Fate in Romeo and Juliet

Star-crossed. Fortune's fool. I defy you, stars. The play keeps saying it was always going to end this way.

The quotes

10 quotes, in the order they happen.

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life

Chorus · Prologue · fate · death · love

The stars are against them. The play tells you the ending before it starts.

My only love sprung from my only hate!

Juliet · Act 1, Scene 5 · love · hate · fate

Juliet finds out Romeo is a Montague. The one person she loves is from the one family she must hate.

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

Juliet · Act 1, Scene 5 · death · love · fate

If she cannot marry him, she will die unmarried. It comes true in a way she does not mean.

These violent delights have violent ends

Friar Lawrence · Act 2, Scene 6 · fate · love · death

Love this wild ends badly. The Friar says it and then marries them anyway.

O, I am fortune's fool!

Romeo · Act 3, Scene 1 · fate

Romeo has just killed Tybalt. He blames fate. He also did it.

Romeo is banished

Nurse · Act 3, Scene 2 · fate · family

The Nurse brings the news. To Juliet it is worse than ten thousand dead Tybalts.

O thinkest thou we shall ever meet again?

Juliet · Act 3, Scene 5 · fate · love

Their last time together alive. She asks the question the play has already answered.

If all else fail, myself have power to die.

Juliet · Act 3, Scene 5 · death · fate

Alone now, Juliet says she can always kill herself. It is her plan of last resort.

Then I defy you, stars!

Romeo · Act 5, Scene 1 · fate · death

He hears Juliet is dead. He will fight fate itself. He buys poison.

All are punish'd.

Prince · Act 5, Scene 3 · hate · family · fate

The Prince blames everyone. Both families lost children. So did he.