"A pair of star-crossed lovers", Romeo and Juliet. From the opening
scenes of the play these two children of feuding families were destined to fall
in love together and eventually die together. How does the reader see this? How
do we know it was fate which triggered these events? Coincidence caused the
death of these two lovers. For this reason Romeo and Juliet is one of
Shakespeare's great tragedies. For coincidence to have caused the death of Romeo
and Juliet it must have been evident in the events leading up to their deaths.
These events include their meeting and falling in love, their separation, their
reunion and finally their suicides. Solving the ancient feud between their
families was the only real result of these untimely deaths. How did Romeo and
Juliet meet? Was it by fate or could it have been avoided? Romeo and Juliet
could not have avoided coming in contact with each other, they were brought
together by uncontrollable circumstances. In Romeo and Juliet's time Verona (a
city in Italy approximately 100 km west of Venice) was a fair sized city, and
"bumping" into an acquaintance was unlikely. During the course of Act
I, Scene II, the contrary had happened, and happened by chance. As Romeo and
Benvolio were nearing a public area they were stopped by a Capulet servant.
After Romeo had read the guest list to the Capulet party and the servant was on
his way, Benvolio suggested that to relieve himself of his sadness for Rosaline,
Romeo should go to the party and compare Rosaline to the other female guests.
Romeo agreed Another example of coincidence is evident here. If Rosaline had not
been attending, Benvolio would not have thought anything of the party. During
the Capulet's ball Romeo and Juliet had seen each other, once this happened,
there was no force that could have stopped them from falling in love. The
encounter with the servant in the city set off an unlikely chain of events.
Given the information following, none of these events could have been altered or
avoided . "And for that offense immediately we do exile him hence,"
(Romeo and Juliet, III, II, 191-192). Romeo's banishment and the fate involved
with it is a prime factor in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Why banishment? In
Act I, Scene I the Prince's words were quite the contrary. Was it intentional
that a man of such high standard would go back on his word? Perhaps. Romeo's
exile poisons all possibility of happiness for himself and Juliet. His exile
causes Juliet great sorrow, greater then if he had been executed, as stated by
Juliet in Act III, Scene II, lines 130-131. Juliet's sorrow drives her to obtain
a "knockout potion" from Friar Laurence which, in effect causes Romeo
to make some important decisions regarding his well being. Romeo's banishment
(brought about by the death of Tybalt) initiated the Friar's scheme which
eventually leads the two lovers to their deaths. In reuniting the two lovers,
timing played the largest role in deciding if they would live or die. Friar
Laurence had two chances to deliver the message to Romeo regarding Juliet's
present state. The first and most practical method of sending this message was
through Romeo's "man", Balthasar. The second method was to send the
message with Friar John. Timing was an important factor in both of these events.
Friar Laurence had missed his opportunity to send the message with Balthasar and
reverted to sending it with Friar John. As fate would have it, Friar John was
locked up in a condemned house because of the plague. As a result Romeo received
incorrect information. The only information he received from the unsuspecting
Balthasar was that Juliet was dead. There are two important points to note in
this area of the play. One being the reference to star-crossing made by Romeo
when he heard of Juliet's death. "Is it even so? then I defy you,
stars." (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 24). The second being that when Romeo
received the poison he states "Come cordial, and not poison, go with
thee." (Romeo and Juliet, V, I, 85). This is coincidental to what Juliet
had said earlier, in Act IV, Scene III, when she drinks to Romeo. Cordial means
hearty, or sincere. When someone drinks to someone else it is usually in good
health. The reuniting of the two lovers in such circumstances (Romeo's
unawareness) could only have happened as it did by timing. One could ask what if
the friar had left early?, or what if the friar had caught Balthasar and given
him the message? Because of bad timing neither happened. Coincidence is a
controlling element regarding the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, more so than in
other areas of the play. The following examples also deal with
"close-calls", which involve timing as well as coincidence After Romeo
had slew Paris and entered the tomb and found Juliet's seemingly dead body, he
uttered some interesting words. "Death that hath sucked the honey of thy
breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered; beauty's
ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and cheeks." (Romeo and Juliet, V, III,
92-95.). Here Romeo is saying how alive Juliet looks. All he had to do was touch
her and she may have been awakened and the play would have ended without a
tragic closing.