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Fate vs. Determinism in Romeo & Juliet
Fate or destiny is the probability of anything or any event occurring to any body at any time. The fate can result in a good or positive thing or a bad or negative consequence. Determinism is the doctrine that says that all things, including the will are determined by causes and is the opposite of free will.
Romeo & Juliet were born into different situations altogether. Romeo & Juliet belonged to the house of Montague and the House of Capulet respectively with two houses at loggerheads with each other. Fate started functioning in the play Romeo & Juliet right from the beginning when the Capulet servant asked Romeo to read the invitation to the Capulet party that he not only read but also ended up attending the party and meeting Juliet there as total stroke of fate. Meeting turned into the love at first sight for Romeo who despite Rosaline's love overtures was not interested in her. The cupid played its role and love struck for both Romeo and Juliet. Love was a potent force for Romeo but it also greatly affected Juliet. The powerful words of Romeo in the play indicate the importance of love to him when she mentioned the perils of falling in love to him, "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls / For stony limits cannot hold love out, / And what love can do that dares love attempt" (65).
However,...
This feud between the two sides made the two lovers realize many times in the play that it would be difficult to survive in the face of hatred between the two families. As the two families continue to be rivals through out the play, fate passed its verdict regarding the tragic end to take place in the end. Right from the beginning till the end fate overshadowed the actions of characters. Even when Romeo's character was introduced in the first act, he was presented as an utterly mellow and sad person desperate for love. Even before the play started the theme of fate was introduced in the prologue,
"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life" (37). This introduction makes everyone ponder over the thought if the two lovers were destined to die already. A widely held view is that fate played havoc with the characters in this tragedy as compared to other Shakespearean plays where characters rather than accidents are important. The theme introduced in the prologue was repeated in the play as early as the first scene of the play, "Romeo: And makes himself an artificial night" (38).
Notions of Stars and fate were so dominant in the play that Romeo himself like we all do in our daily lives questioned the idea of choices we can…
The debate of fate and determinism continues as latter mentions that it is causes that lead to the inevitable rather than everything being planned or fated to occur. In the context of Romeo and Juliet if we look at the ending part of the play, we can analyze the issue of fate vs. determinism when Romeo considered Juliet to be dead while in fact she just drank the potion to make herself appear dead in front of her family who wanted to marry her to Paris. She made this plan to avert her marriage with the help of Friar Laurence who also helped them in getting married and later on getting together for a night. Now if Juliet were to think at this point about the choices she could make to consider her free will, then she would think of going back to her parents and marrying Paris. The possibility of this idea could not have worked because her love for Romeo was very strong and she was married to Romeo already. However, if we look at this last event from a deterministic point-of-view then we would come to know that had Romeo known by some way about Juliet's unconscious state or had messenger, Friar John reached Mantua explaining the plan to Romeo then he would not have chosen to die. In Juliet's words, "What's here? A cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? I will kiss thy lips; Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative"(131). The events so occurred that Romeo could not fathom any possibility other than death which has been played through out the play that he made her mind to the inevitable that is end of life resulting again in the suicide of Juliet when she found her love dead. Is it the fate that has befallen the couple or is it certain events that caused them to go to their inevitable end? This debate continues till date. Proponents of fate argue that whole play is seeped and woven with fate and stars in mind while those who favor determinism argue that its causes that have caused the inevitable, that is the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet.
Work, Cited:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. (Edited by William Rolfe). New York: Harper. 1890.
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