There aren’t many stories that tell you everything that is going to happen before you even fully begin reading, but Romeo and Juliet is one of them. Though for a play that has the theme of fate wound through it, perhaps it is the perfect beginning to the play. Romeo and Juliet’s fate has already been sealed by the prologue, and they cannot escape it.
The speed in which Romeo and Juliet fall in love was something that was initially shocking. At the beginning of the play, Romeo is still pining and heartbroken over Rosaline so it surprising that he falls in love with Juliet so quickly and so strongly. Theirs, in reality, would hardly be a love at all, but that of an infatuation.
This rushing into the relationship is partly to blame for their demise. Though it’s really their families that are to blame. Their whole lives, Romeo and Juliet, they’ve had loyalty to the Montague or Capulet houses alike. But when they meet each other, this flips almost instantly as they begin to prioritise each other and their love over the families they’ve known their entire life. Juliet cares not for her cousin Tybalt, but for her husband, who she married on the same day.
Tybalt’s murder is really the catalyst for the following action of the play. Violence follows thus. And though one of the play’s main themes is love, it is inseparable from the violence that takes place. In a way, they are as connected with each other as Romeo and Juliet are.
There are different types of love within Romeo and Juliet. The main couple’s is intense, strong. But Juliet’s with her parents is one that is completely conditional. With her father, Capulet, in particular. He attempts to marry her to Paris and is angered when Juliet plays any role other than the obedient daughter. This, I think, is partly to blame for why Juliet is so eager to marry Romeo.
The role of Friar Lawrence within the play is one that intrigued me. In a way, he is almost the puppet master of everything, even if he does not intend for it to be that way. He marries them, and comes up with the plan for Juliet to drink the poison. Of course, he is not to blame for the plan not going forward correctly, but it is intriguing to think of the damage that is caused because of the plan, and what would have happened if he had not been there to orchestrate such a ruse. Though the lovers were still fated to die, so maybe there would have been further bloodshed, and the household’s feuds would never have ceased, not knowing the truth behind their end.