Romeo and Juliet

¶ … Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. Specifically it will discuss the influence on the lovers' lives of destiny or fate. In the productions of "Romeo and Juliet," the two main characters' personal choices cannot defy their destiny (or fate) that is written in the stars. Nor does the feud between the two families justify their ultimate actions.

Romeo and Juliet are fated lovers, and all of these productions make that very clear. The feud between their families may have torn them apart, but it certainly did not justify their taking their own lives. That they both die because of a misunderstanding and miscommunication only shows that their ultimate fate was exactly what was meant to happen. Their destiny led them to their deaths, and to the situation that led them down the path to their deaths. Romeo and Juliet could not escape their fate, even though today it seems as if they had many choices open to them. Each of their personal choices would ultimately take them toward each other, and toward the destiny waiting for them. These indicate that personal choice can be influential, and even vital for a person to fulfill their destiny.

Throughout the play, both characters make many choices that lead them toward their destiny. If they had made other choices, they might never have met, and so, would their fate have been different? Perhaps, but it seems as though their destiny was with each other -- no matter how briefly. For example, Romeo makes the decision not to fight Tybalt and Mercutio fights him instead. Critic Harold Bloom notes of this scene, "And now, condensed into the fractional part of a second, comes the crisis in Romeo's life. Not later, when he decides to kill Tybalt, but now. Now is the moment when two totally different universes wait as it were on the turning of a hand" (Bloom 37). Here, Romeo makes a personal choice that will change his life, and Bloom continues, "Here, if anywhere, Shakespeare shows that the fate we attribute to the stars lies in our own souls" (Bloom 37). Thus, the choices Romeo and Juliet made throughout the play lead to their fate, and had they made different choices, their ultimate fate may have been quite different -- but, they are incapable of making different choices or changing their fate, and their families feud only helped them continue to make personal choices that were not the best. For example, their miscommunication and misunderstanding about the poison and how it would look led to their deaths, and it was a very poor choice that they left the communication about the poison to someone else. It was a plot that was bound to be misunderstood. It was not a good choice, and little real thought seems to have gone into the plan, although there certainly was planning. Again, poor personal choices led the two characters toward their inevitable fate, and again, Shakespeare seems to be saying that fate may control the stars, but humans make choices that fulfill their destinies.

The pressure of the two families and their feud certainly helped push Romeo and Juliet toward their fate, but it did not justify their deaths. Only in death did they bring the two families together, which shows just how deeply some feuds can affect the people who are fighting. In fact, Romeo even speaks of the fate of the family when he says, "This day's black fate on more days doth depend; / This but begins the woe others must end" (Shakespeare and Bloom 39). Thus, Romeo places the blame of Mercutio's death on fate, but he could have stopped it, and made the wrong personal choice. Thus, fate intervenes in the family's life again, and leads him right into the arms of Juliet, his sworn enemy and his sworn love. However, critic Bloom sees the family influence differently. He writes, "The feud between Montague and Capulet is 'quite unconvincing'; Fate is thus 'nothing more important than a matter of sheer bad luck'; and the protagonists have 'weakness of character' (principally a lack of 'mature poise and balance')" (Bloom 51). It is this weakness of character that prompts them to make unfortunate choices in their lives, allow their family feud to rule their hearts, and lie about their love which creates situations that are impossible to deal with. While their family feud is certainly quite important to both the families, it does not warrant death, and after the two lovers die, the families "bury the hatchet" so to speak in their grief. It is true their families might have balked at their love, but they would have survived. Their family feud did not justify their deaths. The families loved their children, and obviously their feud was not so strong that they could not put it past them when something truly terrible happened. The lovers were fearful of their families and their reactions, but they also acted like children who were naughty, rather than like rational adults. It seems that the feud between the families may have been childish too, and so encouraged everyone to behave badly and not take responsibility for their actions, and ultimately led to tragedy. Even in the modern film, the two families and their feud seem to be petty. It seems like they have been feuding for so long, they do not quite remember why -- they simply know they are supposed to hate each other. The force of the family can be a very strong force, but there is nothing in the feud that should have led to so much death and unhappiness.