Fate is an important theme throughout the play, as acknowledged in the Prologue. In Act V, fate claims the lives of Count Paris, Romeo, Juliet and Lady Montague.
Act V, Scene 1, Line 25:
Romeo:
Is it e’en so?—Then I defy you, stars!—
Romeo intends to rebel against a fate ("stars") which he believes has taken Juliet away from him. He has already decided to join her in death.
Act V, Scene 2, Lines 17-20:
Friar Laurence:
Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice but full of charge,
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
May do much danger.
The Friar is acknowledging the role of "fortune" (fate) in the fact that Friar John, who was delayed by a plague threat, could not reach Romeo with the Friar's letter explaining his plan to have Juliet fake her death.
Act V, Scene 3, Lines 81-83
Romeo:
O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book!
I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
Romeo laments that luck or fortune has been equally "sour" for both him and Count Paris, who happened to be at the tomb when Romeo arrived. Paris believed Romeo was vandalizing the tomb. They fought and Romeo killed the Count.
Act V, Scene 3, Lines 109-112:
Romeo:
O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh!
Romeo is about to take the poison, hoping that death will once and for all end the string of bad luck or fate (inauspicious stars) which has plagued him.
Act V, Scene 3, Lines 302-305:
Prince:
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love,
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.
The Prince acknowledges that fate ("heaven") has punished the Montagues and Capulets for their bitter hatred. The Prince too has been punished by having his "kinsmen" Mercutio and Paris killed.
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