Author: Christopher Waugh

In Romeo and Juliet, the idea of fate is determined by the will of God and if anything unfortunate happens to you is a consequence of Gods choosing. As displayed when Friar Laurence tries to get a letter to Romeo but is stopped by a plage in a nearby village stopping him from passing through there for stoping Romeo from getting the letter. As said by Friar Laurence at the end of the play he also emits it to being Gods plan trying to stop Romeo from achieving his goals.

The language displayed in Romeo and Juliet is filled with lots of metaphors, for example, Romeo always relates to him being a boat a God is directing his sails. As said in this passage ” He that hath steerage of my course and direct my sail ”

There is also a lot of dramatic irony in the play such as at the start of the play in the prologue it says that Romeo and Juliet will die and their family’s feud will end, the audience knows that at some point in the play it will happen but the characters in the play don’t. This happens much more throughout the play it just takes a keen eye to spot it.

In the late 1900s, People thought God was an all supreme leader/ruler of the earth everyone believed that and those who don’t where most likely to be killed and if you were not killed where banished. Romeo and Juliet are also based in the late 1900s, this tells us that people in Romeo and Juliet also believe in God as a supernatural being who rules over them. If Shake spare where to keep the realism that he has all done all the way through his play.

In Romeo and Juliet, there are lots of times Romeo has said things about God like ” Oh I am fortunes fool or I fear, too early, for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels, and expire the term Of a despisèd life closed in my breast By some vile forfeit of untimely death. these are just two of Romeos quotes and it’s not just Romeo that talks this way about God Juliet also talks about it eg: God joined my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both. this proves that by the law of Romeo and Juliet fate is determined by God and Shake Spare trys to remind us that throughout the play.

The speech in Romeo and Juliet and in the late 1900s are very similar to a heartbeat pattern called a lambic pentameter. this is where a line of speech with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. This is the pattern of speech said throughout the play and is never once broken.

Co-incidence and timing is key in Romeo an Juliet for the plot to keep the audience on their feet because when things start to die down a little Shake Spare will chuck a twist and then call it Gods plan to stop the characters from reaching their destination on time. This gives the audience something to worry about. making it that more tense to see if they will get there in time just like when Frair Lawrance says he will run to the tomb where Juliet is held to stop Romeo from getting the wrong idea the audience are on their feet the whole time but Frair Lawrence is just too late and Romeo kills himself. But as the audience is distraced from Romeo’s death Shake Spare wakes up Juliet just as Romeo drinks the poison and keeping that timing on point making it that more dramatic. having Romeo and Juliet both killed themselves everyone has forgotten that this is what Shake Spare has intended had told them so at the start of the play. but also as intended both families makeup and make a statue of both Romeo and Juliet making a very emotional ending for all.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.