Julius Caesar And Romeo Essay Example For Students

Julius Caesar And Romeo Essay A pair of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. From the openingscenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fallin love together and eventually die together. How does the reader see this? Howdo we know it was fate which triggered these events? Coincidence caused thedeath of these two lovers. For this reason Romeo and Juliet is one ofShakespeares great tragedies. For coincidence to have caused the death of Romeoand Juliet it must have been evident in the events leading up to their deaths. These events include their meeting and falling in love, their separation, theirreunion and finally their suicides. Solving the ancient feud between theirfamilies was the only real result of these untimely deaths. How did Romeo andJuliet meet? Was it by fate or could it have been avoided? Romeo and Julietcould not have avoided coming in contact with each other, they were broughttogether by uncontrollable circumstances. In Romeo and Juliets time Verona (acity in Italy approximately 100 km west of Venice) was a fair sized city, andbumping into an acquaintance was unlikely. During the course of ActI, Scene II, the contrary had happened, and happened by chance. As Romeo andBenvolio were nearing a public area they were stopped by a Capulet servant. After Romeo had read the guest list to the Capulet party and the servant was onhis way, Benvolio suggested that to relieve himself of his sadness for Rosaline,Romeo should go to the party and compare Rosaline to the other female guests. Romeo agreed Another example of coincidence is evident here. If Rosaline had notbeen attending, Benvolio would not have thought anything of the party. Duringthe Capulets ball Romeo and Juliet had seen each other, once this happened,there was no force that could have stopped them from falling in love. Theencounter with the servant in the city set off an unlikely chain of events. Given the information following, none of these events could have been altered oravoided . And for that offense immediately we do exile him hence,(Romeo and Juliet, III, II, 191-192). Romeos banishment and the fate involvedwith it is a prime factor in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Why banishment? InAct I, Scene I the Princes words were quite the contrary. Was it intentionalthat a man of such high standard would go back on his word? Perhaps. Romeosexile poisons all possibility of happiness for himself and Juliet. His exilecauses Juliet great sorrow, greater then if he had been executed, as stated byJuliet in Act III, Scene II, lines 130-131. Juliets sorrow drives her to obtaina knockout potion from Friar Laurence which, in effect causes Romeoto make some important decisions regarding his well being. Romeos banishment(brought about by the death of Tybalt) initiated the Friars scheme whicheventually leads the two lovers to their deaths. In reuniting the two lovers,timing played the lar gest role in deciding if they would live or die. FriarLaurence had two chances to deliver the message to Romeo regarding Julietspresent state. The first and most practical method of sending this message wasthrough Romeos man, Balthasar. The second method was to send themessage with Friar John. Timing was an important factor in both of these events. Friar Laurence had missed his opportunity to send the message with Balthasar andreverted to sending it with Friar John. As fate would have it, Friar John waslocked up in a condemned house because of the plague. As a result Romeo receivedincorrect information. The only information he received from the unsuspectingBalthasar was that Juliet was dead. There are two important points to note inthis area of the play. One being the reference to star-crossing made by Romeowhen he heard of Juliets death. Is it even so? then I defy you,stars. (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 24). The second being that when Romeoreceived the poison he states Come cordial, and not poison, go withthee. (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 85). This is coincidental to what Juliethad said earlier, in Act IV, Scene III, when she drinks to Romeo. Cordial meanshearty, or sincere. When someone drinks to someone else it is usually in goodhealth. The reuniting of the two lovers in such circumstances (Romeosunawareness) could only have happen ed as it did by timing. One could ask what ifthe friar had left early?, or what if the friar had caught Balthasar and givenhim the message? Because of bad timing neither happened. Coincidence is acontrolling element regarding the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, more so than inother areas of the play. The following examples also deal withclose-calls, which involve timing as well as coincidence After Romeohad slew Paris and entered the tomb and found Juliets seemingly dead body, heuttered some interesting words. Death that hath sucked the honey of thybreath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered; beautysensign yet is crimson in thy lips and cheeks. (Romeo and Juliet, V, III,92-95.). Here Romeo is saying how alive Juliet looks. All he had to do was touchher and she may have been awakened and the play would have ended without atragic closing.