Fate In Romeo and Juliet and Oedipus the King
When people run into situations that they do not understand, they tend to blame it on fate; a pathway of events that is beyond a person’s control to alter. In Oedipus the King our protagonist Oedipus was met with a dangerous fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Although he tried to avoid a disturbing end, fate still found its way to him. In Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, the two main protagonists, lovers Romeo and Juliet, were fated to meet each other, fall in love, and die together. Multiple characters brought a number of obstacles into their lives, but fate overcame the obstacles and ended the lives of both of the lovers as planned. With fate bringing such negative ends to the three protagonists, it comes to the conclusion that the fate in each stories are linked to one another. Fate is unique especially when you are told the fate of the protagonists at the beginning of the story to create dramatic irony like in Romeo and Juliet when the narrator expresses “A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-marked love And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove.” The fate of Oedipus the King is also revealed when Tiresias says “I say you are the murderer you hunt!” Along with that Oedipus’ doom was already predetermined by an Oracle at Delphi before he was born. The readers are encouraged to think about fate throughout each piece of work looking at the pieces from a different perspective you could think fate is one of the antagonists for each story. In the beginning before meeting Juliet and more importantly before the Capulets' party, Romeo is already feeling that fate is going to lead to his doom. He wonders if he should attend the party, as "my mind misgives/Some consequence yet hanging in the stars." Yet he still enters the party and Romeo and Juliet ultimately end up dead while in Oedipus the King Oedipus begs him to reveal who Laius’s murderer is and when Oedipus is told that he is the murderer he does not believe it and ignores it like Romeo ignored his feeling this ultimately leads to not only his downfall but juliet’s too the stories link here since both protagonists ignore someone or something. Each piece relates to one another by fate both Romeo and Oedipus try to deny fate, after the revelation to Romeo that Juliet is dead, He defies the stars. Defiance meaning he goes against something. In Romeo’s case he is denying fate but in the end, Romeo’s efforts are useless, since him and Juliet his bride both end up dead, due to the inevitable power of fate. Romeo says “Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!” While in Oedipus the King if his parents had decided to accept fate, rather than control it things would be different. The actions they made influenced the prophecy to actually come true. Also very important to fate is in bringing about the downfall of Oedipus is his flaw, arrogance that clouds Oedipus’ mind to reason. One can definitely see his flaw in the play. The play begins when he says “Here I am myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus.” A day came that Oedipus heard someone say that he wasn’t actually his father’s son this bugged him he wondered if Polybus and Merope were his biological parents. So to find out what was the reality he left to Delphi to see the Oracle. But when he got there the oracle just said “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see – you will kill your father the one who gave you life.” His arrogance is clearly shown as he also like both his parents disregards the prophecy he tries escaping it, he leaves Corinth and goes to a place where he “would never see the shame of all those oracles come true.” Romeo also had a flaw like Oedipus had one which was his rashness he acted upon things before thinking the consequences. Like when he doesn’t think before marrying Juliet or when he kills Tybalt along with him killing himself when he finds Juliet dead but it was fate for both characters to have flaws that led to their downfalls. Fate won in the end of both stories yet in Romeo and Juliet after Romeo kills Tybalt, he realizes he is the victim of his fortune. Romeo realizes he can’t control fate, and his future with juliet is ruined. “O, I am fortune’s fool!” The line suggests that fate controlled Romeo for the murder of Tybalt after this point the story is influenced by the mistake Romeo made. Another way fate influenced both stories is when the letter, Friar Lawrence and Juliet sent did not reach Mantua, where Romeo resides. “I could not send it, — here it is again, — Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, so fearful were they of infection. “ There was a plague in Mantua, and no one could travel past the border until it was gone. This was a coincidence that it happened to occur right when the letter was going be sent to Romeo. The biggest coincidence throughout the play, that would’ve been the difference between life and death for the lovers was in the tomb. Romeo is given the news that his beloved Juliet has died, in a hurry without seeking help from Friar Lawrence. He entered the tomb where Juliet appeared to be dead, and then he killed himself. If fate allowed Juliet to wake up even 2 seconds before Romeo committed suicide, they’d both be alive, but that’s not what happened. After awakening Juliet saw Romeo dead and also commits suicide. Fate planned everything out so that in the end the Capulets and the Montagues had a truce. Fate is a great force it can’t be seen or heard but it’s there. Each character in the story is aware of fate out of all the characters Romeo has the most special connection to fate. It is evident that fate is the cause of their tragic end, and their families’ new beginning. While in Oedipus the King When the shepherd arrives on the scene he is forced by Oedipus to verify that Oedipus is the child of Jocasta and King Laius. Oedipus' is forced to realize that he has not escaped his fate. The entire prophecy has been fulfilled. After finding Jocasta's body, "And there we saw the woman hanging by the neck" Oedipus does the unpredictable: He rips off her brooches, the long gold pins holding her ropes-and lifting them high, looking straight up into the points, he digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying. By the end of the play Oedipus is blind, exiled along with ruined just as Tiresias foretold when he said, ‘You are the scourge of your own flesh and blood, And the double lash of your mother and your father's curse Will whip you from this land one day, their football Treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding Your eyes that now can see the light.” Fate came out winning in the end. Instead of claiming one victim, many were ruined. If Jocasta didn’t try to cheat fate, King Laius would be the only death. Instead both King Laius and Jocasta ended up dead. Oedipus is ruined and his children are cursed by incest. Both Romeo and Juliet and Oedipus the King had many similarities in their stories linked to fate but there was a difference, Romeo and Juliet had a better ending while Oedipus the King had a horrible ending probably because the protagonists messed with fate so much. No one should mess with fate for fate can ruin everything let things take their course.