fate

• Romeo and Juliet are doomed from the start - 'a pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives' - astrology
• references graves, death and curses throughout the play - constant reminder about Romeo and Juliet's fate to die
• 'Oh I am fortune's fool' - Romeo


  fricative alliteration - implies bad luck or fate is making his life miserable

  'I' - personal pronoun - victimises himself

  'fool' - fortune makes fun of Romeo - plays with his life for entertainment

  personifies 'fortune' - it owns him
• 'Then I defy you stars' - Romeo


  after Romeo is told about Juliet's death

  Romeo is acting against God - freewill

  astrology - 'stars' (noun)

  'defy' - verb - go against

  'I', 'you' - personal pronouns, Romeo is actively going against his fate

  we know from the prologue he is going to die so it is impossible to defy fate - this action leads to their deaths
• 'But he hath steerage of my course direct my sail' - Romeo


  'he' - God?, fate - personifies fate as a man

  'steerage' - control over a boat, controls the direction the boat goes in

  'my course' - 'my' - personal pronoun - belongs to him - 'course' - life, his life

  'direct my sail' - Romeo is telling fate to take over his life and actions
• 'love-devouring death, do what he dare' - Romeo


  'love-devouring' -

  'devouring' 'death' 'do' 'dare' - alliteration - hard 'd' sound imitates bodies thudding to the floor

  'he' - personifies death - makes it seem like a man - more intimidating

  'dare' - verb - doing something outrageous, dangerous - he is tempting fate to kill them for their love - dramatic irony
• 'And fire-eyed fury conduct me now' - Romeo


  'fire-eyed' - depicts the devil, evil thoughts, anger - he doesn't control him, fate doesn't control him, his emotions do

  'conduct' - verb - control him

  'now' - after Tybalt killed Mercutio, he is now controlled by his anger - ironic as before he was trying to stop the fight
• 'either thou, or I or both must go with him'


  list of pronouns

  'thou' - you

  'I' - personal pronoun

  'both' - determiner

  'must' - imperative - it needs to happen

  'or' - there is no other choices, it one or both of them need to go
• 'I could not send it' - Friar John


  fate intervened with the Friar meaning the vital messages couldn't reach Romeo in Mantua - shows the lovers doom

  'I' - personal pronoun - they had no control over the situation

  'send' - verb - deliver

  'it' - diminishes the importance of the letters - it costs them their lives
• 'my grave is likely to be my wedding bed' 


  'my' - repeated - shows Juliet feels isolated as she focuses on herself

  'grave' - noun - where you lay dead people

  'likely' - adjective - it is probable

  'wedding bed' - she feels she will not marry and will die alone, she feels she is getting old

  foreshadows how marrying Romeo leads to her death - emphasises the fate of the love and their death
• 'violent delights have violent ends'


  emphasises the fate of their love causing their death

  'violent' - repeated - adjective

  'delights' - shows their love

  'ends' - shows their death

  if their love is violent - quick, aggressive, rushed, then their deaths will feel the same, quick, aggressive and rushed