ROMEO AND JULIET LITERARY ESSAY

Throughout the past couple of months, I have been reading the compelling, magical, and life changing play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. There are multiple themes that show up throughout the play. One of the themes that shows up in tragedy is fate. With everything that happens throughout the story, we think that if a small event leading up to the bigger, more important event changed some way, how much different the story would have turned out differently. A component I have been focusing in on for a while now was the idea that fate is the reason for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

To begin, in Act 1 Scene 4, Romeo is in a dilemma whether he should go to the party, where he meets Juliet, or not. He had a weird dream and feeling that by going to this party, it will result in some kind of death. On line 113, in Act 1 Scene 4, it states “I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date, with this night reveals and expires the term of a despised life closed in my breast by some vile forfeit of untimely death, but he that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail, on lusty gentlemen.” (1.4.113). In the last couple sentences, Romeo brings up fate very subtly in the last quote. When he talks about the “he that hath the steerage of my course,” Romeo is saying that whoever or if there is someone leading on his life, let them just take over.  To go deeper with the meeting of Romeo and Juliet, and how fate actually did bring them together, if Rosaline, Romeo’s so called “only love,” who ended up being a nun, actually never became one, he might have married Rosaline and stayed with her for the rest of his life. Maybe, if things turned out differently, Romeo could have killed himself for Rosaline, instead of Juliet. In addition, Rosaline and Romeo could have had a long, beautiful life just the two of them. They could have lived with no drama, regret or pain. However, fate brought Romeo and Juliet together, not Rosaline and Romeo. To expand, fate made the two lovers meet and fate had them die was in Act 1 Scene 4, right before the party, Mercutio and Benvolio were persuading him to go to the Capulet’s party. In line 14 it states, “Nay gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.” This shows that Mercutio is trying to get Romeo to have fun and to get his mind off Rosaline. All in all, there are many small events leading up to the meeting, the marriage, the death and the anger of Romeo and Juliet. If something very small changed within those small or even big events, maybe Romeo and Juliet would have never even met, let alone kill themselves for one another. Fate brought them together and fate killed them due to the outrageous love and passion they had for one another.

In Romeo and Juliet, the Montague’s (Romeo’s family) and the Capulet’s (Juliet’s family) are true enemies. They hate each other pretty much more than anything or anyone in the world. But in Act 1 Scene 5, Juliet exclaimed, “My only love sprung from my only hate.” This means that the only person Juliet actually loves is the only person she was actually meant to hate. This becomes a huge problem right from the start. As the story leads on, the two get married. Juliet is very scared of her parents and if they should find out or what they might do. So, her and Friar Lawrence, the man that married Romeo and Juliet, made a plan. The master plan was to have Juliet drink a special potion that will make her go into a very deep sleep and she would look dead to everyone around her, but secretly she is alive. However, if the Capulet’s and Montague’s have ended their rivalry or called some kind of truce, this might have never happened. Maybe, when the hatred between the two families started, there was someone who had a huge impact on how the rivalry turned out, lets just say died or moved somewhere else, maybe the rivalry would have never started in the first place. The families could have gone totally different ways, suppose, or maybe they never even met and went on with their own lives and minded each other’s business. Perhaps after a while, they both realized that this was just stupid and just should move on with their lives. In addition, the rivalry was putting so much pressure on Romeo and Juliet due to the constant hate and rivalry towards each of their families. Juliet states in Act 2 Scene 2, “O Romeo, O Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn in my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (2.2.2) This quote illustrates the conflict with her heart-felt passion for Romeo and the hatred coming from her family to his. To conclude, Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another is inseparable, but maybe things could happen to help it go along a little easier. The lovers are feeling pressured and stuck in the middle, which leads to what kills them. The fate that brought on the rivalry of the two families is one of the contributors that killed Romeo and Juliet. Once again, fate is the main cause for the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

To finish up with this conclusion that fate caused the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, fate brought Balthazar to Romeo at the time and fate brought the letter explaining the plan to Romeo, after Balthazar came. Fate had Balthazar in before the messenger came. This means that Romeo now thinks Juliet is actually dead because he doesn’t know about the plan. In Act 1 Scene 5, Balthazar tells Romeo, “Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. Her body sleeps in the Capel’s monument and her immortal part with Angel lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vaults and presently took post to tell you.” (5.1.17) In these lines, Balthazar tells Romeo, Juliet is dead, but little does he know, she actually is not. To wrap up, fate is the reason nobody ever told Romeo about the plan. Fate is the reason for the death of Romeo and Juliet.

In conclusion, the entire cause for the tragedy was fate. Fate is the thing behind the scenes and the cause for almost everything that happens in this play. If fate didn’t bring Romeo to the party, he might have not met Juliet that way. If the Capulet’s and Montague’s called a truce long ago when the issue started up, Romeo and Juliet might not have died that way. And lastly, if Balthazar came later, Romeo might have found out the news of the plan earlier. All in all, fate is what brought Romeo and Juliet together and fate is what pulled them apart forever.