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Vraj Shah
Cunningham
English 1 GT/Phoenix 8th

Romeo and Juliet Concept Analysis

Fate vs. Free Will In the dramatic story of two star crossed lover in William Shakespeares
Romeo and Juliet. A heavy presence of fate vs. free will can be seen in various locations in Act 3.
In act 3 Romeo is banished form Verona and feels that the tide of the world and everyone in it
except for Juliet is against him which he feels is the ultimate test of his marriage with Juliet.
Instead of being a friend to the close relatives of Juliet such as Tybalt, Romeo ends up killing
Tybalt causing what in his view is the tide of the world turn against him. Before the killing of
Tybalt Romeo felt that the tide of the world was actually on his side as he was able to marry his
love of his live Juliet, and also his parents had agreed to it. But after the event, Romeo saw that
his world was the exact opposite of his intentions. Romeos awareness that the world is against
his side can be seen when he says O, I am fortunes fool! (3.1.131). He thinks of himself in
pity and in ironic humor as anything he does, is retaliated in an equally worse manner which he
considers fate. Now that he is banished form the land for killing a relative of his new and
beloved wife he believes that with free will and a mix of fate he will be able to return to Verona
in order to unite with his wife and his home that he has loved and lived in for as long as he can
remember in the balance of the Montagues and Capulets. Also due to the prince separating
Romeo and Juliet unaware of their intimate relationship just as the rest of the town Romeo starts
to believe that it is the combined free will of him and Juliet if they are ever to see each other
again but at the same time he believes his separation from Juliet may be fate because he married

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to a member outside of the family and not only that but to a person that is a member of the
rivaling family.
Marriage/Gender Roles In the era when the tragic love story or Romeo and Juliet took place
gender meant just about everything in the world of politics and other key topics of the era. Being
a male meant that you had no fear what so ever. When Romeo heard of his possible exile due to
killing Tybalt in the duel he started think that committing suicide may be a better option then
living in exile for the rest of his life or at least until it was safe for his return to the town of
Verona. When Friar confronts Romeo about his decision about committing suicide he starts
calling Romeo a coward and a wimp for even think or acknowledging that he could take the easy
way out. Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. Thy tears are
womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast. Unseemly woman in a
seeming man Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! (3.3.118-123). When Frair talks to
Romeo with these lines he is calling Romeo and womanish wimp because even though he is a
man he is crying and thinking of suicide which is very unman like thing to do during the era.
Another example marriage and gender roles in Romeo and Juliet can be seen when Juliets father
Lord Capulet says that he need a fulfilling man to fill his role as lord once he is no longer living
and the best way to do that is by having somebody marry Juliet. This shows marriage roles by
elaborating that a man meant everything to the family man symbolized power, control, and
wealth which were the three main goals to achieve in life at the time.
Love v. Infatuation- After hearing that he was exiled from Verona, Romeo is grief stricken and
is in a deep state of depression. Because he is forbidden from the land, he comprehends that it
means that he and his newly wedded wife are no longer allowed to see each other anymore.
When Juliet heard the troublesome news that her new husband was to be exiled for the death of

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her cousin she had to decide whether or not to support her own cousin, and go against her love
Romeo, or to support Romeo her new husband and go against her own family that nurtured and
cared for her. Due to her deep and bottomless love for Romeo, she concluded that she should
support her new husband and go against her family due to her love for Romeo. With her decision
excessive tension begins to occur within the already dramatic play. Juliet now displays a deep
role in which true love no matter in what circumstances will always overcome sudden
infatuations and hatred. The spirit of a fiend and sweet flesh (3.2.81-82). These lines clearly
explain what Juliet feels about Romeo, because she has the constant love of Romeo but at the
same time has an infatuation full of hatred against Romeo for killing her own cousin that she
grew up very closely with. In the end the love overcame the infatuation full of hatred for Romeo.
The Helper or Wise Adviser When Juliet is faced with the fact that she must marry Count
Parris, she conveys that she would rather take her life rather than marrying him. Do thou but
call my resolution wise, and with this knife Ill help it presently (shows him a knife) (4.1.54).
With this line, Juliet detonates to Friar Lawrence that she will kill herself unless he has a solution
for her. In response to this ultimatum Friar Lawrence suggests that she ingest a poison that
induces death for a short amount of time and then she will be brought back to life again. To Juliet
this sounds like the perfect plan in order to evade her marriage with Count Parris. The only
drawback of the plan is that she would have to leave her family behind, but due to her true love
of Romeo she concludes that Romeo is worth giving her family up for. Friar Lawrence seems to
have come up with the perfect plan but as foreshadowed in the prologue his plan may not
produce the desired outcomes. Instead of helping Juliets situation of her marriage with Romeo,
he instead ends up causing the death of both of the star-crossed lovers. He causes the indirect
death of Romeo by first not giving Romeo the new the Juliet is actually not dead. Since Friar

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Lawrence failed to tell Romeo, Romeo kills himself with a poison as he thinks that the only
meaning of his life has just died. However, in the eyes of the town and even in Shakespeare he
was always place in a positive connotation. Ultimately Friars advice and solution to the problem
did not pan out correctly causing the deaths of two tragic star-crossed lovers. Instead of bringing
Romeo and Juliet together he just actually drove a bigger wedge in between them.