fate

Question 1

O I A F F !
- act 3 scene 1

Answer 1

• Romeo laments his fate - exclamation ‘o’ & exclamation mark suggest he is distressed & alliterative phrase ‘fortunes fool’ suggests he feels like fate is mocking him
• Shakespeare therefore suggests that fate is superior to man & is also cruel

Question 2

‘ T I T O D W A T C O A I B, B O N B V F’

Answer 2

• true , I talk of dreams , which are the children of an idle brain , begot of nothing but vain fantasy
• Mercutio is dismissive of fate making him a contrarian character
• dismisses fate through his negative personification of dreams
• mercutio is a contrarian because he purposefully says the opposite to Romeo
• his dismissal of fate is ironic

Question 3

M G I L T B M W B
A1 S5

Answer 3

‘My grave is like to be my wedding bed’
- before Juliet even knows Romeo’s name she’s head over heels in love & worries that he may already be married to someone else, in which case she says that she’ll die. Shakespeare is foreshadowing the way Juliet will die shortly after her marriage to romeo.

Question 4

I D Y S

Answer 4

• I defy you stars
• still under the impression that fate is trying to break apart him and his inamorata
• addresses them with personal pronoun you as if they will respond
• this is not only showing that his mental state is disintegrating but also shows the vast impact the stars have on him to the point where he feels like they are a tangible force to him that he can address
• Elizabethan’s remarkably superstitious in regard to the power of celestial bodies & while if it’s uncertain if it is correct to attribute these views to Shakespeare himself , he most certainly uses the trope of star crossed lovers

Question 5

A P O S C L T T L

Answer 5

• phrase has been used as a harbinger of doom and devastation for the couple. Term star crossed refers to idea that those involved will be impacted in a negative way. During the Elizabethan era, one’s destiny / fate was views by most as predetermined.

Question 6

B T S A S W T H
A2 S4

Answer 6

• being tasted slays all senses with the heart
• talking about healing power of herbs and plants & says there are some poisonous ones - seems to foreshadow the unfortunate events that conclude the play. When talking about the plants he gives examples of good ones and and bad ones. We’re merely plants in a garden , each plant grows differently. Death is part of the life cycle therefore we must embrace it & choose to accept it will happen just like Romeo and Juliet dying in the play