Irodalom | Középiskola » Jagriti V. Desai - Romeo and Juliet as a Tragedy of Fate and Character

ROMEO AND JULIET AS A TRAGEDY OF FATE AND CHARACTER By JAGRITI V. DESAI 1/ Bachelor of Arts N & A Arts College Vidyanaga:rj/ India 1963 Master of Arts Sardar Patel University Vi dya.nagar, G1J j arat, India 1965 Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfi.llment of the req uirements for tb.e degree of MASTER OF ARTS May, 1968 •~· 1 , ! ; ! ·,· ! J OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OCT 24 1966 ROMEO AND J1JLIET AS A TRAGEDY OF FATE AND CHARACTER Thesis Approved: --JtThesis Adviser · e ) -·· - ,6 . ~,;zD 1~- eG. ~ s < ) ntli ~ % a u i l e College ii --< PREFACE My young heart is always :fascina ted by the idea of t he you.ng love crushed between the giant whee·1 s of love and hat- ---speare :h as writtem grea.t red. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy of young lovee tragedies. Shake- His tragedies prese:nt a study in contrast with great Greek tragedies, wher-ein fale i s

l"esponsible f or the tragic end of the protagonists • .Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy which is a fusion of Greek tragedy and , Shakespearea.n tragedy My purpose is to show whether Romeo~ Juliet is a tragedy of fate, or characterv In my thesis I have studied the settingj the char.:wters of Romeo and Juliet , and the action in Romeo ~ Juliet. I have examined the prologu.e)) the passages which indicate tha = the tragedy is prea.estined My thorough study of the char~- acters of Romeo ana Juliet shows that the tragedy is i.n pa,.r-t the consequence of various flaws in these characterz themselveso In presenting a new outlook on the tragedy of Romeo~ Julieti I have not intended to contradíct or discount all othe:r viewpoi.,nts ín the field But so far as my research goes , very few critics have a ttempted to show that Romeo :~nd Juliet i s a tragedy of fate and charactero I vrant to aclarnwledge my thanks to Dr. David So Berke•1 iii ley, whose suggestion led.

to the fornmtion of my thesisj} and to Dr. William Ro Wray whose vital coneiderations :b.B-V6 .strf!zigthened and Enl riched my the-sis through revisi on Fo1" their valuable guid.ance in the w:ci ting of this study 1 I a!11 gre.teful to -the librarians of the· Oklahoma State Universi ty 11 who assisted me in getting some val uable references and necessary books„ ÍV TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter :Pa.ge INTRODUCTI ON„ II . DT. 0 G O O O • • e e e • ♦ • Q ♦ • • 1 THE ROLE OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMEO ~ III~ 0 JULI ET o • • • . " THE ROLE OF FATE IN ROMEO AND JULIET •• ~ .•• ~ 26 CONCLUSION. o 0 BI ELIOGRAJ?HY ., , • • • .- • • " • e . • • • • 0 . • . • • a • • • • 0 0 • • • • a 44 e " • • . • . • •• • • • • ., • • • ~ 48 V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Romeo and

Juliet in ·t enaency is a transi tional ·play between the sunny comedies and dark traged~es . I t ís an a ttractive but i mmature play on the theme of young love·., In t h e opi nion of Dowden i t :i,.s the work óf the artist 1• s a dolesc ence My a ttempt in t hi s- thesis is to show who or what is responsible for the tragedy of Romeo, ·-and Ju.liet There a re t h ree school~ taking three· different viewpoints concerni ng the tra gic end of the play . One school, notably includi ng Gra.nville-~Barker, Ludwíg Tieck, 011d others, believes that Romeo 1 s impetuosity and too great hast~ is responsible fo r the tragic end of, the play • .Another sch9ol, including pr offi- inent critics of Sh~espea re, namely H. B Cha rlton , Dover Wilson, and J. W Draper , believes that fate is r~sponsibl e for t he tragedy of Romeo and Juliet o The protagonists of t h e third school, namely Go Thomas Tanselle, Donald A~ . Sta uffer j and Osca r J . Campbell, believe tha t i t

is a trag•. . edy of fa.te ~d chara cter both I agree with the fundamen- t al tenets of the third s chool . In t he following pages I · shall set forth the rationale s of various critics and try to - suggest the strengths and weaknesses cf each chara cteristic position, and I shall su p- l 2 ~ort the sta.~d that I have taken o Mr„ Granville- Barker, who ·~elongs t o the firs t school of critics , states in his book t i tled Prefaoes 12. §heke- SI?eare: 1 o o e it Ls Romeor s haste--of a p i ece with the rest of his rashness--which preci pi t ates t he ii."lal tragedyó Shakespeare has provided, in t he speech to dead Ju.liet~ just enóugh delay to stimulate sus<: penses but it must appear only as the last convulsive checking of a headlong purpose He had added a lást touch of bitter irony in letting Romeo gűess at the truth that would have savec1 hím and her and never gu.ess that he guesses itwl Likewise 9 Ludwig Tiéck. in his book titled

Dramatur4f gísche Blátter notes ~ The tragedy has been sometimes criticised in that its denouement is brought about by a trifJ. i ng accidente It i~ only a seeming accident; the t ragic fate lies in the character of Juliet , and especially of Romeoo Had h~ been calmer, more ,cautious, less familiar with the idea of suicide, he would not have bee:h Romeo; he ought to have investigated the matter.p taken pains to inf orm hiiµs·e lf, visíted the Friar 1 and there woul~ have beeh no tragedyo2 Granville-Barker, Ludwig Tieck, and other supporter s of these views do not take into acoount the element of feudi ng~ various references to fate by ~arious characters in the playp premonitions of Romeo and Juliet , all of whi ch contribute a great deal in making Romeo~ Juliet a tragedyo What expl anation do these critics give of the unfortunate events that take place durmg the later half of the play? There is another school of critics who regard. Ro~eo and Juliet as a tragedy of fateo We

encounter the fact that each critic emphasizes a parti cular element of fateo Fate in itsel f includes feudi ng, premonitions, dreams 9 a.nd 3 the element of mere accidento Mru Kenneth 1Jluir in his article titled 0 Shakespeare and the Tr~ic J?attern 113 compares the lovers to the unlucky protagonists of the novels by Thomas Hardy" rJ;ardy believes in a SUpreme Power which ís indifferent to human affairs; in ~ &;nasts Hardy calls it by the name of Imma:nent Willo The remarks on the injustice of the gods are more pronounced in Tess of -the DUrbervilles than in i;he earlier novels„ They reach their climax in Clare 0 s cry of anguish: not in his heaven: alls wrong with the world. 11 struggle in this novel, a s i n ~ Ma~oE .2f 11 Gods .Manis Casterb~ip~e , is not against man, who is inevitably not villa:i.nous in Hardy ~ but against the inscrutable forces of Fate that contrive their own way to reduce human possibilities of amelioration r to a minimumQ Asin

Romeo and Juliet there are omens which become a reality ín Tess of the D0Urbervilles; Clare 1 s omission to dance with Tess, .forebödipg j,ll-matched marriage; the afternoon cock- crow following their·marriage, portending separation; and so on. Drs. Ulrici, Rötscher, and Vehse believe feuding to be ! the cause o.f the tragedyo Dro Hermarui Ulrici in his book ti tled Shakespeare I s Dramatic Art observe-s: It is no mere accident that Tybal t kill·s JJiercutio a.nd falls himself by the hand of Romeo, but ~he inevitable consequence of the reigning feud . Dr. Heinrich Theodor Rötscher státes: Te be the representatiyes of the bitter ~inappeasable há.tred of the two houses is the A:te of :the lovers:; it is the tragic basis on which all the woe is founded as by a necessity of nature , although 4 disguised as free- will. Thus we see the truth of the ancient Até in all her destructive significa nce reproduc.e d the mo,st modern in i ts pa~ten-1 , ~ • 5 ln tbe same way Dr.

Edward Vehse in his book titled Shake- speare ~ Protestant Pol~tiker I>sycb.ol,o~ ~ ~ re- marks in flowery language: This deaaly feud between the Ca:pulets and Idontagues is the black soil from which the dazzlin g lily of Romeo 1 s and Juliet 1 s Iove blossoms forth 1 a love whose loyalty in death is depicted with all the ravishing power of poetry . • • • The ir death was the resul t of that ·hatred, which, fronr time í rnmemorial, had exci ted their families to inextinguishabl e hostil ity , and vvh~ch wa s , for the first time, buried in their grave . However, Gustav R umelin states in his book Shalfe~eares~cl- -ien: But as it is , the tragic result is brought about by a mere accident , i n the shape , of the silliest, and its executibn the rashest of all devices.·r But Dro Theodor Strater observes in his book Die ,Komposition von Shakespeare s Romeo and Julia: And as we hearken we seem to see the lofty portals of the worlds fate unclose, and to hear transfigured

forms of beautified spirits chanti ng the · eternal song of des•tiny: . é$ · Lawrence Edward Bowling in his article "The Thematic Framework of Romeo and Juliet•r 9 stresses -the complex, fatalist ,· and paradoxical aspect of lif e . E verybody did hi s best for the other characters but that best was the only worst possibl e for that particular character in the given circumsta.nceso Hence we do not label anybody as the villain of the piece. G. B Harrison in n i s book titled Shakespeare•s Tragedies~O observes that as there is too much stress on the 5 mere accident resulting in the disaster .which makes Romeo ~ Juliet ·pathetic rather than tragic ~ It lacks the quaJ.- ities of a deep trMedy. However, Ho Bo Charlton ín Shakespearia.n Tragedy notes; Two features of the story ,ar.e as follows : First: Verona was being t0rn by a terriblep blöoqthirsty feud which no human endeavour had been able to .setle; this w~s the direct cause of the death of the lovers, ana

but for "j;he deaths it never would have been healed. Second , ·the course of the young lovers v lives i s from the outset governed by a malignant destiny; fat~l~ star-crossed 9 death-marked, they are doomed to pi teous destructiono • „ The feud is to próvide the sense. of immediate, ·a nd Fate that of ultimate ,inevitability„ll Q Charl ton further observes that Shakespeare found the story of Brooke--p~imary source of Shakespeares Romeo~ ~ul~~~~~ · to be drenched in fatality . Shakespeare , unlike the narra- tive poet Ifrooke, depicts the feud in action. Again unlike Brooke he endows his characters with dramatic premonition s as a part of inconstancy of Fortuneg Another source of omens in the play is presaging of dreams. Charlton rema rksg Fate was no longer a deity strong enough to carry ·the responsibility of a tragic universe; at most, it could intervehe casually as J::>Ure luck and bad luck as a moti ve turns tragedy to me;e chance. I t takes entirely

the u.1·tirnate tragic ávay~~o· It fails to provide the indispensable inevitabilityal 2 1 Cb.arl ton, concluding 9 holds: But a s a pattern. of the idea of tragedy~ it is a failure. Even Shakespeare appears to have f~lt that as an experiment, it had disappointed him~ 13 E. Ko Chambers remarks: Love is a mighty power, but de stiny is mightier still 9 and cruel o The cori.flict of these i:Di tani e forces crushing the young lives between themli is the íssue of the tragedya 6 ---- --- Dover Wilson in his prefatory notes to Romeo and Juliet observes : )f-- The lovers are the predestine~ victims of a ma~icious Fate • • e „ Fate works against them by arranging that they are placed ina context of family hostili.ty It works against them by contriving a deadly series of accidents and coincidences„ It works against them through character flaws in friends and associates ·of theirs14 Dover Wilson observes the passages indicating the impetu.osit-ff of Romeo and Julie~o He

sugges~s that the expressions intimating rashness of Romeo and Juliet are not to be taken as anything more than momentary ut-ter:ances of you.ng, happy, and hopeful lovers o The Friar•s utterances to this effect shou.ld be taken seriously as he is a prudent, worldly-wise man given to moralizingo Dover Wilson explains -Romeo 1 s rashness by saying that he is emoti anally unbalanced when he .gets the news of Juliet 1 s death from his faithful servant Balthasar, whom he has no reason to di~believeo Dover Wil- son notes: We do not say that there are no character- • flaws in hero and heroine. On the contrary, there are, as we shall see l ater. But it is not part of the lovers that s pectator· or reader should regard their fate as direc·tly caUf~d~ even partly, by their own charaeter-flawsoDover Wilson agrees with Professor Charlton when the latter observes that the theme of feuding is unconvincing because it is not a hind.rance to Romeo in his l ove- affair with Rosaline

Dover- Wilson even agrees with ~rofessor Stauffer when Stauffer suggests that hero and heroine should not be held even partly responsible for their doom owing to a:ny character-flaws. Dover Wilson observes: 7 To both criticisms [ioeo, the criticisms of Charlton and Stauffer] the reply must be that Shakespeare 8 s plays are ·1iable only partly : .n aturalistic, and that one should álways be on ones gu.ard against applying to· th!~ critical criteria which are irrelevant to themo , J.o Wo Draper in his article ti tled "Shakespeare s StarCrossed Lovers 1117 classifies Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of improbable· coincidenceg and hence to him i t is not tragedy but melodrama. Brooke calls his tale "a wofull cha.nce 9 " and Painter-ShakespeareQs other possible source--ascribes the course of events "to False Fortv.ne o" 11 - In Romeo and Ju.liet references to fortme appear too late to explain the motivation of the plot. Draper further states: Thus if

Shakespeare meant what his characters see~ to say 9 astral influence actually governs the lives of the-se 11 star-crossed lovers 11 ; and like so ma.ny of Chaucervs figures they are the puppets of the stars and planets and of the days and times of dayol8 Draper observes a close relationship between the nature of a particular character and the planet under which he is borno He agrees with Gerv:inus and Ro Ao Law when they make a sharp contrast between Tybal t, Benvolio, and Mercuti0. Draper justifies the statement by saying: The choleric Tybalt and Montague, all under the influence of Mars, the choleric Ju.liet under the influence of Venusp the phlegmatic Benvolio, the mercurial Mercutio anq the Nurse, and the sanguine Romeo, now under the power of love-melancholy and now fury: all of these surely make of Romeo and Juliet a11--:-.~-- astrological tragedy of humours19 Concluding, Drap·er infer~: Thus the theme of the pl·ay is not th.e evils of the civil fáotion asin Paynter [sic],

or wickéd- the ,8 ness of 11 stolne contracts" as in Brooke, but rather, , as ín Gréek Traged.y, the hopelessness of defyLYlg tlté heavenst will„20 Though fate is one of the most important reasons far the tragedy of Romeo and Júliet, it is not the only explana- ----- tion of -Romeo· a.nd J"uliet being a tragedy . . - ·~· , The supporters of this school take a one-sided view 9f ·the play. They com~ pletely ignore the impetuosity of Rom~o and Juliet which contributes to the tragic end of the play. There is a third ,g roup of critics .who b~lieve that Romeo -~ Juliet is a traged.y of both character and destiny Q G„ Thomas Tanselle in his article "Tim.e in ; - Romeo. - and Juliet 1121 emphasizes the control,· by fate, an.d the ruin by impetuous haste. Donald-A. Stauffer in his book titled Shakespeares World .2f lmages 22 classifies Romeo as a ~ickle man His - . 1 calf-love for Rosaline teaches , him to express deep feelings . for

Julie·t. The age-old thirst of feuding between Monta. gues and Capu.lets is q uenched by the bloodshed of two young innocent victims. Reconciliation ·b etween the rival families is brought about with a heavy ioss by both the parties.· At • the end, . love proves triumphant over hate It is not the wor.ld of love that is destroyed but the old world of enmity and conflict ,between the two families that is destroyed. Stauffer notes: .Insofar as this play is a tragedy of fate-and Shakespeare sets up dozens of signposts pointing toward the foregone moral co~clusion-all accidents and events work · toward the ~inal sacrifice , Romeq ana Juliet are puppets, since the- moral punishment of the raging clans becomes more powerful 9 in proportion to tb.e i:onocence and helJJlessness of the sacrifices„23 Stauffer continues: The causes of tragedy lie in the sufferers. themselveso The doctrines of individual responsibility and of fate as a social Nemesis offer divergent

motivationsg this play may fail as serious tragedy because Shakespeare blurs the focus and never makes up his mind entirely as to who is being punished and fo~ what reasono Later he learned to carry differing hypotheses simultarieously, to suggest complex contradictory interactions convincingly; but tb.at is not the effect of the double moraJ motivations in Romeo and Jul,iet„ 24 ---- Oscar Jo Campbell in his book titled !TI2eare takes a Wider view of feudingo ~ Living Shake- Re observe,s some of the incidents as the working of fatal chancew Re compares Romeo with Marlowes characters in demanding the immediate attaL1lllent of hls heart 1 s desireo He supports his thesis by remarking: Fate and chance play some partin precipii;ating it 9 but neither is the principal villaino More patent agents of destruction are the evil impulses which control the life of Verona, the world in which the lovers III1J st live • • • • But the play is also partly a tragedy of charactero

Romeo is a slave of passiono2~ Campbell concludes h i s thesis thus: The play therefore is made up of three eonventional agents of tragedy, Fate, evil in the societys and passion i n the individual o It is Shakespeares achievement to have endowed each one of these traditional elements with a new human ur~encyo At· tne meeting place of these forces big with ~ragedy h e has placed the young loverso2 6 l agree with the third school of critics: Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy both of fate and charactero Neither the view that· Romeo and Juliet" is a tragedy of fate nor the view that it is a tragedy of cha.racter fully explains the 10 tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. But the contradi ction is only apparenti and it is not difficult to reconcile these mutual.- ly contradictory, though complem~ntary, views of Romeo~ Juliet as a tragedy. We lmow for certain that Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy ; but we do not lmow how far ~omeor Juliet, Fate, their stars, feuds or their haste is

responsible for their t r agic endo Romeo ~ The fact is that the tragedy of Juliet cannot be l!scribed to a:ny sing1.e cause : it is the resu.l t of many f or,c e~ working together in a fatal mannero The follovring chapters demonstrate the role of p~rsonal responsibility and the role of fate in Romeo~ Juliet ~ 1.1 NOTES 1 (Princeton, 1947)a II, 342~ 2Tro H. Ho Furness JrQ Variorvrn edo Romeo and Juliet (New Yorkll 1963)1) P• 4490 Hereafter this work-is brTefly presented in notes as "Varo 11 3Proceedings l62o 2.f ~ Bri tish ! ca~~ XLIV {1958) 11 1 45- 4520 511 Romeo and Juliet analysed wi th Especial Reference to the art of firamatic Representations," Philoso~hie der K1.mstv (Berlin~ 1842) 11 IV 8 quoted in Var., p 4530 6 (Hamburg, 1851)~ quoted in Var.j p 457 7 (stut~gart, 1866), ~uoted in Var., p $ 466, 8 (Bonn, 1861), VIII, 104, quoted in Vare P~ 464~ 1 9~ , LXIV, (1949) , 208- 220. lO(London, 1950)9 p. 520 11 (Cambridge 9 1948) 1 P• 52° 12Ib.l d Of p 61

13Ibid. 14nover Wilson, p. xviio 15 Ibid. ea. , Romeo and Juliet (Cambridge 9 19611 16 Ibid., p xxviii 17RES XY (1939), 16-340 9 18Ibid., Po 19 19Ibidc>, JJ. 300 20 Ibid., p 34 21 §g9 X:J, (1964), 349-361. 22 (New York, 1949). 12 23 Ibid„ 9 P~ 550 2 4Ibido, p„ 564 25(New York, 1958) Po 313a 1 26 Ibid. CHAPTER I .I THE ROLE OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMEO AND JULI ET ------In this chapter I . shall díscuss the role of personal responsibility ín Romeo~ Juliet . How far are the hero and heroine themselves responsible in bringing about their tragic end? I shall revíew Bradley *s idea of a Shake- ,---- spearian traged.y hamartia, impetuosity in Juliet , impetuosity ín Romeo, Romeo as a tragic hero, and some qualifications ·a nd reservations on Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of character. A. e Bra dley derived his views on Shakespearian trag- edy from his stud.y of four g:reat tragedies, namely Othellop Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbetho

According to him Shakespearian tragedy is to some extent a tragedy of charactero Character is a.estiny The .f ault lies not always in the stars of the hero or heroine, but ín themselves also . Fate presents a problem which alone is difficult for the hero a t a time when he is least fitted to ha.ndle it that had théra This means been a.ny other problem or the same pro- blem at any other time , the hero would llave been able to handle it successfu.Jly This also impl:i,.es that any other hero would have solved the problem easily. 13 If delay proved lL!. dangerou.s for Hamlet~ exactly the opposite of delay--haste--= proved Romeos undoing. This idea of a tragic flaw in the tragic protagonist v comes from the Greek word 6.ffAfTta--hamartia, which means missing of the marke It was used ina sense of throwing a dart and then missing the target. word is used to mean s ina In. the Mew Testament the This way qui t? an ordinary 9 everyday term assumed a litera-ry

significance. Aristotle defines the terra ín his discussion concer-ning the importancB of the plot ina playo Re says: The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but reversely from good to bad„ It should come about as the result not of vice , but sore error or frail ty [ ! f o. pÍ ui V] in a character There were many dramatists before Shakespeare whose tragedies are hamartia-marked. Marlowe is a case in point. Tamburlaines tragic flaw is libido dominandi, meaning excessive striving for domination, especially political dami= :nation„ Faustuss tragic fl aw is libido sciendi~ which means striving after f orbidden or excessive knowledgeo Ba- rabas s tragic flaw is a peculiar farm of libido do:mil.andi ina sense of monetary domination. But his tragic fl aw may oetter be summed up in one word -- Machiavellianismo The tragic flaw of Edward II is libido sentiendi, 2 which means a taste ~or various perverted and forbidden sensationsQ ShakespeareVs great

tragedies, namely Othello9 Hamletp King ~ s and Macbeth, are hamartia-basedo Othello is a tragedy of jealousy; Hamlet is widely accounted as a tragedy of indecision; Kjng ~ is a tragedy of an old king l r~ , having a violent temper; and Macbeth is a tragedy of overAntonz and C~eopatra is a tragedy of vaulting ambition~ divided mind~ or sometimes it has been called a tragedy of a sen~ualist" Romeo and Juliet, I believe, is a hamartía-based. tragedy9 a point which links it with the four great tragedies and Greek tragedies, and which dissociates it from pathetic t ra.gedy„ Pathetic tragedy is an inferior genre. oped as a genrep s:pecifically as Restora.tion period~ 11 It deveJ.- she-tragedy 11 " during ths John Banks, Nathaniel Lee, and Nicho- las Rowe are the exponents of this type of tragedy toward the end of the seventeenth cent--ury and the beginning of the eighteentn century., Tragedy u II Rowe gave it tb.e expressive name 11 She.- Vertue

Betray d .2E Anne Bullen b y Ban ks and The Tragedy ,.2! Jane Shore are e:xamples of Fair .Peni tent a:nd ~ "she-tragedíes. 11 Unlike the great tra.gedie:s whích deal with the fall of men and produce .in us the emotions of pity and terror, these 11 she-tragedies" deal with women and have heroines whose distresses dominate the playsG They have 9 characteristically; a feminine tone of refined passivity; and these pl.ays are fu11 of cheap sentimentalism and pathos" Inrleed the distinction between "she-tragediesn and mental comedies tends to· get blurredo senti- Unlike the hercines of "she tragedies Juliet has a hama.rtia, impetuosity~ . t lS . iJ~ J~., u:.Ll8 1" Very . ul . . tuOUS , and unpa . t.18lluo + J.mp , SJ.Ve , 1.ffipe She sees Romeo at the ball, falls in love with him at first sightp and though later she comes to know that he belongs t o 16 the e:nem;Y"-family, she persists in her loveo love-burdeneQ hGart to the starso

She opens her Romeo hears everythingo l Juliet with the practical instinct of a w-oman a-sks for · an inmfediate marriage~ EVerything is done at breakneck speed~ She is impatient to get the. message from Romeo about the arra.ngement of their secret marriage She say s : 11 Love 1 s heraJ,.ds shoulq be thoughtso/ Which ten times faster glidé than. sun s beam, / Driving back shadows over 1 oweríng hill s 11 (II 9 v~4- 6)ó When she hears from the N-u.rse that Romeo has killed Tybalt, the expression of her emotions reminds us of ~pulsbre Romeovs love speeches for Rosalineo a doxical expressiona abrupto Both. use par- .H er reaction to Tybalt s death i s very ~he says of Romeo: "Oh,. serpent heart, híd with a flcwering face!/ Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?/ Beaut i .:f-1tl tyra:nt! Fiend angelical" (III,ii,73-75)~ There is tremendous haste in falling in lcye, in expressing that l OVélv in inarrying Romeo, and in swallowing the ·sleeping potiong

Brooxe told th~ story of a love. intrigue which lasted for nine months and ended unhappily; Shakespeare compressed his play into five days• crescendo of passion and disaster. The opening quarrel scene, Capulet 1 s feast , Romeo and Juliet falling in 1-ove, all take place on Sunday. Monday after- noon, Romeo and Juliet are secretly married~ The same afte r.noon Romeo is banished by the Prince for killing TybaltQ The two lovers meet on Monday night~ on Tuesday morning. Romeo goes into exile Juliet 1 s marriage with Paris fixed cn Thursday is brought :forward to Wednesday-. Juliet goes te 17 the Fria r and gets Irom him the sleeping potion on Tu esdayo She d.rinks the potion on Tuesday night~ Count Paris-t he bridegroom--arrives with musicians to WB1re up the bride on Wednesday morningo same dayo Juliet is taken to the churchyard the On Thursday night to place flowers on her tomb; Romeo and :Paris go there at the sa111e time, Romeo kills Paris v and then kills himsel

f ,Q Juliet wakes up from her tomb and kil1s herself on seeing Romeo dead. The whole action thus is so rapi d t hat there is no time-gap between aey tvrn i nci dents. Romeo is like :Ma rlowe I s char acters itt demanding the Re is a slave immediate attainment of his heart•s desire e of passiona We find ma.ny examples of his impetuosity Like Juliet 9 he is hasty in falling in love, hasty in expressing i t , and hasty in marryinge Mercutios death pro- vokes Romeo to kill Tybalt, a cor.tingency which leadE> t o his banishment and separation from Juliet . When he hears the Princes edict , he cries like a child. His passion turns him hysterical and he becomes a "fond mad man" who grovels on the floor of the Friar•s cell, weeping and blubbering 9 who is drawn to his feet by the Nurses words: -- "Stand up, stand up, stand, an you be a man11 ( III, i i i , 88) only to uns1+eathe his dagger to kill himselfo With all this haste he might have saved the

situation had he not brought the poison from the a~othecary in haste and taken it without consulting the Friaro Juli.et might be alivea Again he has the faint hope that Re says: "Thou art not conquered; beauty 1 s ensign yet/ I s crimson Ln thy lips ru1d ín thy cheeksp/ And dea"th s pale flag is not advanced there 0 (Vv iiip94=96)o After his glance at dead Juliet he turns to h6r again~ obscurely marvelling: Ah, d.ear Juliet/ Why art thou yet so fair?" (V,iii~lOl-102)" Color in Juliet t s cheek would indicate that she is not deado attention to ito But Romeo pays no Agaín 9 why sbould he consult the Fríar when he has the news of Juliet s death from his fai thful ,and trustworthy serva.nt Balthasar who has no reason whatsoever .for telling a lie to Romeo? Still he should have doubted the news fr0m Balthasar because on the one hand it is a mere report from his servant and on the other hand in the church., yard he has the opportuníty to look at the

person of Juliet whose cheeks and lips are crimsono than the things heardo Things seen are mightier But when he looks at the recumbent body of Julie-t, he forgets everythíng. sweet memories of the pa,.sto Re is lost i11. the We , people of this cold 9 cal- culating0 and selfish world, cru1 never u,nderstand his deep sorrow end unbalanced mind unless we identify ourselves vvi th hima He expresses the same sentiment to the Friar when he talks to him after ba.nishment ~ ·~" Be says: Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feelQ Wert thou as young as I , Juliet thy love , An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Then mightst thou -speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair A.YJd :fall upon the groundp as I do now 9 Taking- the measu.re of an unmade gravea (III ,íii 9 64-69) He is so much devoted to J uliet that he i s prepared to kill hímself at the pronou.ncement of the sentence of banishment, But though banishedu he still has a ray of -hope tha-t by hcok or crook he

will be able to see her as long as she is aiive u But that hcpe to which Romeo clings is dashed to pieces by the news of her deatho How can an ardent l over like Romeo think of the whole situation calmly? Had he loved Juliet less than he does, had he thought his life to be more pre- cious than Juliet 1 s 9 there would have been no tragedyo But all these critical calculations are beyond the reach of an ideal lover like .RomeoQ Tf we think that the love-af.fair of Romeo and Jultet i s hasty and rash 9 in Shakespeare• s comedies also love and mar- riages are hasty, but they do not meet with a tragic endQ -Oliver and Celia fall in love with each other quit-e abrupt- ly; it is love at first sight líke the love of Romeo and Julietr1 but i t ends hap:pily „ and Juliet end happily? Wh.:y does not the love cf Rome o Because there are man,y forces over and above the character of Romeo and Juliet, namely feuding~ destiny~ premortition.s, and dreams which hastily rush the play to

a tragic endo In the play itself sometimes Romeo, sometimes Julíet, and sometimes the Friar feel that the love-affair of Romeo and Juliet is hasty. Juliet in the bálcony scene says: I 11ave no joy of this contract tonighto It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too liJre the lightningD . which doth cease - to be Ere one can say "It lightens~ 11 (II,ii,117-120) When Romeo tells the Friar that he ~sin sudden haste to go 11 the Friar says: nm fast" ( II~ iii»94 ) ., 11 Wisely and slowo They stumble tha t When Romeo asks the Friar to unite 20 him with Ju.liet, and he does not care even for death after that u.nion~ at that moment the Friar says: deli.ghts have violent ends 9 / 11 These violtmt And in their tríumph die , like fir~ and powder/ Which as they kiss cons1.une11 (II , ví„9-ll) When Romeo hears of the news of his ba.nishment from the Friar; he immediately decides to ki.11 himself and draws his daggero At that :instant the Friar says: Hold thy

desperate hand . Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art $ Thy tears are woma.nish, thy wild acts denote The u.nreasonable fury of a beast Unseemly woman ina seeming manl Or ill-be seeming "beast in seeming both! Thou hast amazed mea By my holY order, I thought thy di sposition better tem:pered. Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou s1ay th,yself ~ And slay thy lady too that lives ín thee? By doing damned hate upon thyself? Why railst thou on thy birth, the heaven a.nd earth? Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet In thee at once~ which thou. at once would;:;t loseo Fiev fie 9 thou shamest t}zy shape 1 thy love 9 thy witp Which ~ like a usu.rer 9 aboundst in all ~ And usest none in that true u.se indeed Which should bed.eck thy shape, thy love, thy wit,, Thy noble shape is 1:)ut a fonn of wax, Digressing from the valor óf a raan; · Thy dear love sworn, bu.t hollow perjury, Killing that love wh:i,ch thou hast vowed to cherish, Thy wit , that ornament to shape and

love , Misshapen in the conduct of them both 1 Like powder ina skill-Iess soldier 1 s flask, I s set afire by thine own ignorance P A. ~d thou dismembered with thine own def~nse (III 1 iii 1 110-134) Both the actions and the words of Romeo and Juliet are evidence of their impetuosity~ Romeo and Juliet both express fears that their actions have been too rash;but these expressions are not to be ta.k~n a~ything more than momentary superstitíous utterances of a boy and a girl who, having discovered the sevent h heaven of love, are, for a second or 2J. two 9 half afraio. that their happiness is too great to lasto Romeo s love-affair wi th Rosalíne, in i ts beginning and conc-lusionp is a testimony of his r-asbnessv His f i ckleness is si.mply a rnanifestatíon of his tendency to impetuosity„ Romeo shutting himself up and makíng an artificial might, sighing away all day leng for the love of Rosaline , gives up Rosaline wi th ease as soo:r:i. as he sees Juliet at let O s

fea.st„ n a tureo It is an aapect of his J;>recipi tate Oapuj headlon.g Mro Donald A. Stauffer suggests t h e ficl-J eness o:f Romeo i n his b ook titled Sha kes~eare s !{orld of l!:1a~esg The here is still fickle; the heroine, constaY1.t Romeo s moonst:rmck calf-love for Rosaline must be laughed ou·t of him by his friends · Benvolio and Mercutio , by his guide Friar Lawrence , and by his own true love. But since Rosaline is so cool that beauty itself is "starved with her severity," sh.e is easily forgotten She is no more than a name that proves Romeo an a:pt pupil for the starti a young man who can mint conceits, imagine the tears of fickl.e love a s 11 trans parent heretics i" and cope v1i th the best of wi tlings in defining his fashionable passion ina rain ofparadoxes: 11 Feat h er ofleaa , bright smoke , coldfire, sick · health! " Once "Romeo is belov d ana. l oves again, " the mutual attraction is strong that any further twítting of

his fickleness is wasted$3 Romeo himself expresses the thoughtthat hís love for Rosa. line was a mere fancyo He says: " Did my heart love till now? Forswear it 9 sight:/ For I neer saw tru.e beauty till this hight" ( I ,vi54-55). The Friar calls Romeos-a you:ng waverer s--affa ir with Rosaline doting and not loving~ He affoots surpr.tSS at the sudden charige of Romeo s loYe and says~ Holy Francis , what a change is hereJ I s Rosaline that thou didst love so dear, Se soon forsaken? Young men t s leve then lies Not truly in their heartsg but in their eyeso ( I I,iii,65- 68) 22 Romeo and Ju.liet share the tragic flaw of rash11ess with Oed.ipus„ But in ea.ch of these three characters a general disposition of the mind takes a specific ·formo In Oeditn1s ·" the hamartia of rash.11ess is exhibited in tho1,lghts, words, and deedsg ín killing his ;father~ in marrying the old queen Jocasta 9 in accusing Tiersias, in insulting Creon, a.11d elsewhere o

In Juliet i t is exhibited in the particular f orm of defia.11ce of her parents :parental authorityo The Elizabethan age was an age of Shakespeare 0 s Midsu.mmer Nights Dream has as one of i.ts many themes 9 the theme of defiance of the pare ntal au.thorityo The tragic flaw of Desdemon.a is her defiance of father 1 s will. Juliet tries her best -to obey her parents1 but circumstances force her to cheat and disobey her parentso She consents to the wi1l of her mother in seeing Paris du.ring the ball„ ter9 she says: 11 Like a good~ obedient dau gh=- I 1ll look to like~ if looking liking IriOVeo/ But no more deep will I endart rnine eye/ Than your consent gives strength to make it fly" (I,iii:96-98)0 When she dances with Romeo and gives her heart to hím, she does n ct lmow that her ardent. lover Romeo is a Montague It is too late for her to retreat fTom tb.e course she has taken~ can only go ahead and hope for the besto She She defies the will of her parents

ín refusing to marry Paris and again she cheats them by feign.ing deathQ to follow this courseo But there is no way out bu.t How can she-the wife of Romeo-~ ma:rry Paris in not less than forty- eight hours after her ma.rriage with Romeo? Juliet here is impetu.ous ina sense 23 that she does not try to convince her parents of the c~u.rse of action that she has taken. in her marriage ltith Romeo-a There is no pa re:ntaJ. consen t She is the only lmown child af her paret.1ts to inherit their property She should have known that her marriage with Romeo may result in her com- plete disinheritance@ Again she knows in Act. I~ scene iiv that Paris is the ex]ected candidate~ .favored by her parents as her husbando In such a condition, is it not proper on her part to take her parents into confidence? But JUli.et is ·too rash t o think of all these possibilitieso Romeo 9 I think~ is little more of a tragic chara cter than Juliet. Juliets tragedy is fated. In his definit

ion of tragedy Aristotle uses the phrase 11 ofacertain mag.lli tude 11 wnich indioates the freedom of choice tbat a tragic hero enjoys.~ Romeo has more .freedom of choice than Julieto He is n ot as subject to penalties and cr-Lel word.s of h is par"- ents as Juliet is to hers. her parentso Juliet is under the control of Romeo is not rebuked by his parents for loving Rosaline-~-a Capu.leto Lord and Lady Capulet surely would have objected to Juliet s l ove-affair wi th Romeo--a Montagueo But they never come to lmow of Juliets marriage with Romeo till the death of Juliet. We do not know why Romeo is given f r eedom of choice by his parents? It. rre;y- be either because he is a boy or the parents of Romeo are better tempered, a s the play suggests, than the parents of Juliet~ A tragic character should be of a high social status anq noble birth a c.c ord:wgto treAristotelian concept o:f a t ragic heroo Romeo 24 is noble in his birth and behaviouro hím .as youtho

f"t 0 Lord Capulet speaks of a portly gentleman--a virtuous and well-governed Re never takes part in feuds o eneqiy, even though Tybalt is a Capuleto To him, Tybalt is no He fu.lfills t11e wish of a dying manu Paris, by putting him by the side of Julieto His reluctance to fight is not the result of his 90wardice b ut a true nobili ty of character and generosi ty of ·t.empero But when he is forced to fightj he hits hard and spares nobodyo He is shown in the play as f:Lghting on two occasions--once with Tyoalt and then with Parise these occasions the fight is forced on hun. On both Thus· he is brave as a tragíc character should be. Critic after critic finds deep signi~icance in single phrase of the o:pening prologu.e-- 11 star-crossed lovers--and ignores completely tb.e tragic flaw in Romeo and Julíeto Neverthelessi one can say that though they are 11 star- crossed lovers, 11 that does not eliminate the faot that they are imIJetuous in -!:;heir love ~

Their impetuosity ín love cor.= tributes to an extent to the grand desigű of fa tea 25 NOTES l.The Poetics of Aristo·tlo , tb· S H„ Butchcr:· (tondon, 1922 ) , p. 41. - . . . 2 This tcrmínology appearc in Hc.rr;y Levín, The Ovcr;reacher, A Study of Christopher Marlowe (Cambridge, 1952) , p. 27 . 3(New York~ 1949), p. 54~ CHAPTER III THE ROLE OF FATE IN ROMEO AND JULIET In this chapter I shall discuss the role of fate . in Romeo ~ Julieto I shall ·review fatalistic implications about astrology in the Rena.issance, friends and assocíates of Romec and Juliet~ the workings of dreams in the play 9 :feuding» and ·t;he elements of mere chance and premonitions in the play. Don Cameron All en•s book The Star- Crossed Renaissance$ takíng its title f;rom the phrase "sta.r-crossed lovers" in Romeo and Juliet 1 is a study in the q uarrel abou.t astrology and ast-rologica]. influence in Englando The author provid&s the background for the

matter by cittng views of Italian forerunnera in astrologyo .Ficino believed that mans future depends o:q. heredity and nct on starso In the quarrel about astrology, the following were the defenders of astrology~ Melanchthon, Joachi~ Heller, Jacob Milich, Peucer, Jerome Wolf, and Carden. Sixtus Van Hamm.inga and Jaq ues Fontaine formed an a:nti-astrology groupo This controversy regarding belief and disbelief in astrology suggests the interest of 1 the Renaissance authors in this subject, Many English poets did n.ot differ greatly from their Italian forerunnerso The general attí tude of the li terary men seldom overleaps -the· 26 27 opinions of their age; seldom a.re they found in the ranks of violent :partisans. Since the Ren:ais•sance prevailingly be- lieved in astrology, one should not be shocked to find that Shakespeare, Robert Burton, and Thomas Browne incline to the superstitious side of astrologyq The art of astrology provided the Elizabethan and J

acobea.~ men cf letters with rhetorical devices and themes for concei t-hung-ry sori.J1eteerso According ta Allenv i t was con-• sidered to be a part of national cul~re in this period. Astrology showed the relatíonship between man and his cosffiOSo Shakespeares predecessors used the idea. of astro1ogy in their literary works. Robert Greene announced a definite relationship between the stars and fortune. 1 Marlowe 1 s Tamburlai.ne accepts , the idea of an allíance between fortune and the stars. He constantly talks of his good fort1.me ar1d his good starso Francis Beaumont and John Fletoher echo the sar.ae ideas in their plays„ 11 aster ascribes his In ~ m.a ids Tragealv Phil= weak fortunes" to his "weak starso 11 J?hilaster in Greek» one notes, means a star lever„ ney1s Astrol)hel ~ Stella the word er with transposition of roots • .In 11 ln Siél.- Astrophel 11 is Philast- ~ Coronation Arcadius blames his "wuucky stars 11 for his fate;

and in ~ Proph~ etess we come upon a discussion of the powers of the stars to a l-ber fortune. Chapman, Drayton, Ford~ Heywood, Lodge ~ and ma.ny other writers adopt the same theory and force us to believe that for most men of the Elizabethan and Jacobear~ 28 age the influence of the planets and stars was one witn that of fate and fortuneo They believed in the philosophy of moderate astrologers 9 who t~ought that the stars had an irresist:ihleforce which is joined to the povvers of fortune a.nd cannot be overcomeo Shakespeare was more given to speaking about the stars and their services and disserv:ices to men than most of his literary· fellows. He links fortune and the stars in the t wenty-fifth sonnet o 11 Hamlet s rernarks about those who have the stamp of one defec,t,/ Being N.ature s livery » or For- tune s star" are illustrative of the sixteenth-century con•cept of the union between nature, the stars 1 end fortt.meo Henry VI makes plans to conquer

"Fortune s spite 11 by living ina lowly condition; by protecting himself he says that he will also protect his people from the malice of his ing stars. " In Prospero s speech in ~ 0 t hwart- Tempest, 1 1 ii.11l78•~• 189, one encounters the theory that :fortune offers opportun•- i ti.es to the humble and overthrows the great stars9 by means o:f the Lear toward the end of his traged.y cries out; It is the stars The stars above us , govern our conditions; Else one sel f mate and ma~e could not beget Such different issues (King ~ 11 IV,iii,34-47)4 Gloucester in King ~ , IV , i,38-39v and Hamlet in Hamlet 9 V,ii,10-ll e~1)ress the influence of the stars on the hu.man actions6 In Julius Caesar Caesar is asked by the soothsa.yer to beware the ides of Marcho Bu~ there are characters-- especia lly the villains-- in Shakespeare who do not believe in the influence of the stars o Helena 1 s s:peech in All 1 s 29 Vfoll. ~ ~ ~ , I, i, 231-234· informs us

tl1at there is no necessity in the stars~ Edmun.d, a realist in King ~ , Iu ii,137-145; Cassiusv a conspirator against Julius Caesar in Julius. Caesar, I,iiil39•-140; Iago, a villain in Othello~ I „ i i i 0 322-327 express views against the belief i.n t he stars„ Thus in play a.fter play in Shakespeare, in his predecessors~ and in his successors, we encounter a reference to the fate or the stars governing the actions of meno In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare does n.ot depart from the belief in astrology: he trad.itionally follows the pattern of the age i~ which he livedo 2 J. W Draper in his article "Shakespeare s Star-Grossed Lovers" indicates the relationship of the tragic feJ.1- of the characters with astro:Logye He notes: Not only is the play replete with ominous predictions but m.any óf these predicticns a:re associa~ t e d with the ho"Urs and days and wíth the heavenly bodies that mark time. The prologue refers to Romeo and .Julie t as 11

star-crossed lovers 0 3 I wil.l examine and list some such exarnIJles indica ting the astr a l influence o W11ile stepping i J1to the }lou-se of Lord Capulet to attend the masked ball, Romeo gazes at tl~e stars and readstb,ere some terrible doom. This feeli:ng on the . part of a young man~ who is enteríng the house full of joy and mirth to find cure of his love-sickness 1 is something unu"S-· ual and creates uneasy feelings in usG He says: For my mind misgives Some consequence~ yet hanging ín the stars, Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night !s revels 9 and expire the term Of a daspised life clos~d in my breast By some vile forfei t of untimely death ( I, v ,106-111) o ,30 The Friar invokes the good will of the heavens and says~ 11 So smile the Heavens upon this holy act/ That afterthoughts with sorrow chide us not: 11 (II,ví, l - 2) . When -forced to marry Paris~ Juliet appeals to her father to stop it; when she finds her attempts of

persuasion to be failing her 9 she turns for help to her mother whose hatred is cold and deadly7 and whose relationship with those who are dear to herBVen her daughter-is pathetical.ly imperfect Juliet ad- dresses her mother appealingly: I s there no pity in the clouds That sees into the bottom of my grief? 0 sweet motheri cast me 11.ot away! Delay this marriage for a month , a weekr Or i f you do not, make the bridal bed I n that deep monument where Tybalt lies (III,v,198-203)0 When Juliet obtains no help from Lady Capulet, she tells her Nurseg 11 .Alack~ alackD that Heaven should practice strata- gems/ Upon so soft a subject a s mrsel.fl" (III sv,211-21 2)~ At the time of Juli et 0 s seeming death Lady Capulet and the Nurse blame the hour and the day as if the very calendar were responsible for her death. La dy Capulet says: Accurst ~ unhappy v wretchedj hateful day ! 11 ( IV 11 v , 43) o Nurse says: "Oh woel Oh woeful, woeful, woeful da;yo/ The Most

lamentable day , most woeful day,/ That ever, ever , I did ye-t behold!" (IV»v~49- 5l ) c The Friar more cl early imputes the misfortunes of Capulet to astral iniluence. 11 He says ~ The Heavens do lou.r upon you for some ill;/ ?ilove tbem no more by crossing their high- will 11 (IV,vt94-95)~ learns of the death of Juliet 9 stars~ " (V,ip24),a ne When Romeo says: "Then I defy you, When resolved to lüll himself, Romeo 31 says: "A.TJd shake the yolce of inauspicious stars/ From this world-wearied flesh" (V,iii,111-112). Vföen the Friar looks at the d-e ad body of Paris» he ascribes his death to the heavenly bodies 9 saying: "Ah, what an unkind hou.r/ Is guilty of this lamentable chance~" (V,iii 9 l45-146)4 Draper states: Thus if Shakespeare mean,t what his characters seem to say 9 astral influence actually governs the lives of -these 11 star-crossed lovers" ; and like s.o many of Chauöer s figures, they are the puppets of

the stars and pla.nets and of the days and times of the day„4 Then he a iscv,sses the astro-biologieal theory of the day „ He remarksg Tybalt is clearly of the choleri.c or wrathful type;; he is always ready to fight, a quality that brin gs about tragic ca~astrophe • •• • Capulet manages to quiei; him at the .f estivi ty when Romeo appears·; for it i s between 6 p.m and midnight in the phlegmatic period of the day; and Tybalts fight -a.nd death on Monday afte1,;noo11. are qui te · correctly 1imed: the day i-tself was phlegmatic and the time of day mela.nchol y , a"1d consequently his martial powers would have ebbed at noon when the cholsric part of t hé day was overe •• ~ Could Shakespeare by mere accid.ent, have introduced so many consistent details; a."1d would an Elizabethan audiencé, steeped in such lore 1 have failed to realize their significance?J According to Draper, the choleric humor of Old Capulet 9 the phlegmatic humor of Benvolio, the

mercurial humor of Mer c utio9 and the sanguine humor of Romeo help in bringing about the tragic end of the ,:play. Mercutio 9 being mercur- iali is killed on Monday afternoon--a phlegmatic day and a melancholy time of the day that would depress the mercurial temperamento Julíet i-s born on °Lamms.s-·eve at, night 9 11 when the sun is in the house of the constellation Leo from Ju.ly 21 to Augv.st 21 Those born under Lee are hot a.nd passion-- 32 a-te" Romeo is bcrn under the influence of Saturn which is styled "the great infortune„ 11 humor is described as 11 He is sa.nguine and as the variable and changeable 11 his disposi- tion also ehanges from melancho.ly to merry dispositiono All these make of Romeo and Juliet hum.orso a.-ri astrological tragedy of Concluding his thesis~ Draper r-emarks: Some of the actu.al coincidencesP moreover, can be traced to the day or the. time of the day: the choleric morning hours would seem to give rise to the ini

t.ial brawl; and this brawl in turn causes Romeo-• s fatal banishme:n.t" Romeos going to Capulet festiv~ 1ties 11 too early" ma. !res possible his meeting wí th Juliet and his falling in leve with her; the phlegmatic hours of evening ezj)lain Capulet I s success -iu restraining Tybalt at the moroent; and the thought-.l ess abandon of the balcony scene is quite proper to the sa.n~uine hours after midnight„ The · crucial deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio, furthermore, take place in the afterno.on, when ill-omened rnelancholy was supposed to rage; and Romeo•s ba.nishment and Juliets wedding fall on Tuesdayv · the unlucky day of .Mars a L"1deed 9 again and again~ no-G only the fore·bodings of the characters but also the auspices of the hu.móurs and the calendar point out to a tragi-e cat astrophe: the "death-mark d love." of 11 star- crossed lovers" cannot end happily. Thus the theme of the play is .n ot the evils of the civil faction asin Pa.ynter

[sic] , or · the wickedness of 11 stolne contracts as in Brooke, but rather 3 as in Greelt ~ragedy, the helplessness of defying the heav~ ens• w111 &b W- 1n Romeo~ Juliet fate works against the lovers by making them 1.mfortunate i11 thei-r friends and associates and in the h0t climate in which they are born. presage their tragic end. Their dreams Fate is antagonistie ~o them i n placing them ina context of family hostility and in con·t;riving a deadly series of coincidences~ • Their fatal Jlrem.~ onitions deepen the ~ragedy all the more. Romeo and Juliet are unfortunate in their friends and 33 associates who are vnable to understand the heavenly :pas- sions of the loverso Juliet 9 s companion-- the Nurse-a worldly creaw re does 1".lot know mueh about love beyond sens- uali tyo To her 11 love is an animal lust„ Mercutio laughs at the love of Romeo whe:n the former says~ 0R.omeo! Hwnours: Ma-dmanl Fassion! Loverl 11 ( I I,i,7)o

"mouse-hunter" in his time„ Lord Capulet has been a To Lady Capulet~ leve and mar- riage a.re merely social institutions and a worldly arrange- mento The Friar 1 although devoted to celibacy, is spirit-i- ually closer to Romeo and Juliet 9 s love than a:n:y of these characterso He being a. priest has peculiarly religious no- tions about marriage, In the Old Testament, Jehovah i s the bridegroom; and Israel is the bride. In the New Testamentj Revelation, 21:9 9 a.nd elsewhere~ Cbrist is depicted as the oridegroom and the church as the bride. One should not ign.ore the fated background of the war-m South, the Italy in which the love of Romeo and Julíet blossomso Oscar Jo Campbell in his book titled The Living Shakespeare remarks; The impulsive rashness of Romeo 1 s actions atall the cri tical points in the plot and the impetuosity of all the Montagues and Capulets seeros to be a reflection of the fierce heat of the I talian summero Benvolio speaks the truth

when he says~ 11 An.d if •Ne meet~ we shall not scape a brawl;/ Far now these hot days is the mad bloo•d. stirring~ ~II.1 0 i,34] 07 We cannot ignore the significance of the dreams, another i .n volulltary element 9 in the plays of s:hakespeare and esp ecially :i.n Romeo~ Julieto In Julius Caesar Calpurnia has a meaningful dream presaging the fall o~ Caesar-0 Like- .34 --- - wise 1 in Romeo and Juliet d.reams area source of omens in the playo H. ::B Charlton in his ar-ticle "Romeo and Juliet as an Experimental Tragedy" 8 remarks that the dreams are the harbingers cf eterni ty an.d speak like the sybils o:f the future~ Mercutio distinguishes himsel f from those who re- gard dreams as significant ín mocki ngl y describing dreams as "children of an idle brain. " Romeo dreams of Juliet finding hím aead and reviving him by her kiss . Bal thasar, waiting outside the tomb of Juliet» dreams of the fight between his master and someboéiy elseo It

i s needless to say that these dreams accurately mirror the future 9 Drs. Ulrici, Rötscher, and Vehse believe the family contention which Romeo and Juliet have inherited to be the cause of tragedyo Opening scenes of Shakespeare 1 s plays are pivots on whicb the play revolves. Romeo and Juliet opens with a street fighi; be·tween. the servants of the Capulets and the MontaguesA Feuding is such a barrier between the .l overs that when at the completion of the ball Romeo comes to lmow that Juliet is a CapuletP he says: 11 Is she a Capulet 1 / Oh, dear account! My life is my foe s debt" (I, v , 119- 120) . Even Julie-t---is made aware by the Nurse of the conseqüencea of J.Dving Romeo--a Montague At that moment Juliet bursts out! my only hate ! Too early seen unlmown, and .known too late l Frodigious birth of love it is to me, · That I must love a loath 1 d enemy ( I,v,140-1 43). My only love sprang from Even in their sweet and happy moments they ca.n never forget the

world of hatredo Jvliet is aware of that gloomy world 35 when somewhat irrelevantly she says: 0 Romeop Romeop wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father a.nd refuse -thy name 9 Or if t hou wilt not, be but sworn my l ove- And I 1 ll no longer be a Ca:pu.let (I I ,ii,33-36) The Friar consents to the marriage of Romeo and Juliet beoause that bond may bring a happy reconciliation ·between ·t he two famili es. Paris wants to fi.ght with Romeo in the churcha- yard because he thínks that Romeo- a banished Montague-has come to shame the dead body of Julíet„ Princ e Esoalus, con-• cludiri.,g the playD addresses Capulet and Montague: "Where be these enemies? Capulet! laid upon your hate,/ Montague!/ That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with lovel" (V, iii , 291-293). Romeo and Juliet as 11 poor 11 Lady Cap1.Qet thinks of sacrifices of our [Capulets 1 and Monta[;.rues • J enmity" (V" i i i 9 304) o article See what a scourge is Paµl. N~

Siegel in his Christianity ·and the Religion of Love in Romeo and Juliet 119 notes that the lovers may be imprudent, but the parents are guilty. ~ H. B Charl ton in his article "Romeo Juliet as en Experimental Tragedy" remarks: But prior to this the evidences of the feud are so unsubsta:n.tial that the fo r ebodings o:f Romeo and Juliet seem more prompted by fate than feudolO H. B Charlton also observes that the feud is not presented by Shakespeare in such a way as to be a forcet working against the lovers , as terrible ana so serious as the author a pparently wanted it to seemo Admittedly there are places where it seems to be a terrible a.nd seriovs forceo But Shakespeare does not sustain the idea throughout with full f ~ convictiono (~ I t is curious that the feud was no hindrance to Romeo I s love-affair with Rosalineo His l~nie for RosalinE: is noted by his parents and a.:pparently there is no resistance because she is a Capulet~ Benvolio never points

out -the dangerou.s consequences of loving a Capulet Rosaline„ The element of coincidences in the play is probably more important than the feuding of Montagues and Capulets to the course of ploto article titled 11 L~ this connection Jo We Draper in his Shakespeare s Star-Grossed Lovers" lists some of the u.nfort1inate coincidences : fü1meo and Ju.liet is a tissue of improbabl~ coincidence: Ca:pule~~s illiterate servant happens by mere chance ·-to ask Romeo to read the list of- those invited to hís masterts entertainment; Romeo, by a most unusual chance , deQides to attend his archenemies• festivities, and so chances to fall ín leve with Julie-t; at just this time the Prince chances to make a stringent edict against brawl-ing» and Romeo chances to kill Tybalt and so is panished ; ana. 9 also at just this time, Old Capuletchances to betrotl1 Juliet to the Count Pariso Any one of these chari.ces might singly be acceptea,, but why shoul d they all o e cur wi thin two

days and justin the right order to set the plot in motion? Even more a matter of fortuity is the ca.strophe: by chanceii the F:riar 1 s letter to Romeo miscarri.es; by chru1ce, Romeo meets ar.id kills :Paris at the tomb ; by chancep the Friar is too late to intercept Romeo; and by chances Juliet awakens just too late to save her lovers life and just too soon for her fath-er to save her from suicide„ Indeed, never was love-affair more perfectly ill- timed; and yet, to emphasiz~ this very ,fault, the master dramatistu more than in a:ny other play» marks scene by scene, the days of the week; sometimes the very hours of the day„11 Gustav RÜmelin in his book Shakes:pearestudi~n puts some catastrophe--averting questions before the reader: We in vain ask: Why does not Juliet simply conf·ess that she is ma.rried already and confront the consequences with the heroism of her love? Why does she not flee? She comes and goes unhindereda ruid even the Fria::r s plan accomplished no m.ore

thai"1 37 that instead of starting for Mantua frorn. her fathers houseil she would have to start from the neighbouring churchyard. Why does she not feign siclmess? Why is not Paris induced to withdraw by being informed that Juliet is alread.Jr wedded to another? Wh:y does not the pious Father-fall back upon ~he obvious excuse thát as a Christian priest he could not marry a woman while her first husbartd was -still living? But as it is, the tragic result is brought about by a mere accident, in shape of the silliest, and in its execution the rashest 9 of aJ.l devicesol2 Dr. Hermann Ulrici replies to these speculations of Rfunelin in Fahrbu.ch ~ Deu,tsc:e: ~ Shakespeare~Ge~ellschaft13 in the .following way o Ulrici. thi:nks RÜmelin s remedies to be pro= saic and the remedies suggested by the Friar to be po·e tic o The Friar acts that way to save his reputation and to bring reconciliation between two ho·stile families. Again we know that in spite of the evidence a.nd

confirmation of life in J"uliet, the :presence of Paris in the gr-aveyard would have worsened the si tua tion all the more „ He woul.d not have allowed Romeo to run away with Julieto There would have been in any case a fight between Romeo and Paris and the result would have been the same-namely the servant of Paris would have called tha watc~~ Others would have soon followed and it is difficult to imagine how Romeo and Juliet could have escaped at alló In other words, the si tu.ation is heayY with fatalistic implications for Romeo and Juliet~ Various critics in•t erpret these · ntunerous coincidences variously. Kenneth Muir in his article "Shakespeare and the Tragie Pat-tern1114 suggests that these accidents illu~ ~trate ·the opera.tion of the inauspicious stars Dover Wilson in his introduction to Romeo and Juliet15 observes that ·- --- 38 these a,ccidents are not merely fortui tous but intentionally arranged by f ateo Fate deliberately works

against the lov- ers by these meanso G„ B. Harrison thinks that ít is due "to this element of sheer chance and coincidences that the play never achieves dee p tragedy. J o W. Draper ín his article ti tled 1 Shakespeare 1 s Star- Crossed Lovers 1116 suggests that Brooke calls his tale na wofu.11 chance and Paihter~-Shakespeare s other source for the play Romeo~ Juliet--ascribes the course of events to 11 Fortu.ne" or 11 False Fortune~ 11 Shakespeare makes refer- ences to fortune gov~rning the action of the play$ but these references appear too late to explain the motivation of the plot. Such references are as follows . al.ways obsessed by the idea of destiny a Ju.liet is She says: 0 Fortune p Fortu„ne 9 all men call thee fickle » If thou art fickle~ what dost thou vii th him That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune 3 For then , I hope; thou will not keep him leng, ~ut send him back (III,v,60-64). When the letter sent by the Friar does not reac}l

Romeo, he pronounces it to be "Unhappy fortune" (V,íi,17)o Romeot after killing Paris, speaks of :Paris as "One writ with me in sour misfortune 1 s booki" (Vpiii,82)~ A few passages casually ascr-ibe the directions of events to 11 God 11 or "heaven . n The promiscuous mingling of references to God and fate 9 even in the speech of the Friar (who as a professional advocate oí Christianity might be supposed to maintain a distinction between the personal God a.nd impersonal Fate) virtually de prive God of persona1ityQ Study of Romeo~ Juliet, 39 therefore, removes· hesitáncy in paralleling God apd Fate. Juliet ta~ks of her heart and hands as being joined to Romeo by God (IV,i,55-57)0 Fhe Friar in. his report ·t;o the Prínce of the bloody slaughter in the churchyard tells hím that he reque-sted Juliet to bear the work of Heaven wi th patience (V,iii,260-261). The Prince, talking to Mon!ague and Capulet of their folly tells that Heaven finde

means tci kill their joys with love (V,iii,291-293). A certain ·t r>agio fate hangs over the play apart from all thesea Juliet cryptically answers Paris: *What must be shall be . ( IV, i, 21L Rei terated premoni tions suggest an evil end. Tb.e Pro- logue refers to the "death-markd love1 of Romeo and Juliet ,,. The Friar tells of Romeo: "A:ffliction ís enamored of thy part s,/ And thou art wedded to cal ami ty" ( III, iií, 2-3). He advises Romeo; ".rhou poutst upon thy fortune and thy love~/ Take heedi taJ:ce heed, far such die miserable" (III,iii 1 144- 145) o He tells Juliet~ 11 A grea·l;er power tha.n, we can contra- dict/ Hath thwarted our intents 11 (V,iii,l53-l54). ers are "pale" and melancholy at parting . Oh God! Both J.ov- Juliet says: I ha-re an i l l divin~ng soul. Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb& Either my eyesight fails or thou loclcst pale. (III,v,54-57) E.v en

while ar ranging for his marriage I Romeo casts his defiance at death and says: "Do thou but close our hands with holy words 3 / Then. love-devouring death do what he dare,/ It is enough I may but call her mine 1-1 ( II, vi „6-8) • He says 40 after killing Tybalt: "This days black fate on more days doth dependq/ This but begins the woe others must end" (III11 i,124-l25)w Juliet compares her love to the dangerous speed of lightning (II,ii,119). While going to the Friar for confessio.n, she describes her condi tion to be of Past hope, past cure, past help . she says: 11 A.nd as she takes the poison: I have a faint col.d fear thrills through my veins/ That almost freezes up the heat of life 15-16) . 11 (IV Y iii , Draper remarksi Is all this the mere convention of dramatic prolepsis-a m.ere pious pretence of inevi table ca:te,strophe where no inevi t ability exists? I s Shakespeare n o more than a theatrical charl atan, or did he really see i n

this issue of circumstance a rátione11 [ sic] and motivation that is not clear to us? 17 H. 13 Charlton in his article 1i9meo and Juliet as an Exper- 11 imental Tragedy" talks of Shakespeares device of using premoni tions: His most Írequent device is to adapt what Broke s •[ sic] practic$ had been: instead of letting his persons declaim formally, as Brokes [sic] do, against the inconsta.ncy of Jortune ~ he endows them wi th dramat"ic premoni tions .• lö These uncor.•sGious Premonitions prefigure destiny To Ben- volio ~ s question 9 j f he is mad, Romeo replies : "Not mad 9 but bound more than a mad füan is,/ Shut up in prison, képt wi thou.t my foodll/ Whipped and tormented • • n (I, ii 9 55- 57) , Before taking the sleeping potion, Juliet speaks following the .exit of Lady Oapulet: mee t aga.in·11 ( 11 Farewell ! God knows when we shall I.V II i i i s 14) o I f we accept the view that Romeo and Juliet is only a tragedy of fatev it would

mean that Romeo and Juliet are 42 just like two counters on the chessboard of this earth. They are puppets in the hands of .fate Fate, thus víewe.dp seems to have used love a.nd chance as instruments to mar the lovers. We find them crushed under the giant wheel of And we see the futility of the human. struggle against fate. the mighty authority of the invisiblea We reecho the words of Omar Khayyam: The moving finger writes, and having writ Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit Shall l11re back to cancel hali a line ijor all you:r tears wasl out a word of ite But this is not the view of life • that we get in Romeo e.nd Juliet . Casual utterances of the characters should not be taken into account to, prove the thesis. There are ma.ny references to fate» no doubt about it, but they are the speeches spoken by the characters in highly excited moods» that is to say, in either híghly happy moods or in highly unhappy moods. Speeches spoken by the minds in either of these

concli tions should 11ot be taken seriously to establish a particular thesisQ The words of Lady Capulet and the Nurse at the seeming death of Juliet are the words of a mother and the doting Nurse (perhaps never strong in her intellect) and should not be taken seriously. It is an oversimplifícation to see the action o~ the play as nothing more than the relationsnip of the position of stars and p;J.anets and huma11 behaviour No doubt all these things pley a signiiica.~t ro+e in bringing about the tragic fall OI Romeo and Jvliet~ But to harp on ·t he fate of Romeo and Juliet i s an exaggeration--an exaggeration of the vital 42 truth. I do not agree with Draper, Charlton, and other critics who think of Romeo~ Juliet as an unmitigated tragedy of fate„ The characters of Romeo and Juliet contribute a good deal in bringing about the tragedy of RomE:.2 ~ J ul i e to They have a shared character-fl aw--ímpetuosi ty in love<-which prove s their undoing. It is this view

that links Romeo~ Juliet with. four great tragedies, the point which I h.ave discussed thoroughly in ruy second chapter 43 NOTES · 1 81- 82. Works, ed. 9 Collins, I I, 60 ; Works, ed. Grosart, VIIIv 2 r am heavily indebted to Don Oameron Allen, The StarCrossed Renaissiance (New York, 1966) · in my discussionon astrology in the preceding section of my thesis. 3RES XV (1939)9 18. 9 4 I bid., p 19~ 5rbid., pp 22- 23 6 I bid„p P• 34. 7 (New York, 1958) 1 187. 8Proceedings P• 311. .2f~ British Acade&, rn (1939) 9 143- - 9 sQ, XII (1961), 37l:~392e ,· , 10Prooeedings .2f the Bri~ish A~ademy, XLIV (1958), l78a 11~ , X:V (1939)p 16. 12 (stuttgar·li, 1866)? p. 65t quoted in Var, p 466„ 13 (B$rlin, 1868), III , 9, quoted in Var. p 466 9 187. 1 4Proceedin~s .2f th~ British Academy, XLI V (1958) 143= 9 15nover Wilson, ed., ,Romeo ~ Juliet ( Cambridge, 1961) ~ 16 RES, ,XV, (1939), 16- 34. , , 17Ibid. , p 19 18Proceedings of lli Bri tish Academz, .r n

(1939) 173 9 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION Even before the play begins, the chorus foretells the ending of the play v The Hstar-crossed lovers must, we are warned 9 "with their death bury their parents1 strife~ 0 Finally as i t is a tragedy less of character than of feudingp the strife of the houses of Capulet and Montague 8 appearing in the first scene in its trivial aspect, threatens ina moment to become earnesi and formidablev We see the dead bodies of young and beautiful hu.man creatures 1 of Tybalt and Paris, of Juliet and Romeo» the bloody .h arvest of the strifee Here are lives cut short in their brightness and glory o - It is the traditional view to think of Romeo and Juliet as a tragedy of fatee Critic after critic supports his con- tention in emphasizing the references to fate by various characters, the element of dreaming, and the unfortunate birth of the lovers in the hostile familieso Romeo and Juliet are thus ma.de puppets in the hands of inevitable fate o

- If we are to take the traditional view of Romeo and . Juliet, we associate the play with tragic figures i:n Chaucer s Monk s Tale 9 or we associate the play wi th the " shf.tragedy" of Lee and Rowe9 It is pathetic to see the death 44 45 of two ravishingly attractive young pers9nso never reaches the height of the tragic~ The play thus This view empha- sízes the role of fate to such an ext ent that we find no conflict in the characters of the play; no conflicty no drama. a tragic hero~ and as Shaw says , Romeo never aohieves the height of He is not the determiner of events in the He does not stand prominently ~orward, a single fig- play. ure as does Shakespeare 1 s Richard III soliloq uizíng about the manipulation of the family and his retainers~ and about his other planso The very first scene ex.hibits the feud which determines the lovers 1 fate o If Romeo cannot be held responsible for the tragedy , his character is not an active u practical nat:ure

like Henry v•~, neither is he great by in- telle ct, a thi nker in any high sense of the word. He has his being neither heroically i.~ the objective world of action like Henry V, nor in the world of mind like Hamleta There is a second group of critics who thinks of the :play as a tragedy .o f character„ The play is a presentment· of the clash between the bright impetuosity o~ youth and the cold pru.dence and prejudice o~ the elders Impetuosity or rashness is the tragic flaw-- hamartía--o~ the lovers~ - Romeo and Juliet thus is a hamartia-pased tragedy, a point . which links the play with four great tragedies, namely Hamlet, King Lear, .Macbeth, and Othello play with the tragedies o~ Marlowe o It also links the I have discussed tbis point thoroughly in the second chapter of my thesis~ It is an oversi.mplification to believe that Romeo and 46 Juliet is eit-her exclusively a tragedy o:f fate or exclusively a tra€:edy o:f character.[iomeo and Juliet is a tragedy

Fate is a greater pow.er in both of :fate and charactero crushing the lovers than the character-flaw of the lovers. This does not in any wa:y indicate that the lovers are help- less and hopeless victims of fate. They also contribute in, bringing about their own tragic do~mfall . We may say that they are the unluck-.1 chíldren of mutually antagonistic :fam- ilies who came to grief and destruction because of their ow-.a impetuous n a ~ A question may arise: of fate and character? does the play suffer by blending There are three schools taking three different viewpoints about the tragic .fall of the loversj a fact which suggests that Shakespeare was not very clear on the point as to who should be held responsible :for the tragic end of the lovers. But excessive clari ty L11 drama--especially serious drama-repels the reader~ should have mysteriousness in í t . Oedipus ~ Drama is mysterious „ We do not lmow at which time in the play Jocasta becomes aware of her

relationship as wiíe and mother of Oedipus . She may have lmown Oedipus to be her son shortly after marriage, or she may :first have become awar~ of it toward the last entry of the herdsman~ lhis is a point instructive in interpreting Romeo~ Jul.íet because of tne difficulty of separating the work of fate from the consequences of the main chara,cters 1 impetuosityD We tend, even without con- sideration of otber matters such as poe1try, never to erpel 47 the play from our minds as we do a solved problem in mathematics~ The mergi11g and flowing together of fate and char- acter throws a mysteri.ous aura on the :play, and our inability to see the play as a solved problem in mathematics draws us, as well as many other things,to reread the play and even in old age to buy tickets to this well-known performance of Romeo a.~d Juliet SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, Don Cameron. The Star-Crossed Renaissance York: Octagon Books , Inc. 1 1966 New Aristot le. The I>oet ics of

Aristotle tr S H Butcher, 4th ed.-röndon: MacmIlian and Co, Ltd , 1907 Bowlí:ng 9 La wrence Edward. The Thematic Framework of Romeo and Juliet. 11 PMLA» LXIV (1956), 208- 220 - - Campbell, Osca r J., ed The Living Shokespeare The Ma cmillan Company, 1949. Charlton, H. B Shakespearian Tragedy University Press, 1948. New York: Cambridge: Cambridge Cha rlton, H. B "Romeo and Juliet a s an Experimental Tragedy11 Proceedings or-the British Academy XXV (1939), 143-18. - - Draper , J . W "Shakespeare•s Star- Crossed Lovers .2f English Studi e s , X:-/ (1939) 1 16- 34 11 Review Furness, Horace Howard, ed. Romeo and Juliet Ist variorum ed, New York: Dover PÜblications Inc, 1 963 Granville-Barker, Ha rley. Prefaces to Shakespeare ton:Princeton University Fress,-Y947. Prince- Harrison» G. B Shakespeares Tragedies London: Routledge and Pa.ul, 1950 Xittredge, George Lyman, ed. Complete Norks of Willia m Shakespeareo Chicago: Spencer Press, 19"58. :Levin,

Harry .Tuchman The Overreacher, A Study of Christo~her Marloweo Cambridge: HarvardtJníversTiy Press, 19 2v Muir, Kennatho " Shakespeare and the Tragic Pattern. 11 Proceedings 9f ~ British Academy, XLIV (1958), 145-rn Siegel, Paul N. 11 Christianity and the Religion of Love in Romeo a."ld Juliet 11 Shakespeare Quarterly, XII (1961) , 37l-39r- 48 Stauffer, Donald Ao Shakespeares !orld .2!, Imageso 1st ed New York: Norton~ 1949. Tanselle, G. Thomas 11 Time in Romeo and Juliet 11 speare Quarterly~ X:V (1964 ) , 349=3Sl~ Wilson, Dover, edo Romeo and Juliet Cambridge: University Press, l96l7° • ShakeCambridge VITA Jagriti Vimochanrao Desai Candidate for the D~~?e of Master of Arts Thesis: ROMEO Major Field: !!m JULIET AS A TRAGEDY OF FATE AND CHARACTER English Biographical: Personal Data: Born in Petlad, Gujarat, India, July 21, 1942 1 the daughter of Vimochanrao Desaif a nd Satyabala Desai. Educatim~: Attended grade school and high school in Nadiad, Gujarat

9 India; graduated in 1959; received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Nalini and Arvind Arts College 1 Vidyanagar, India 9 with a major in En.glish 9 in May, 1963; received t h e Master of Arts degree from S.V University, Vidyanagar, India , with a major in English, in lVIay 9 1965; completed requirements for the Master of Arts degree in May, 1968. Professional experienceg Served as a teacher in !fü:t.bud-ha High School, India, wor~ed as the fellow of the S~V~ University. Vidyanagar, India, English Departr.aent for two years, 1963-1964; 1964-1965 9 and one and half years as the professor of E nglish, 1965-1966, 1966~