The Fate of Romeo and Juliet

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, fate plays an extremely powerful role throughout the story.   It turns out to cause many terrible events.   Shakespeare hints at the outcome throughout the story and makes the reader hope more and more that Romeo and Juliet can live together.   Unfortunately, the fate of Romeo and Juliet isn't a very preferable one.   Fate can be defined as an inevitable and often adverse outcome or condition; destiny.   Romeo and Juliet were ultimately the ones responsible for their own deaths.   The destinies of these two "star crossed lovers" were not set from the start of the story, but almost all events that took place brought Romeo and Juliet closer to their inevitable fates.   There were too many coincidences to give the reader any doubt that the actor and actress in the play were entirely the masters of their futures.


The first coincidence was that Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers, shared the unfortunate fate that they were from feuding families.   The two of them were a perfect match, and were completely in love with each other, and the odds that one was a Montague and one was a Capulet were incredibly slim.   They both showed their grief when they learned that the other was from the opposite family.   "O dear account!   my life is my foe's debt." (Act 1, Scene 5, 132), and "My only love sprung from my only hate." (Act 1, Scene 5, 152) were the two expressions that Romeo and Juliet exclaimed.   Juliet had the right idea when she showed her frustration with the feud, and its influence on R&J's relationship, in her soliloquy on the balcony, and said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet..." (Act 2, Scene 2, 41-52)


Besides the fact that they probably would have never been able to live a peaceful life,   none of the tragedies would have occurred had they not met in the


first place.   The scene, where the Montagues find out about the Capulet ball is another twist of fate.   The...