Romeo And Juliet: The Conflict Between Free Will And Fate

When being interviewed Brazilian, novelist and lyricist, Paulo Coelho claimed, “I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed”. In today's society, many people are conflicted on whether events in one’s lives are driven by one's choices or are simply meant to be. Coelho believes that both free will and fate play a role in one’s life, he says that one has the power to make certain choices, but in the end it all comes down to fate. The concept of fate versus free will can be seen in the fictional pieces, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, “Pyramus
After Annabel Lee dies, in the poem “Annabel Lee”, the protagonist claims that, “The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, / Went envying her and me- / Yes! - that was the reason ... / That the wind came out of the cloud by night, / Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee,” (Poe 21-26). The protagonist explains that angels in heaven were jealous of the love they shared, so they decided to kill Annabel Lee. No one, not even Annabel Lee ,herself, could have prevented her death. Her death was in the hands of an unnatural force. The effect of unnatural forces can also be seen in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo states, “ 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,” (Shakespeare 1.4.7-11). Before Romeo even meets Juliet, he already knows that somehow he will die due to the stars warning him. Although the stars did not directly kill anyone, they sparked the events that resulted in the demise of many characters. In this case, the unnatural force that determined the death of the characters was the universe, or the stars. As a result, it can clearly be seen that the tragic deaths of characters were caused by fate because of unnatural forces preventing them from being able to make their own
The article “Teenagers - Inside the Teenage Brain”, by Marty Wolner, explains what happens to information in the brain during teenage years, “Information processed in the limbic system, without benefit of higher level processing in the prefrontal cortex, may result in impulsive, egocentric, and maybe even risky, behavior” (Wolner 1). Considering that the characters throughout the stories are teenagers, they simply could not control their actions due to their biological nature. The development of their brain is something that no one, not even themselves, could help this meant that it was in the hands of fate. This can be seen when Pyramus kills himself in “Pyramus and Thisbe”, ‘It is I who had killed you,’ he said. He lifted up from the trampled dust what was left of the cloak and kissing it again and again carried it to the mulberry tree. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘you shall drink my blood too.’ He drew his sword and plunged it into his side,” (Ovid 488). Pyramus sees a bloody Thisbe's cloak and believes that she is dead immediately, without second thought plunges the knife into his side and kills himself. Pyramus however, was not able to think correctly due to his brain not being developed.