Fate in Romeo and Juliet

Essay by domus March 2004

download word file, 7 pages 4.6

A definition of fate would be the power that is supposed to settle ahead of time how things will happen. Romeo and Juliet, the two young lovers in William Shakespeare' s Romeo and Juliet, ended up becoming a large part of what could be called fate. Fate seemed to control their lives and force them together, becoming a large part of their love, and the ending of their parent's hatred. Fate became the ultimate control power in this play, and plays a large part in modern everyday life, even if we don't recognize it. Maybe we don't recognize it because we choose not to, or don't have faith like we used to, but the fact remains that fate controls what we do throughout all of our lives. A large part of the beliefs for both Romeo and Juliet involve fate. They believed in the stars, and that their actions weren't always their own.

Romeo, for example, 1.4.115-120, he says, Some consequence yet hanging in the stars...by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage over my course Direct my sail. He's basically saying to his friends that he had a dream which leads him to believe that he will die young because of something in the stars, something that will happen. He ends with ...he that hath steerage over my course... which implies that he does not have control over his life if he looks to another power above himself to direct him. He does not feel that he is the one who makes decisions, it is all a higher purpose, a different power. We're all sort of like the puppets below the puppeteer. He's asking for that puppeteer to direct his sail, or his life, in the right direction. Fate directs us all...