Romeo and Juliet - Do You Believe in Fate?

Do You Believe In Fate?

Do you believe in fate? To answer the question, you must first have a correct idea of what fate is. A definition of fate would be the power that is supposed to settle ahead of time how things will happen. Could there be such a power that rules our lives, and if so, why? Romeo and Juliet, the two young lovers in William Shakespeare' s Romeo and Juliet, ended up becoming a large part of what could be called "fate". Fate seemed to control their lives and force them together, becoming a large part of their love, and the ending of their parent's hatred. Fate became the ultimate control power in this play, and plays a large part in modern everyday life, even if we don't recognize it. Maybe we don't recognize it because we choose not to, or don't have faith like we used to, but the fact remains that fate controls what we do throughout all of our lives.

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. Romeo, for example, 1.4.115-120, 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 over his life if he looks to another power above himself to direct him. He does not feel that he is the one who makes decisions, it is all a higher purpose, a different power. We're all sort of like the puppets below the puppeteer. He's asking for that puppeteer to direct his "sail," or his life, in the right direction.

Fate directs us all like the puppets on the end of it's string, and I believe strongly in it. It is, in many ways, the mystical power that controls who and what we become, and it explains that which can not be explained. Romeo was looking to this power, asking of this power to direct him, not to an untimely death as he foresaw in his dream, but to just steer him, because that is the control which he knows he does not have over himself.

Nonetheless, fate still managed to weave Romeo into a twisted web of it's power's and plan's. It did this by starting with a few simple emotions and actions. Romeo had a crush on Rosaline, who did not return these feelings. Next, an illiterate servant of the Capulet's was sent to invite people on a list to a party that the Capulet's were throwing. While Romeo babbled on about his life with Benvolio, his cousin and kinsmen, Romeo bumped into this servant who asked him to read the list, with Rosaline's name, which got Romeo to agree to go after the servant invited them. This sets everything up for the two lovers. They meet at the party, Romeo memorized by her beauty, and her simply memorized by him. They realize later their identity, but they are in love and won't let their names get in the way of that strong emotional bind. If fate didn't put all this together, then what or who did? What were the chances of all of this happening to two loathed enemies? It would probably be a million to one. Fate set up their love, their love already predestined, as well as their suicides, which they both foresaw.

Romeo and Juliet throughout the play have dreams or visions of their deaths. Juliet for example in 3.5.55, she says, "Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb." She sees Romeo dead in a tomb, which is where he eventually ends up in the end of the play, beside her. This why she talks about Romeo being so low in a tomb, he's dead, and she has foreseen it, before it has even happened. How could she have seen the future if it wasn't already decided for her? The answer is, she probably couldn't have.

I'm very superstitious and believe in dreams and powers beyond us, that in the end everything can amount to some good, and some bad. It's a constant balance that keeps working throughout life and nature which we can't stop. Dreams or experiences often hint to things or have a meaning. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, it showed them what was going to happen, not exactly what would take place on that night, but it did show them both that Romeo would die.

Believing in fate and trusting dreams such as these is believing in the idea that a stronger power and force controls us, and in the case of such a strong love as the love between Romeo and Juliet, that there is one person out there destined for everyone. It's romantic, and Romeo and Juliet were lucky enough to find