Introduction
Fate is a concept used by Shakespeare in many of his plays and poems and is all about how the characters decisions don’t actually affect what will happen, everything is already predetermined by ‘the stars’ or God. Fate is the sequence of events outside of the characters control and influences what happens in the story. “Oh, I am fortunes fool!” Shakespeare uses many language features to suggest fate such as foreshadowing, Co-incidences, and the prologue to suggest that Romeo and Juliet were destined to die as star crossed lovers and their decisions had no effect on the end outcome.
Point 1
Shakespeare uses foreshadowing to suggest the ideas of fate and what happens later in the play. Romeo and Juliet’s death is for told many times in the play, such as when Romeo has a bad dream and senses “some consequence yet hanging in the stars”. Romeo knows that if he goes to the party there will be consequences, such as Romeo and Juliet dying. Another example is in the prologue, where it states: “a pair of star cross’ lovers take their life;” this is foretelling the event of Romeo and Juliet both taking their lives in despair of losing the other. Foreshadowing plays a big part in the idea of fate as it is literally saying what happens before it actually does, and shows the concept of predetermined events. Foreshadowing is used to excite the reader and give them more insight into what will happen later in the play, as well as adding dramatic tension.
Point 2
The prologue is 14 lines at the start of the story used to provide understanding about the play, and what events will occur.
“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.“
These lines are explaining that what you don’t comprehend or understand in the prologue, the 2-hour play will explain everything.
The idea of fate is explored in the prologue many times and Romeo and Juliets predetermined deaths are also referenced. In the prologue, it states “a pair of star-cross’ lovers take their life;” already suggesting that Romeo and Juliet are trapped by fate. and that no matter what they do they will end up dead. Another example of fate being referenced in the prologue is the statement “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes” This means that since the moment they were born the Romeo and Juliet were destined to die together. The prologue is used to tell the basic outline of the play, and to help the audience understand the play better and what they miss in the prologue “our toil shall strive to mend”.(They will understand after the play). These quotes from the prologue are stating facts that will happen in the play, again portraying the idea of fate.
Point 3
Fate plays a big part in the events of coincidences as they are all about events that occur with seemingly a very small chance of happening and how they seem to happen randomly but can have a big impact on the storyline and future occurrences. An example of a story changing coincidence is when the very important letter sent from Friar Lawrence does not make it to Romeo’s secret hideout, leading to both the deaths of Romeo and Juliet later in the play. Another big coincidence is when Romeo happens to bump into a servant of Capulet with the invitation list to a big party where Romeo will see Juliet and her beauty and totally forget about Rosaline. The chances of these events happening are very slim, unless they were already meant to happen, or predetermined by a higher force such as God, who already planned Romeo and Juliet’s fate, to die taking their own lives.
This creates a paradox: Since taking your own life is one of the worst things you can do in the Christian faith, why would God make Romeo and Juliet’s fate be to kill themselves? This is one of many unanswered questions that Shakespeare’s writing produced but also leaves us to imagine and think of possible reasons, and Shakespeare might have wanted that to be the product of watching his plays.
Conclusion
The idea of fate is suggested many times in Romeo and Juliet, such as in the Prologue or one of the many metaphors Characters used. Shakespeare used many language features to portray fate like the ones already mentioned: Foreshadowing, prologue, and coincidences to suggest that peoples decisions do not affect the outcome as they are already predetermined by fate. When Romeo yells “Oh, I am fortunes fool!” He knows that he is controlled by Fate and nothing he can do will change what happens later, this is also the moment when he gives up on God, the “sailor of his ship”. To conclude, Shakespeare wanted the audience to understand that Fate was controlling the events of the play the whole time, and many features were used to portray it.
1 Comment
Add Yours →This draft is very strong. You are establishing a clear argument and using strong evidence to support your ideas. You’re explaining the relevance of the evidence and the over-all structure of the essay is developing well. There’s a clear sequence and the sense that you’re building a logical case to support your ideas.
The areas for development are twofold.
1) Make sure you get your facts straight. For example: Shakespeare didn’t write stories, only plays and poems.
2) In your introduction, which starts by clearly establishing fate as an idea, you then digress into the examination of a quotation. Quotes do have a place in an advanced introduction, but in this case the way you have used it detracts from the over-all point of an introduction which is to outline the argument of the piece and point the reader towards the structure of the analysis to come. I suggest you use the quote to add ‘colour’, but you avoid analysing or evaluating the quote itself at this point. If it were in the body, though, you must analyse and explain every quote.
Let me know if you’d like further explanation of this.
CW