Fate Essay Plan

• Introduction:

  in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, they is presented as an omnipotent and omniscient driving force that completely controls the play. The idea of fate is essential in this tragedy as the audience are already told about the predetermined and inevitable death of the two protagonist which allows the audience to feel great pity for them, Shakespeare, masterfully presents this key theme through foreshadowing and celestial imagery.
• Paragraph 1:

  Point: Right at the beginning of the play during the protasis, fate is introduced in the prologue, which acts as a dramatic tool which introduces the idea that Romeo and Juliet’s death is inevitable.

  Quote: “pair of star-crossed lovers take their life“ for

  “two hours traffic of our stage”
• “ Star-crossed lovers take their life”

  • “star-crossed” metaphor, and celestial imagery suggests heavenly power that is omnipotent
  • ”take their life” has a double meaning: created by their parents or killed themselves.
  • “ two hours traffic of a stage” creates the leading fate, elevates the tragedy as the audience know, they will die, leaving them with pity.
  • Why? Shakespeare may have done this to successfully communicate that we are not in control, reminding the audience that everything is in the hands of the gods and stars, therefore reinforcing power in celestial bodies
• Paragraph 2: Romeo

  Point: Shakespeare also presents fate through a male protagonist, Romeo, who grapples with the idea of fate being an inexorable force shaping his life throughout the play. Romeo does begin to gain consciousness of this, but by that time it’s too late, and the damage has already been done. Quotes:

  “My mind misgives… hanging in the stars” A1S4

  “ O I am fortunes fool!” A3S1

  ” then I defy you stars!” A5S1
• “ hanging in the stars”

  • Foreshadowing and metaphor creates celestial imagery and the verb “hanging” create a sense of being suspended of impending doom and shows how out of control Romeo is.
  • “O I am fortunes fool” - the fricative, alliteration and exclamation sentence shows how exasperated and helpless Romeo is as he believes fate, and the gods are making fun of him. Shakespeare may have done this to emphasise that fate is superior than man.
• Paragraph 3: Mercutio

  Point: through Mercutio, ( Romeo’s best friend) faith is seen as karma karma as Mercutio is one of the comical characters however, during act one scene four, we see

  Mercutio mock Romeo serious dreams, which eventually leads to his demise in act three scene One dies where he dies in combat with tybalt.

  Quotes: “ that dreamers often lie”

  ” o I see Queen Mab hath been with you”

  ” a plague a‘both your houses”

  ” children of an idle brain/ Begot of nothing but vain fantasy”
• ”that dreamers often lie”

  • “dreamers“ - noun suggest that Mercutio is criticising how they don’t stick to reality.
  • “lie”- double meaning: lying down or lying (false) shows how much of a cynical view Mercutio has.
• “Queen Mab” - pun for quean which means prostitute and Mab is a nickname for prostitute showing that Mercutio is mocking Romeo’s dream by using sexual references.
• “a plague a’both your houses” - Metaphor

  • “plague- foreshadows how the Friars letter cannot get to Romeo which causes the plague of death R,J,Paris, Romeos mother etc.
  • Marks the turning point in the play - CLIMAX- and leads to the catastrophe falling action and denouement.
  • Karma as he didn’t belive in fate before but now he is cursing them as he says it 3 times. He also curses both houses which stresses his anger.