Prologue – “star-crossed lovers” “death-marked love”
Thwarted by malign stars - external
forces – separated by cruel circumstance
Death-marked - doomed to fail
- set in stone – love is predetermined and preordained by fate
“My grave is like to be my wedding bed”
Foreshadowing - creation of
dramatic irony - highlighting the inevitability of Juliet’s demise and how the
tragic end of the two lovers has already been cemented by the powerful
mechanism that is fate
“These violent delights have violent
ends.”
Friar - intensity of emotions
lead to nothing but “violent”, swift, tragic, ill-fated endings
“O, I am fortune’s fool.”
Personification of fortune – plaything of
mere chance, being toyed with, a victim of destiny – emphasizes lack of control
over one’s own fate and is instead at the mercy of it – possessive as opposed
to dynamic verb – Romeo consciously realizes that his actions are not entirely
of his free will - events are fated – reiteration of the motif of fate
“I defy you, stars!”
Takes action against fate - declares
himself openly opposed to the destiny that so grieves him – brevity coupled
with the exclamative convey his disbelief and anguish - however by actively
“defying” fate and denying its hold on him he he brings it about – setting the
play on its tragic course and trajectory
Romeo’s final speech – “World-weary flesh, shake the yoke of
inauspicious stars”
Tired of living – once again “shaking” the
scheme of things – defying movement of celestial bodies – pre-ordained bad luck
– he thinks the only way he can escape fate is through death but ironically
that is what fate veers him into
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