Fate Flashcards
1
Q
R + J Fate overview
A
Fate is portrayed as inescapable, pre-ordained and insurmountable in Romeo and Juliet. Foreshadowed by Shakespeare in the prologue.
2
Q
Fate paragraph 1
A
- “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives” hints towards their tragic end, this would have been generally understood by the audience who were more superstitious and believed in destiny.
- “my mind misgives/some consequence, yet hanging in the stars” Before meeting Juliet, Romeo has a premonition This explicit reference to “stars” brings us back to the ‘star-crossed lovers’ from the prologue and acts as a thread which takes us through the bitter end.
- “If he be married, my grave is likely to be my wedding bed” oxymoronic language in wedding and grave.
3
Q
Fate paragraph 2
A
- “Love-devouring death do what he dare, it is enough I may call her mine” Shows how Romeo is aware of his fate, directly addresses it.
- “I am fortune’s fool… This day’s black fate on more days doth depend”
3., ‘I have an ill-divining soul. Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.’ Where the lovers are married, together and harmonious, Juliet has a vision At this supposedly happy moment of marital bliss, Juliet has a vision of what is to come. Conjuring such an image at such a time reiterates the way in which death haunts every
scene in this play.
4
Q
Fate paragraph 3
A
- ‘I defy you stars’. Romeo suggests in this moment that he will attempt to change the reality of her death, in the same breath as admitting that their fate is written in the ‘stars’ and thus inescapable.
- “I set up my everlasting rest, and Shakespeare the yoke of the inauspicious stars, from this world-wearied flesh” euphemistic language used in “everlasting rest” and links back to the stars.
- ‘’ See what a scourge is laid upon thy hate, that heaven finds means to kill you joys” links fate to death. More oxymoronic language in “heaven” and “death”
