A large part of the beliefs for both Romeo and Juliet involve fate. They believed in the stars, and that their actions weren’t always their own. For example, “I am fortunes fool (794) .” Romeo cries out these words when the full impact of what he has just done and the consequences of his actions hit him. His secret marriage to Juliet of the Capulet family, his own families’s worn enemy, had earlier prevented him from accepting the challenge of a fight made by Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. Romeo’s friend Mercutio cannot stand by and watch Tybalt degrade Romeo, and so he takes up the sword, but is fatally wounded. When Romeo sees Mercutio dead he then fights Tybalt, he ends up killing him.
It is when Tybalt falls dead that Romeo realizes what he has done. He also knows he will now be executed by the prince, who had said that there would be no more fights between the Capulets and Montague’s. Romeo, for example, page 755, he says, “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars… by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage over my course Direct my sail.” He’s basically saying to his friends that he had a dream which leads him to believe that he will die young because of something in the stars, something that will happen. He ends with .”..
he that hath steerage over my course… .” which implies that he does not have control. Free will is the “philosophical doctrine” that our choices are, ultimately, ‘up to us’. Consequently, an un-free action must be somehow ‘up to’s something else. The phrase ‘up to us’ is vague, and, just like free will itself, admits of a variety of interpretations. Because of this vagueness, the usefulness of the concept of free will is questioned by some.
The Essay on Romeo and Juliet – Star Crossed Lovers
Romeo & Juliet - Star Crossed Lovers "A pair of star-crossed lovers", Romeo and Juliet. From the opening scenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall in love together and eventually die together. How does the reader see this? How do we know it was fate which triggered these events? Coincidence caused the death of these two lovers. For this reason Romeo and ...
We can ask several logically independent questions about free will. There are also many instances of free will being executed. When Balthasar tells Romeo that he saw Juliet being placed in the Capulet’s monument he screams out “Then I defy you, stars (836).” he is saying that he is sick of fate playing a role in his life. Romeo also “defies fate when he says, “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight (837).” Romeo is tired of fate, and the cards it has dealt him. He lies next to Juliet and feels her dead lips, and knows that he can not go on with her dead.
He drinks to her dead and falls dead next to her. I don’t believe in just fate, or free will. I guess I’m somewhere in-between the two. I’m pretty sure just about everyone falls into the same category as me. It’s very hard to base your life on just fate or all on free will. I mean do you determine how you look or act when you get angry or upset? You do to some extent but you can never totally control your reflexes.
You are destined to do cretin things but you can pick and choose as you go, but you ” re always fallowing a “guide line” threw out your life.
