Fate Flashcards
Prologue: Romeo and Juliet were fated to meet
“Star crossed lovers take their life”
Star-crossed: In the Elizabethan era, it was believed that your fate came from the stars
Take their life: Could be interpreted as suicide, or being born from the “fatal loins”
Prologue: Romeo and Juliet were fated to die (#1)
“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes”
Fatal: Interpreted as simply related to fate, or that they were fated to die
Prologue: Romeo and Juliet were fated to die (#2)
“Death mark’d love”
Oxymoron emphasises the recurring motif of love and death being inextricable, and Romeo and Juliet being fated to die
2.6: Loving too violently / quickly / naively fates Romeo and Juliet to die
“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness”
Violent delights have violent ends: Foreshadows the death of Romeo and Juliet
Recurring motif of gunpowder metaphor: Burns bright and fast, but not for long and then explodes
1.4: Romeo is fated to die upon going to the ball
“Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death”
Before going to the Capulet party, Romeo says he fears it will be the start of something that will lead to his death.
Vile forfeit: Homophone with the vial which he drinks the poison out of to forfeit his life
Hanging in the stars: Stars linked to fate
3.2: Foreshadowing death, stars with fate
“Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars”
