Romeo and Juliet are Star-Crossed Lovers Essay Sample

Is love true love if not written in the stars? When it comes to true love, there is no greater story than William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In fact, Shakespeare calls the lovers, “star crossed lovers”(Rom.Pro.6) in the prologue of the play to emphasize the frame of mind when the story begins. This is only the first time of many that Shakespeare uses cosmic imagery to enhance the connection between Romeo and Juliet. Would their tragic fate be justified if not placed in the cosmos? 

Romeo and Juliet were destined to fall in love, and to die for love. In Act 5 when Bathasar has just told Romeo that Juliet is dead, Romeo belts, “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!” (5.1.24). This is his pledge to go against the cosmos and deny them from trying to keep Romeo and Juliet apart. Shortly after he says this he goes to an apothecary to obtain a poison to kill himself so that even in death he may be with Juliet. Of course, the audience knows Juliet is not yet dead but Romeo will die to the thought that she is. 

When Romeo climbs over the wall into the Capulet's orchard he is alone at first. Juliet comes out onto the balcony and thinks that she is alone. Romeo sees Juliet and while talking to himself says, “Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven'' (2.2.15). Romeo is saying that Juliet's eyes are indistinguishable from the stars in heaven. Romeo believes Juliet to be unreal in that her beauty is heavenly. Romeo, also speaking to himself, says that, “As is a wingéd messenger of heaven” (2.2.28). Romeo is referring to Juliet as an angel of heaven because he is looking up at her on the balcony almost as looking at a divine creature. Shakespeare uses these similes to demonstrate Romeo is in his own world in which Juliet is at the center, and without Juliet he has no life in that his life has no meaning.