Fate In Romeo And Juliet Essay

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Fate is strong in Romeo and Juliet, but why does Shakespeare give so much power to destiny and when the characters actually have a choice to make that determines their outcome in their world? Throughout Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, destiny is hinted through foreshadowing and is fairly common in the beginning of the story. Characters can be destined to rise up to the challenge or fall trying. In the play set in Verona, two star-crossed lovers have an untimely end, and their fate is foreshadowed along with other characters in the play. The characters in Romeo and Juliet create their destiny and are responsible for their fate up until the point where their actions only advance or prolong their destiny. To begin with, the characters in the play start to set their fate in motion or secure their future completely. An example …show more content…
/ My grave is like to be my wedding bed” (1.5.148-149). In Juliet’s metaphor, she talks about a wedding bed and her grave. Her kismet is met on her wedding day with Paris, so this is when nothing can alter her fate beyond this point. Moreover, Mercutio’s dying words were: “A plague o’both your houses!” (3.1.111). Mercutio repeated this phrase several times in this scene presaging the Montagues and the Capulet’s tragedy in the end of the play when both families are lament over each other’s losses. Also during this scene after Mercutio’s death, Romeo steps in again to remind everyone this day brings “black fate on more days doth depend. / This but begins the woe, others must end” (3.1.124-125). This day locked many of the character’s futures due to Tybalt’s death even drawing some closer to their fate, but this quote primarily sets the destinies in place because the duel is crucial to the future of many of the characters over the advancements of some. Lastly, Romeo foreshadows his kismet saying it may be