Author: Andy

William Shakespeare was a popular and legendary play writer  from the  Elizabethan era in 1558. Shakespeare’s plays have stood out since he started writing plays  and still appeals to audiences today. He wrote classics such as `Romeo and Juliet`, `Macbeth’,Hamlet and `The Taming of the Shrew`.  In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare explores the idea of fate.

what is fate?

Fate is a development of events outside a persons control, it is regarded as pre-determined by a supernatural power for example God  if you have a religion and you believe gods are real then what ever you done good or bad on earth you will be sent to heaven or hell. Romeo and Juliet’s untimely death could be down to a number of things, their parents feud or the haste of their relationship but I believe it was entirely down to fate.

Romeo and Juliet met entirely by fate and immediately fell in love. They begin a relationship plagued with bad luck and then tragically both die. I believe their lives had been planned and there is nothing they could do to change the course of their destiny. It is obvious that Shakespeare had intended everything to happen for a reason and decided that fate would rule their lives. . Fate is also like destiny because we cannot change it. I think William Shakespeare uses  fate in his play Romeo and Juliet to make it look realistic and interesting.

One part of fate is just before Romeo goes to the Capulet ball  where he meets Juliet and falls in love and says he has a funny feeling. Another part of fate is when Balthazar comes to Romeo and tells him that Juliet is dead but the letter didn’t get to Romeo because friar john was under quarantine because of a disease not knowing that Juliet is actually alive Romeo goes to the apothecary to get poison so he can kill him self because he love Juliet a lot.

There are lots of events and actions in the play that link up to fate. one of them is romeo outside the capulet house saying.

” I fear, too early: for my mind misgives I fear, too early for my mind misgives                                                                                                                     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!

In the play Shakespeare uses metaphors consistently, he would construct a sentence using words that have different meanings to what he wrote, that is what a metaphor is. For example a in speech said by mercutio a chraracter in the play goes on to say “Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,Which is as thin of substance as the air” ., this means that in romeos head is in the clouds probably saying he is nieve , saying that fantasy is as thin as air is basically saying that you shouldn’t trust your fantasy and stay I the real world because you won’t do no good up there in your own little world. In this paragraph mercutio is trying to talk sense Into Romeo and trying to snap out of it.

The prologue of the play reveals a lot about the plays theme and how fate plays an important part in the play. We are told that Romeo and Juliet are ‘star – crossed lovers’ (destined for bad luck) and ‘death marked’. we know that their relationship will be plagued with death.but they couldn’t marry each other because Romeo was a Montague and Juliet was a Capulet.The prologue of the play reveals a lot about the plays theme and how fate plays an important part in the play. This is also in the prologue

“Two households, both alike in dignity in fair Verona where we lay our scene from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean from forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star crossed lovers take their life whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents strife the fearful passage of their death mark’d love and the continuance of their parents rage which  but their children’s end nought could remove is now the two hours traffic of our stage the which if you with patient ears attend what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend”

which means  In the beautiful city of Verona, where our story takes place, a long-standing hatred between two families erupts into new violence, and citizens stain their hands with the blood of their fellow citizens. Two unlucky children of these enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. Their unfortunate deaths put an end to their parents’ feud. For the next two hours, we will watch the story of their doomed love and their parents’ anger, which nothing but the children’s deaths could stop. If you listen to us patiently, we’ll make up for everything we’ve left out in this prologue onstage.