The Role Of Fate In The Tragedy Of Romeo And Julie

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The Role of Fate in the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Zhang Hong Abstract: “Romeo and Juliet”, written by William Shakespeare, is set in Verona, Italy, where two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets produce a pair of “star-crossed lovers”. Thus paper explores the role of fate in their tragedy. The paper uses examples from the play to show that fate makes the tragic outcome inevitable. Key words: Romeo, Juliet, fate. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is a great love tragedy. Throughout the whole play, there is a sense of inevitability. In the opening prologue, Shakespeare writes “from forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life”. In the Elizabethan era, people believed that the whole world was composed of chains of beings. At the top level, there were God and his angels, then there were human beings and then the animals, etc. Within each chain there were different layers. These chains were closely related to each other. If one chain was broken, the world would be in disorder. Human beings’ fate was related to the stars. Romeo and Juliet are “star-cross’d lovers”. Thus the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is determined by fate, a force often linked to the movements of the stars. The story takes place in Verona, Italy. It opens with a foolish brawl which erupts between servants of the Montague and Capulet families. This initial quarrel illustrates that the ancient and inexplicable feud between the two families runs so deep that it extends to the servants. People there often act in an imprudent and rough way. This seems to be related to the hot summer weather of Italy. Benvolio once says,” The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, and , if we meet, we shall, not scape a brawl; For now, there hot days, is the mad blood stirring”(Act 3 Scene1). On the other hand, a delicate fragrance permeates the summer nights
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