Romeo And Juliet Free Will Essay

Words: 651
Pages: 3

Often people argue about whether the power of fate controls one’s destiny or one’s free will decides the future of a person. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet tells a story of two “star crossed lovers” (Romeo and Juliet Prologue) whose love are doomed by the power of fate. They try many methods to be together however, but the circumstances destroys their path to love. Fate plays an important role in the story as it determines the two lovers were born into feuding families, and the time period when the lovers were born. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the author reveals that the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are caused by a cruel overwhelming fate rather than their own free will. The two lovers never want to be born into feuding …show more content…
The story takes place in the Elizabethan period, and that has already determined that the two lovers cannot be together. At this time period, the father of a girl has complete power of who is marrying his daughter as the lord Capulet demands “O’ Thursday let it be” (3.4.21) the date that “[Juliet] shall be married to [Paris].” (3.4.22). This dialogue illustrates that Juliet has absolutely no power of who she is marrying and when to marry, since her father has already decided it for her. This event causes the lovers to raise the intensity, and having Friar Lawrence’s plan that failed, ends up with three tragic deaths. In addition, The people in two families can fight more often because “[most] gentlemen carried swords in public” (Karim-Cooper et al 56), this triggers the sword fight scene and Mercutio’s death, which ruined Romeo’s plan of marrying Juliet since Romeo slays Tybalt due to the frustration and gets exiled by the Prince. This event has a snowball effect which makes everything wrong to the lovers, and at last, it slowly leads to the deaths of the Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, the time period when the titular characters were born certainly demolishes the love between Romeo and Juliet. The power of fate is the dominant factor that ruins the love between the two lovers. The deadly challenges are the barrier that separates the love between Romeo