Juliet refers to the stars in her soliloquy which opens Act III, Scene 2, as she anxiously waits for Romeo. The two young lovers have just been married and Juliet is anticipating her wedding night. She very much wishes that night would fall and Romeo would come to her. She says that once she's been with Romeo and she finally dies, he should be made into stars which shine in the sky so the whole world will know of his beauty:
Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Romeo mentions the stars in two important passages. In each instance, the stars are linked with his fate. First, at the end of Act I, Scene 4, in an aside, he suggests that his attendance at Lord Capulet's party is the beginning of something which will ultimately lead to his death. Nevertheless, he is powerless to resist fate's temptation:
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 despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.
In Act V, Scene 1, Romeo again invokes the stars after he learns from his servant Balthasar that Juliet is dead (supposedly, but not really). He mistakes this news for a sign that fate has meant to leave him alone without his true love. Instead of accepting this fate, he leaps to action in perceived defiance of a fate which would take away Juliet:
Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars!
Romeo's defiance comes in the form of a plan to commit suicide next to Juliet in Capulet's tomb. Had Romeo been a little more patient and not so quick to defy fate, the Friar may have finally gotten the message to Romeo about Juliet faking her death. Alas, the play was a tragedy and death its finale.
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