Romeo
and Juliet are described as “star-cross’d lovers” in the Prologue of
Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet (1595),
implying that the tragic end of their love was fated. Analyse this view
with close attention to the role of fate in the
tragedy.
By definition, star-crossed lovers means those whose relationship
is doomed by evil and bad luck. The prologue of Romeo and Juliet tells
the readers to anticipate a tragedy in advance. The fact that too early on in
the prologue the readers are warned of such anticipated tragedy also implies
that tragic events will happen too early, earlier than they ideally should. In
other words, the characters meet their fate too early. The prologue also
projects the theme of dispute between families being the cause of the fatal
tragedy that happens to the characters. That being said, the fighting between
the Capulets and the Montagues is the main reason Romeo and Juliet are
star-crossed lovers.
Speaking of implying that a tragedy, or tragedies may one say,
might fall upon the characters, the script, at many instances, foreshadows to
the characters' bloody fate and death. For instance, in act 1 when the men of
the Montague and the Capulets fight in the streets after Mercutio had won the
tournament, the prince warns the people that their lives will pay the price of
the offense. This literally translates to the events that will happen in which
Tybalt, Mercutio, Count Paris, Romeo and Juliet, will lose their lives as a
result of the dispute and violence between the families.
As well, before the Capulet masquerade at their house, Romeo starts
to contemplate whether there is the possibility that their decisions will lead
to their demise and fate. He says that he fears some consequence yet hanging in
the stars if he were to enter the Capulet’s property. As he finally decided to
enter the party with Mercutio and his cousin, he already begins the journey to
experience his fatal demise. Romeo's mentioning of consequences hanging in the
stars synchronizes with the prologue of the play. In other words, the
anticipated consequences hanging in the stars is the star-crossed lovers;
himself and Juliet.
Tybalt is a character that embodies and combines violence and evil
fate in one. Consider how in the party at the Capulets' house he notices that
Juliet is dancing with Romeo, who he knows is a Montague. Just as Romeo sees
Juliet for the first time and falls in love with her, Tybalt has his mind
already set on killing Romeo to maintain the Capulet’s family honor. In other
words, the moment Romeo and Juliet experienced their love at first sight, violent
demise was waiting for Romeo on the other side.
From then on, the love between the characters seems to noticeably
be drawing them closer to their death. Romeo and Juliet speak of attempting
suicide in many scenes in the play and speak of their willingness to die in
honor of their love. For example, when Romeo kills Tybalt and the prince makes
the decision of putting Romeo in exile, Romeo snatches a knife in Friar
Lawrence's cell and threatens to murder himself as he will be separated from
his love. Just a few instances later, Juliet pulls out a knife to kill herself
in the presence of Friar Lawrence as she is desperate for ways to dodge her
marriage to Paris and meet Romeo after he was sent to exile. That being said,
the love between them is the cause of their willingness to commit violence and accept
their fate.
Another instance by which the text suggests the tragic death of the
main characters is the balcony scene in act 2. Juliet is standing in her
balcony after the masquerade has ended, reflecting on her feeling towards
Romeo. She is concerned about the fact that it is a fatal deed to be in love
with a Montague, and she refers to Romeo—as she talks to herself—as one dead in
the tomb. This part of the scene suggests that Juliet also is aware of the
deadly consequence hanging in the start if she were to love and marry Romeo.
In the play, the role of fate contrasts with the notion of free
will. Romeo and Juliet are young and foolish and wish to be on their free will.
They think they can fight the world, their state, their law, their families,
and their circumstances in order to marry each other. Indeed they do act on
their free will and get married the next day after their first acquaintance,
but then again their free will results in their tragic demise, too early and
too foolishly.
This brings attention to the idea of consequences happening too
early. Consider how Juliet’s family wanted her to be married too young and too
early. Consider how Tybalt finds Romeo too early and fights with him before
even the news of the marriage to Juliet start to spread. Consider how Romeo
rushes to see Juliet on her ‘fake’ death bed as he hears from his cousin that
she had died, too early he hears from his cousin, before the letter from the
priest Friar Lawrence arrives to him which was intended to explain to Romeo the
whole plot of Juliet’s fake death. You see, all those accidents happening too
early eventually lead to plenty of tragedies: the killing of Mercutio by Tybalt,
the murdering of Tybalt by Romeo as revenge, the receiving of the false news
that Juliet has died, and the consumption of the venom by Romeo as he believes
that Juliet has truly died, and lastly the suicide of Juliet as she wakes up
from her ‘fake’ death and sees that Romeo has died as a result of the whole
plotted death. All the consequences that happened to early dictated the fate of
the characters and the star-crossed lovers.
In the light of the idea of time and things happening earlier than
expected, it is fascinating to see how little time Romeo and Juliet actually
get to spend together. It is understood that there is an overpowering source of
passion, love, ecstasy, and desire between the young couple. Because of such
overpowering feelings that they have, they rush into defying their families and
norms and get married too quickly. Juliet herself, early on in the story,
starts to wonder whether their love is too rash, too unadvised and too sudden,
but still, she proceeds to talk to herself wishing that Romeo could deny his
father and deny his name as a Montague, or if not, then she may no longer be a
Capulet just to marry him, if that is what it takes. The decisions and thoughts
that Romeo and Juliet are having at this point in the story are too significant
and too life-changing, yet the irony is that after all that, they only get to
spend very little time together before they meet their fate.
Defying fate and denying succumbing to it is a notion embodied in
Romeo. When the young lover hears of Juliet’s ‘fake’ death, he is filled with
anger and sorrow to the extent of promising to defy the stars. Romeo literally
says I defy you, stars, which tells the readers that he is willing to
fight the universe only to be with Juliet. As the events unfold, Romeo indeed
defies the starts in the sense that he refuses to be separated from Juliet, and
therefore he kills himself with poison just to lie and die next to her. The
tragedy is that Romeo’s defying of fate eventually leads to Juliet’s actual
death. Keeping in mind the theme of star-crossed lovers, the stars which Romeo dares
to defy could be symbolic of bad luck. In other words, Romeo says I defy you,
bad luck. Romeo’s attempt in defying bad luck leads to worse and more tragic
bad luck.
The notion of fate wraps around all of the events in the story: the
dispute between their families, which is fated from the start, as the prologue
says, and which the readers, as well as the characters, have to accept and live
with, the tragic number of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence's purely
well-intentioned plans to make Romeo and Juliet merrily married; and the tragic
timing of Romeo's suicide at the same time of Juliet's awakening. These accidents
are not mere coincidences, but rather signs of fate that contribute to the
young couple’s destined deaths.
