Examples Of Fate And Coincidence In Romeo And Juliet

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Fate and Coincidences
There are two main themes that are associated with the play Romeo and Juliet. These are coincidence and fate. These help with the establishing creating protagonists and even more importantly the destruction of the protagonists. The element of fate start off early in the play, with the servant of the Capulets walking the streets of Verona (William, and Durband, p.g 273). In his hands are the invitations to the party the family is throwing. It is on the streets that the servant meets with Romeo and Benvolio. The servant coincidentally cannot read ("Coincidence"). However there is the element of fate that is associated with Romeo coming to the party as he would not have meet with Juliet. More importantly, even the fact that he met with the servant on the streets speaks to the fate aspect. If the servant had known how to read, he would never have met with Romeo and the latter would not have met Juliet. However, this also plays into another coincidence which is that the families are rivals. The family to Romeo and that of Juliet are not cordial friends, ideally they are enemies (Perrier, Briar).
Shakespeare uses the element of fate and confidence to bring about the stories in the play and more importantly to develop the themes and the emotions associated with the same. Even the way that the main characters are described in the play as star crossed lovers, this is a way of showing the reliance on the themes of coincidence and fate in the play. This is to suggest that they are doomed from the onset of their relationship and even the events that come up during the time that they are in love all the way to their deaths.
One other example of the coincidences in the play is the fact that, the weeding that was planned by Juliet’s father is moved up by one day. This then happens to be the one ...