by Max C

Created on: April 03, 2009   Last Updated: April 05, 2009

Fate. Destiny. From the moment the play began, the consequences of Romeo and Juliet's predicament were out of their hands. In fact, the outcome had never been in their hands. They had been forced into an inescapable corner, that would eventually lead to their doom. Although you may be thinking that fate does not exist, and that Romeo and Juliet had plenty of control over what happened, think of fate this way. "Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game,"-Voltaire. Romeo and Juliet were not doomed from the start, but rather, their thinking that fate was control of every move they made, cost them their lives.

From the start of the play, foreshadowing led us to believe that something bad was inevitable. Take a look at this for example "A pair of star-cross'd lovers, take their life," (Prologue, line 6). One of the first lines of the entire play, and it already connotates that Romeo and Juliet rushed their relationship without sufficient forethought, or preparation. It is easy to see, from an outsiders point of view, that they were clearly not thinking rationally. "These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder," (Act 2,Scene 6 Lns 9-10). Even one of the wisest, and most logical characters, Friar Lawrence, alludes to trouble when talking about Romeo and Juliet's affair. But rather than blaming fate for all this gloom and doom, he is clearly telling an irrational Romeo, that his actions will be the cause of his "violent ends". Although Romeo has listened to Friar Lawrence's advice, he is still infatuated with the belief that fate is in control. When he states "Oh, I am fortune's fool!," (Act 3,Scene 1 Ln 132), he is saying how unlucky he is. Luck has nothing to do with his blind anger when killing Tybalt. Fortune or luck did not kill Tybalt or cause Romeo to, it was another form of Romeo's unbridled emotions.

Of all the literary devices used in any of Shakespeare's plays, none is more rampant than that of figurative language in Romeo and Juliet. Figurative language is very tricky, when Shakespeare writes one thing, figurative language means that it could mean a whole host of different things. So when a reference is made during the play to stars (i.e. star-cross'd lovers, I defy you stars, etc.), it is not literally meaning astronomical bodies, but rather fate, as stars are commonly associated with fate and destiny.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>