,

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb." (Act 3 Sc 5 Line 55)

Juliet has a vision of Romeo dead in a tomb, which is where Romeo ends up in the end of the play. Hence, the characters have dreams and omens of what fate has in store for them.

Several preplanned events influence the destiny of Romeo and Juliet. If Romeo and Benvolio had not bumped into the Capulet servant would was illiterate in Act Scene they would have found out about the party or that Rosaline was going to be there. Romeo and Juliet may not have met. Romeo did not receive the message from the Friar John

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Romeo’s happy premonition has a double meaning; Romeo is joyful, but the dark ending of the play is also foreshadowed.…

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “But come, young waverer, come, go with me,/ In one respect I’ll thy assistant be;/ For this Alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancour to pure love”(II, iii, 92-95). This was when Romeo asks Friar Lawrence to marry him and Juliet. Friar Lawrence was a little shocked that Romeo quickly got over Rosaline and immediately fell in love with his enemy, but he agrees to Romeo’s request anyway because he believes it will turn the hatred of their families into love. Friar Lawrence should have rejected Romeo and told their parents or someone about their relationship. This is one of many chances Friar Lawrence had to change the outcome of the play, but…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Additionally, Fate is another hurdle Romeo and Juliet have to jump over,except this one appears in several scenes as the source of blame for death of the two. In the play’s Prologue the line, ”A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”, appears. This line suggests Romeo and Juliet were bound to fall in love with each from their first breath because it is stating their love was written in the stars and the families they were born to wasn’t a coincidence but a destined event. As the Prologue continues it announces how the star-cross’d lovers have a death-mark’d love. Their love being described as death-mark’d is a bad omen because it is foretelling how Romeo and Juliet’s destinies are entwined,which will bring their deaths. Fate has already decided these…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many of the characters in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” can be called responsible for the lovers’ deaths (including themselves). Ultimately, one of the overriding themes of the story: fate, is the reason for their deaths. Throughout the story, it would be inevitable, it would be their fate that Romeo and Juliet both take their own lives. This is established in the prologue of the play, therefore no matter how the characters act to try and situation around, fate is what causes their death in the end.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As one of the central themes of the play, fate plays an important role in Romeo and Juliet’s death. Through out the play, fate seems to control Romeo and Juliet’s lives and forces them together and apart. One example of how fate brings the two lovers together is in Act 1 Scene 2, where Capulet Servant invites people to the party, Romeo sees the invitation list with Rosaline’s name on it and decides to attend the party which results in the first meeting between Romeo and Juliet. Another example of why fate is to blame for this tragedy is in Act 5 Scene 1, where Friar’s letter does not reach Romeo due to a random incident. To a large extent, fate is not the only cause of the lovers’ misfortunes; Romeo and Juliet are responsible for their own death as well, due to their impulsiveness.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The prologue foretells the death of the star-cross’d lovers suggesting that Romeo and Juliet’s death was the result of fate but in fact, the unfortunate lovers’ lives came to an end as the result of human action and its consequences. One action leads to another, resulting into more havoc, chaos and also misunderstanding.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The friar is unenthusiastic when Romeo initially reveals his relationship with Juliet. He responds by warning that “[these] violent delights [of love] have violent ends” (II. vi. 9). He also says, “ Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. / Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” (II. vi. 14-15). After Romeo first informs the friar of his love for Juliet, Friar Lawrence warns Romeo to cease his haste in loving her. In spite of this, in later scenes, only after hearing a few words of Romeo’s enticement, Friar Lawrence briskly agrees to marry the young lovers. The duplicity of the friar’s intent can first be studied here. He understands wedding the adolescent lovers is breaking the standards of the feud, yet he agrees for the apparent reason that “this alliance may so happy prove / To turn [Romeo’s and Juliet’s] households' rancor to pure love” (II. iii. 98-99). However, the friar’s hesitance at first, then his quick agreement is suspicious behavior; it makes one question the friar’s motives to ignore his reasoning. A synopsis of how Friar Lawrence would gain political power by wedding Romeo and Juliet may lie in the idea of the ancient turmoil between the Montagues and the Capulets. If Friar Lawrence could mend the feud between the two Veronese families, he would be acknowledged for being the sole person to create peace after several years of…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The feud between the houses is what made the entire story what it was. Tybalt would not have been killed by Mercutio, Romeo wouldn’t have killed Mercutio, Romeo wouldn’t have killed Paris, and Romeo and Juliet wouldn’t have to be secretive about their relationship. So, if it weren’t for the feud virtually none of these…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, several motifs are used as a way to bring a deeper meaning to quotes that may see you uninteresting from the surface. One very prominent motif in this novel is dreams and premonitions. These motifs are used throughout the novel as ways to introduce foreshadowing and insight into what characters may expect to happen. Most of the occurrences where dreams and premonitions appear are when characters are looking forward to an event or occurrence. In turn, this creates a lot of foreshadowing towards dramatic events that happen all throughout the novel. Several characters experience premonitions before certain events or occurrences that may foreshadow upcoming events. The major purpose…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    For hundreds of years people from all over the world have seen the works of William Shakespeare performed by thousands of actors. Twelfth Night or What you Will is but one of the many comedies written by William Shakespeare that have been produced in many formats, from theater, television and even several feature films. So many different productions of the same works have opened the door to directors adding their own twist to the original script to make it their own. One play can be performed countless different ways, from very conservative or to unconventional depending on the director’s interpretation and intentions. So all writings are open for creative interpretation thus being for this paper I am going to focus on the directorial staging of this play and how the staging and direction brought the focus of the subplot of Antonio and Sebastian into a homoerotic relationship opposed to other renditions of Twelfth Night that were homosocial. Directors have creatively reconstructed these plays pulling from the era, the popular ideology of the community and political correctness at the times the different styles and interpretations so that Shakespeare can be adapted to the current times.…

    • 2073 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    fate romeo & juliet

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Also it is a common belief that Romeo and Juliet’s parents are at fault, for making the family feud going, and or that Romeo and Juliet’s haste is to blame, or the Friar and the Nurse shouldn’t have kept the two lovers marriage a secret, and that they affected the unfortunate end of Romeo and Juliet. However, during the phenomenal and tragic play, fate is mentioned many times throughout the play and is obviously the deciding factors in the tragedy. “These violent delights have violent ends,” (Act 2, scene 6, line 9).…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the very opening of the play the chorus is singing about Romeo and Juliet, and predicts their life together as having a star-crossed conclusion. By already knowing from the beginning that their life has an ill-fated conclusion, we can see how their choices brought them to their death. Romeo and Juliet could see that their life together was not going the way they wanted, because Romeo and Juliet wanted to marry each other but there were many barriers between them. Both Romeo and Juliet had many failed attempts in their efforts to trick fate out of what was ultimately going to happen to them both. Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous in this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed to Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. (IV, i, 122-124)…

    • 550 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet are doomed by fate from birth since they belonged to opposite households, but due to their rash decisions which aroused from uncontrolled emotions, and the influence of irrational guardians, their tragic endings were unavoidable. It’s Romeo and Juliet’s fate to die which is necessary to end their family feud. Many actions and dialogues in the play foreshadow their incoming deaths.…

    • 1919 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595. It is widely known to be a tragedy but what caused this atrocity to be so renown? It may be universally known that fate played the principal role throughout the play but by examining the specific circumstances and causes of these situations, it is evident that all the events leading to the tragedy are the result of choice rather than fate. Many believe predetermined destiny was key to the deaths of the “star-crossed lovers” but the characters were never left without options and each had a choice to make at every turn of the play. It was unarguably the decisions made by the characters, not those made by fate, that were responsible for the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the novel, “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare fate was the cause of almost all events of the book. Fate is defined as, “the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power”. Throughout the whole book the decisions that Romeo and Juliet make have obvious outcomes that seem to be invisible to the characters. The three main events that occur during the novel that helped Romeo’s and Juliet’s fate be determined are when the two found out which families they came from, when Romeo, Juliet, and the Friar thought that it was a great idea for the lovers to get married, and when Juliet decides to fake her death.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays