'Explore the Theme of Fate Within Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet'

 Within Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, written in 1591, the theme of fate is arguably the catalyst for the defining events in the play, forcing the characters, especially the titular couple to seemingly make decisions that appear far from their control. Shakespeare’s use of a semantic field of fate related images re-enforces that the language of fate ultimately achieves the dramatic structure associated with Greek tragedy. From the start of the play, Shakespeare exposes the fate of the ‘star crossed lovers’ within the prologue, informing the audience of their destiny throughout. Using fricative alliteration, Shakespeare places emphasis on the role of stars after discussing another major theme, hate. ‘From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life’ (5) alluding that the couple were doomed from the start of the play to die in the name of love. However, the characters seem almost aware of their inability to act without the influence of fate, especially Romeo who curses the heavens in angst, ‘oh I am fortune’s fool!’ (III.I) after murdering Tybalt and ‘then I defy you, stars!’ (V.I) after learning of Juliet’s apparent death. Romeo actively acknowledges that he seemingly is inescapably tied to the will of God that he, and Juliet are doomed to die. The use of punctuation in the form of exclamation marks effectively conveys to the reader how the role should be performed and emotionally, how helpless Romeo feels at the hands of a higher power, fate.For Elizabethan audiences, the use of fate throughout the play would have been widely understood, as they believed their lives were governed by the wheel of fortune to have predestined events happen, planned by God and that the stars were God’s tools for destiny. The use of vivid imagery in relation to stars is dotted throughout the play yet is juxtaposed within the dramatic structure. When awaiting the nurse, Juliet uses the beautifully romantic image of preserving Romeo when he dies, ‘take him and cut him into little stars’ (III.II) to better the heavens, a nod to the stars being seemingly amicable in the couples fate. However, this is fiercely juxtaposed by Romeo within Act 5, Scene Three after killing Paris in the Capulet’s tomb, ‘shake the yoke of these inauspicious stars’ (V.III) as Romeo employs the image of being bound to ill-fate, unable to sculpt his own destiny which may have avoided death. Yet arguably, modern audiences may question the obedience to predestination within the events of the play, contesting whether the characters, Romeo especially, uses the power of fate as an excuse for humanity’s vices within the play such as hatred and violence which the stars punish he families for through the double suicide of the couple.