The Consequences Of Romeo And Juliet Essay Example

At the very beginning of the play, we can already establish that fate will have a big role through the language used in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as being “star-crossed lovers” as though their love was possessed by fate and planned out for them out before they were even born, but then reveals their love is “death marked”. A Shakespearean audience would have picked up on all the references to ‘the stars’ and understood how fate can control people's lives, but a modern audience would simply see this as a series of bad luck. Romeo and Juliet are seen having a lot of misfortune, and this mainly has to do with the unlucky timing. It is exceptionally unlucky that the friar arrives just minutes after Romeo has taken the poison to be with his love, it is as though Romeo and Juliet can escape their fate that has been written in ‘the stars’, with their “death marked love” killing them before they even got a chance together.

Shakespeare begins to characterise fate as a person who torments and teases the people of Verona, before we even meet the main characters Romeo and Juliet, throughout this exact fate is directing this torment towards Romeo when he is expressing his feelings over a dream he had about Juliet “my lady came and found me dead” foreshadowing the future of the play. This also implies fate has a hold on Romeo’s life, controlling what happens. As Romeo continues to talk about his dream he starts to juxtapose the ending of the play “and breathed such life with kisses in my lips'', contracting Juliet’s actions after finding Romeo dead, “i will kiss thy lips Haply some poison yet doth hang on them” contradicting Romeo's dream. This could also be seen as amplifying how much Juliet loves Romeo and how she is wanting to die with him. This is also fate’s way of teasing the audience by giving them hope that Romeo and Juliet end up together. Fate is also seen teasing Juliet after she meets her “star-crossed lover” at the Capulet ball, by making him her family's enemy. This is highlighting fate as a teasing character.

In Romeo and Juliet fate plays a massive role as though it is a character itself, conspiring the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. But fate is still responsible for the death of the “star-crossed lovers”. In Act 1 Scene 3 Romeo expresses his anger for being “fortune's fool”, suggesting that Romeo is a mere human that fate is messing with, explaining Romeo's constant bad luck throughout the play. Towards the end of the play, Romeo is finally fed up with fate having a hold on his life and declares his hatred for his life being planned out “Then I defy you stars”. To the audience, this could be seen as Hubris, and going against what the gods have planned for him, but could also be seen as Romeo finally taking control of his life not wanting him and his lover, Juliet, to die. Romeo and Juliet are described as having a “death marked love” also implying that the stars are working against them. In Shakespeare's time, people believed that their life could be determined by the position of the stars, people would even go as far as seeing astrologers to understand what might happen in their future. There is an obvious connection between fate and Romeo after he was shown a dream of his future with Juliet, “my lady came and found me dead” since we never see anyone get these dreams of the future we can infer that fate prefers to mess with Romeo than anyone else in the play. This can also be seen in Act 1 Scene 5 when Romeo sees something bad happening at the Capulet party “some consequences yet hanging in the stars” just before he meets with Juliet, emphasising that their love was doomed from the start. Romeo seeing these ‘consequences’ in ‘the stars’ would also connect with the audience of the time since they believed ‘stars’ had power over man and nature. The word ‘consequences’ can also create the an effect of the fate being more powerful than an avergae human, but as someone who is not be defied.

The audience knows from the prologue that this play is infused with death and tragedy. The two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, seem to create the illusion that death can be romantic. From their first meeting at the Capulet party, Juliet is already so encaptured by Romeo that “if he be married my grave is like to be my wedding bed” foreshadowing the ending of the play before the first meeting is over. Juliet seems to have the idea that she couldn't live without this person she just met and declares that she would already die to be with him, causing the audience to get an idea of what might happen in their future together. In Act 2 Scene 2, Romeo then risks his life to visit her on her balcony “if they do see thee, they will murder thee” signifying that he shouldn’t be there in the first place. Romeo proceeds to claim that he would rather die than never have her love him, that “My life were better ended by their hate Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love” forming an image that dying for someone you love is romantic. Juliet then claims that Romeo swearing on the “blessed moon” isn't good enough since “th’ inconstant moon”. She then requests Romeo to “swear by thy gracious self” that his love for her is true. At the very end of the play, Romeo keeps to his promise of swearing on his ‘gracious self’ by taking a vial of poison after finding out Juliet is dead, wanting to be with her forever. The young teenagers take their life to be with each, causing death to have the appearance of being romantic.

After Lord Capulet finds his daughter dead he begins to personify death as being a sexual character who took his daughter away. He asks Paris, Juliet's future husband, “Hath Death lain with your wife” referring to Death sleeping with his daughter. This also contrasts with a previous part of the play when Juliet first meets Romeo declaring that her “grave is like to be my wedding bed”. He proceeds to declare that “Flower as she was, deflowered by him” implying that Death has seduced Juliet and taken away her innocence as well as her life. Lord Capulet continues to announce how “Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir” suggesting that his family line has now been infected by Death, similar to another Shakespeare play, Othello, when Brabantio declares that Othello has infected his family's legacy after marrying his daughter. Shakespeare hints that death is a character itself as it continues to take away the people in the play.

In Act 5 Scene 1, Romeo finds out about Juliet's death from Balthasar who claims she “sleeps in Capulets monument” indicating that death is as peaceful as falling asleep. Balthasar continues to use celestial language to emphasise her peacefulness and beauty in death “her immortal part with angles live”. Previously Romeo had described Juliet to be angelic as “the sun” and with Juliet looking similar in her death could give the impression that she is peaceful. Through this scene the audience knows that Juliet is only asleep as Balthasar seems to give the same image to Romeo, this could be the fates way of telling Romeo that Juliet isn't dead. The dramatic irony creates tension in the audience, by them knowing that Juliet isn't actually dead and that she is only in a peaceful sleep. But with Balthasar stating the similarities between death and sleep it creates an image of them being alike and peaceful.