Romeo and Juliet Inevitability of fate

Fate and its inherent inevitability have constantly found it’s way into Shakespeare’s work and the work influenced by him, a prime example of this is found within the very prologue of one of his largest pieces of work; Romeo and Juliet.Within the prologue Shakespeare uses many literary techniques such as notions of foreshadowing and dramatic irony that occur throughout the play, some more evident that others; ‘ The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love’ this is an obvious indication of the cursed or uninevitable fate that our main protagonists will share at the end of the play.Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to emphasise the loss that these two share and in turn play to the audiences curiosity. Despite this many readers rarely realise that the prologue is in fact written in sonnet form; consisting of 14 lines, iambic pentameter and a rhyming couplet at the last line written.The structure may connote not only the strong love that both Romeo and J uliet share for one another but also perhaps the love of constantly attempting to evade their fate and follow passion as opposed to reason.Romeo and Juliet are constantly seen to rebel against society’s standards and the regulation set by their house, through this we are able to see that all love has an aspect of fate. Whether it be determined, or inevitable.Correspondingly, many of the poems found within the anthology share both the same connotations, structure and vocabulary that we have found within the prologue. A main specimen of similarity would be found within Sonnet 116, written by Shakespeare in 1609.This, as evident in it’s name is structured in sonnet form just as we have found in the prologue, yet again it does not speak directly of love but instead as a description of what love is and is not. ‘Love is not love.Which alter when it alteration finds’ Shakespeare here states that love is un bent or broken and therefore cannot be created or destroy ed, in this context we can suggest that love is therefore only a path in which one might set upon and that this is decided by only fate, Shakespeare states that you cannot love who you choose but instead love chooses you.‘It is an ever fixed mark’ Shakespeare goes on to describe what love is opposed to what love isn’t and therefore sharing several similarities to the prologue, again describing love as a ‘mark’ due to his repetitive connotation of love and fate within the prologue this may imply that this mark is in fact fate itself and therefore he allows Romeo and Juliet’s love to reside in the creation of his sonnets; ‘love’s not time’s fool’ suggesting love is endless despite Romeo and Juliet’s fast approaching death.