Romeo and Juliet Fate and Free Will Quotes

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Prologue. There is a great deal of foreshadowing in opening Prologue to history’s greatest love story. We learn from the Chorus that the young lovers are fated to bring their feuding families together by the tragic taking of their own lives. This passage speaks to the intensity of the teenage couple’s love. "Star-cross’d" is a metaphor for the higher power of fate that controls human destiny. Shakespeare creates dramatic irony here by telling the audience what will happen to the characters before they know it themselves.

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2. Capulet agrees that Paris may woo his daughter Juliet. But he stresses that even if he consents to the marriage, she has the final say and may exercise her own free will. However, he later changes his mind and tries to force Juliet into a marriage with Paris. The word "heart" in this passage is a metaphor for love.

I fear, too early: for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels and expire the term
Of a despised life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4. Romeo agrees to gatecrash the Capulets’ ball with Benvolio and Mercutio, but fears that it will lead to tragic and deadly consequences. He is responding to Benvolio’s claim that they will be too late for the party. This passage reflects the theme of fate and free will found throughout the play. The stars are a metaphor for fate, with people then believing that their movements determined the course of their lives. The passage, with its sense of fear and foreboding, also foreshadows the tragic deaths that are to come.

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. Juliet says this when she finds out Romeo is a Montague. She is fated to love a "loathed enemy" of her family, the Capulets. "Too early seen unknown, and known too late" suggests that had Juliet known he was a Montague she wouldn’t have fallen in love with him, but now that she has there is no going back. With Juliet, as with Romeo, love is an irresistible force that a person cannot control.

JULIET: By whose direction found’st thou out this place?
ROMEO: By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;
He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act, Scene 2. When Juliet asks Romeo who told him how to find her bedroom, he says that love has guided him there. Love is personified by Romeo, who says that it helped him look for Juliet, while he lent eyes to love so that he could see Juliet – love is often said to be blind. Romeo has no free choice in the matter and has to be there because he is controlled by love.

I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say "It lightens."

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2. Juliet appears skeptical to Romeo’s first declaration of love for her in the balcony scene. In a simile she compares its rashness and suddenness to lightning, which flashes one moment and disappears the next. This image paints love as something unpredictable and even dangerous. Foreshadowed here is the play’s tragic ending for the two lovers. In this fledgling relationship Juliet appears to be the more cautious and mature one. She asserts her free will in this passage, wanting Romeo to slow down and not rush things. Romeo on the other hand wants to dive right in. Moments later he tells Juliet that he cannot be satisfied without an "exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine." Juliet’s words and her wanting to take a step back because everything is happening too fast also highlights the theme of appearance vs reality.

O, I am fortune’s fool!

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1. Using a metaphor comparing himself to "fortune’s fool," Romeo believes that he has been the victim of fate. Romeo has killed Tybalt in a moment of passion after Tybalt slew his friend Mercutio. Romeo feels that he had no choice in the matter but his action was dictated by fate, a force more powerful than him. There is an element of remorse in Romeo’s words. Before Mercutio’s killing he had done everything possible to avoid a fight with him.

JULIET: O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
ROMEO: And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. In their final scene together alive, Juliet foresees a tragic fate for Romeo, as she has a vision of him lying dead in a tomb. She reveals her sense of foreboding as Romeo departs and descends the ladder from her balcony. This is foreshadowing of how Romeo will visit Juliet’s tomb after she takes a potion that makes her appear dead and poisons himself. The heavy foreshadowing and dramatic tension are further heightened when they comment on how pale they both look, with Romeo personifying sorrow as having the human ability to drink their blood. The young lovers are both trapped by their tragic fates.

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 5. As Juliet says goodbye to her new husband Romeo after the lovers’ one and only night together, she appeals to fortune to send Romeo back to her. It is the last time they see each other alive. Fortune is personified here in this passage highlighting the theme of fate vs free will.

Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 1. Friar Laurence offers Juliet a way out of her father’s forced marriage to Paris. He gives her a vial of potion, which will put her in a deep sleep and mimic the appearance of death, making her appear dead to others. This is a reckless plan on the part of the Friar, which will lead to a tragic fate for both Juliet and Romeo.

Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child! O child! my soul, and not my child!
Dead art thou! Alack! my child is dead;
And with my child my joys are buried.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 5. Time is personified as Capulet challenges time and fate, asking why did they have to destroy their celebration of Juliet’s wedding day. Grieving for his daughter, Capulet exclaims that his child is now not his child because she is dead. He doesn’t realize that she has taken a potion to enable her to fake her own death.

I could not send it, – here it is again, –
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 2. Friar John tells Friar Laurence that he was unable to deliver Laurence’s letter to Romeo because he was quarantined due to a plague outbreak. This crucially important letter was meant to inform Romeo of Juliet’s intention to fake her death with a sleeping potion. As a result of not receiving it, Romeo will be led to believe that Juliet is truly dead, leading to his decision to take his life followed by Juliet’s suicide also. Friar John’s failure and Laurence’s recklessness in giving Juliet the sleeping potion will lead to the young lovers’ tragic fate.

Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice but full of charge
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 2. Friar Laurence uses an oxymoron to blame fate and bad luck on hearing that Friar John was unable to deliver his letter to Romeo explaining about Juliet’s faked death. He calls for a crowbar so that he can break into Juliet’s tomb before Romeo discovers her there.

Here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh.

– William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. In the space of a few days Romeo has killed two men and fallen in love and lost a wife. In this final monologue he speaks of choosing his own fate and shaking off the metaphorical "yoke" of bad fortune that he has been the victim of. Unafraid, he welcomes death as the only way he can be with Juliet. Using personification, he describes worms as Juliet’s "chamber-maids," because he believes that she is dead.
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