Fate & Destiny
English Lit: AQA GCSE Romeo & Juliet, topic 4.2.3
Fate - Prologue
From the very beginning, the prologue introduces us to a key theme in the story: fate. We are told that Romeo and Juliet are fated to fall in love ('star-cross’d lovers') but also fated to die ('death-mark’d love').
Contemporary beliefs
- It was a widespread belief that luck played a part in people’s lives.
- Fortune was often represented as a blind woman, Dame Fortune, who spun Fortune’s Wheel.
- These random movements often meant that people who were one day at the top of the wheel (having good times) could very quickly find themselves at the bottom.
'Ancient grudge'
- Shakespeare also introduces the idea of the 'ancient grudge' between the Montagues and Capulets. This suggests that Romeo and Juliet are fated victims of this old feud (argument).
- The prologue suggests that Romeo and Juliet actually have very little control over their own lives. They will have to succumb to this destiny, which was written for them before they were even born.
- This could cause the audience to feel sympathy for the protagonists (main characters) right from the start of the play.
Premonitions
Throughout the play, Shakespeare constantly reminds the audience of the part that fate plays in the story itself. Remember that the wider forces (like fate) in the world can cause tragedy as well as the characters.
Premonitions
- Romeo and Juliet have a number of premonition-like (feeling that something bad is going to happen) ideas that foreshadow their deaths.
Romeo's first premonition
- Romeo has his first premonition in Act 1, Scene 4 of the play.
- When Benvolio and Mercutio are persuading Romeo to attend the Capulet ball, Romeo suddenly gets the feeling that attending will lead to his death: 'My mind misgives some consequence yet hanging in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date' which will lead to his 'untimely death'.
Post-meeting premonition
- After the party, when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time but do not know who the other person is, Juliet asks the Nurse to find out his name and says, 'If he be married, my grave is likely to be my wedding bed'.
- This foreshadows Juliet’s death because her marriage to Romeo leads to her suicide in the end.
Mercutio's premonition
- As he dies in Act 3, Mercutio shouts: 'A plague o’both your houses!'.
- This could be a premonition from him because both families do suffer from the plague of hatred - both suffer lots of deaths by the end of the play.
Post-marriage premonition
- After Romeo and Juliet have married, Juliet has a premonition (in Act 3) about Romeo’s death.
- As Romeo goes down from her bedchamber, Juliet says: 'I have an ill-divining soul, methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb'.
- As he climbs down from her balcony, she feels as if she is seeing him dead in a tomb – this foreshadows his fate in Act 5.
Test yourself on Fate & Destiny
What quote from the prologue suggests that Romeo and Juliet are fated to fall in love?
Which quote from the prologue suggests that Romeo and Juliet are fated to die?