Romeo and Juliet Fate Speech

Hi I'm Charlotte and i will be talking about the theme fate in the play Romeo and Juliet. Most people don’t even believe in fate, in fact some don’t even know what it is. There are many definitions of Fate, but most seem to revolve around something like a force in which no one can control in life.

But one of the few people that do believe in fate, is Shakespeare himself, and he tries to prove Fate to be true through incidents, in his play Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed lovers”, that is to say that fate controls them in the story and it is indicated that they will take their own lives. Fate plays a huge role in Romeo and Juliet, in fact, it is filled throughout the play, to the point that the characters are even aware of it, seeing signals in many situations.

New slide An example of fate in the couple’s relationship would be when Romeo is driven by love to propose marriage, and Friar Laurence’s agreement to perform the ceremony, once again demonstrates fate. Perhaps the saddest, yet best example of fate in the drama occurs at the end when Romeo misses the identification about Friar Laurence’s plan and Juliet’s faked death, therefore arrives and kills himself because he thinks she is dead.

Only moments before she awakens and kills herself because he is now dead. The whole play is one huge example of how cruel fate can be and how events, small and large, work together to make or break any event, even a potentially great love, such as that of Romeo and Juliet. The process of fate works in all of the events surrounding the lovers.

The feud between their families, the horrible series of accidents that ruin Friar Lawrence’s plans to fake Juliet’s death at the end of the play and the timing of Romeo’s suicide and Juliet’s awakening. These events are not coincidences, but examples of fate that help cause the outcome of Romeo’s and Juliet’s death.

From the beginning, we know that the story of Romeo and Juliet will end in tragedy. We also know that their tragic ends will not result from their own personal defects but from fate. The first incident where fate occurs is when Capulet’s servant goes searching for someone who can read the guest list to him as he cannot read.

Benvolio and Romeo pass and Capulet's servant by chance meets them. It is this encounter that enables Romeo to read the list of names of guests for the Capulet party to Peter. This is fate because if the servant had run into any other person on the streets of Verona, Romeo would never even know about the Capulet party. As he reads the list aloud, he sees that his love, Rosaline, will be attending.

Fate brought Peter to ask Romeo for help which resulted in Romeo see Rosaline's name, going to the party, seeing Juliet, forgetting about Rosaline, falling in love with Juliet and therefore resulting in their love story. Had Romeo not run into Peter, he would have never gone to the party, and so, never even met Juliet. It is fate that made this encounter happen.

Because we know Romeo and Juliet’s fate from the beginning we are constantly hoping that they will take a different course. Maybe that Romeo will arrive just after Juliet has woken. The quote, “Then I defy you, stars” was made after Romeo learned that Juliet was dead ( By stars, he meant fate ). Romeo’s defiance plays into the hands of fate, and his determination to spend eternity with Juliet results in their deaths.

Finally, when Friar Lawrence sends a messenger to Romeo in Mantua to tell him about the sleeping potion, the man doesn't get there in time and Romeo has already heard that Juliet is dead. Fate had it all set up. Fate had the letter, written to Romeo, not be sent. Fate also had Romeo get the poison from someone who just happened to have some on them, causing Romeo to kill himself.

Fate had Romeo and Juliet’s love cursed ever since the beginning and the topic Fate just stands as an explanation of why things turned out the way it did in Romeo and Juliet. The topic of fate which Shakespeare writes of is important to readers because it might not just be a topic. It might instead be a message.

The two main characters in the play risked everything to be together, regardless of their family name the connection between the two was unbreakable. Love at first sight was occurring for each of the young teens. Even Rosaline and Paris could not get in the way of their devotion.

From the opening prologue when the Chorus summarizes Romeo and Juliet and says that the "star-crossed lovers" will die, Romeo and Juliet are trapped by fate. No matter what they do, what plans they make, or how much they love each other, their struggles against fate only help fulfill it.

But defeating or escaping fate is not the point. No one escapes fate. It is Romeo and Juliet's determination to struggle against fate in order to be together, whether in life or death, that shows their love for each other, and which makes it eternal.
The story of Romeo and Juliet truly relies on fate to unite two young people in a tragic tale of passionate love and passionate hate.Thank you