By Rebecca N.
[Note: This is a condensation of an essay by a home
school student who participated in our 2012 Summer Shakespeare Seminar. It was written in partial fulfillment of the
high school credit certificate offered in connection with the Seminar.]
At first glance, Romeo
and Juliet seem to be unfortunate but innocent victims of fate, or of the
stars. This assumption isn’t surprising when we see that the prologue calls the
lovers “star crossed.” Focus on the
Family’s review of Romeo and Juliet takes from the phrase, “star crossed” the
conclusion that destiny rather than God guides the lovers. But is Romeo and Juliet really just “a tragedy
of unawareness?” (Amanda Mabillard, “Themes in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.”) Or could the fault
actually belong to them because of their choices along the way?
While things such as fate, fortune, and the stars are mentioned
throughout the play, Romeo is almost always the one talking about them. In
addition, he is the only character who refers to the stars as having authority.
What could be his reason for this? H.B.
Charlton says Romeo “disowns responsibility and throws it on Destiny, Fate.”
Romeo makes many poor moral choices, each of which brings him one step
closer to his doom. He chooses to hastily and secretly marry Juliet, murders
Tybalt and later Paris, and finally commits suicide. We do not see Romeo assume
responsibility for any one of these choices, or recognize how those choices are
affecting his life.
We cannot place all the blame on Romeo, however. Other characters are at
fault also. For instance, though Friar Lawrence warns Romeo against haste, he agrees
to marry the pair, and later offers Juliet the sleeping potion that leads to
her death as well as Romeo’s. Juliet’s nurse bears some blame by choosing to
help the two lovers get secretly married. If the Montague and Capulet families
had been reasonable and settled their differences long ago, Romeo and Juliet
may not have felt it necessary to keep their love a secret, and then to resort
to suicide.
So, while on the surface it appears that Romeo and Juliet were victims
of destiny doomed from the beginning of time by fate, if we look closer it is
easy to see that not destiny, but foolish choices by several characters came
together and resulted in this tragedy.
