The street that was strewn with litter was totally deserted.

The man who walked down the middle of the road was humming to himself.

The man who was humming to himself, walked down the middle of the road.

I’ve spent the last nine years working hard towards this moment and have had an almost sleepless month preparing for this race, the first race in history where a robot has competed at the olympics. My robot. I remember back three years, the memory still vividly planted in the back of my mind It was only a small tournament but it was the step in the direction towards, slowly but surely developing the intelligence of robots. Back then, I could only dream of the Olympics but look at me now standing here. The gun goes off which brings me back to reality, leaving a ringing sound in my ears.

           = relative clauses

Beneath the blanket of soft, grey, foggy miserable sky, you stand. On the bridge, guard dog at your feet, surrounded with other soldiers, nervous and watching. [Inside your head was a thought about how you were hoping there would be no flying pigs which is a common thing, sent from Isis today]. Below you lies an almost still river of secrets waiting to be discovered. [On the bridge a car who was not on the schedule for and all clear, pulls up to the checking point]. Around here checks were considered extremely important. On your watch you wouldn’t want to make any mistakes. Over the barrier of the checkpoint, beyond your limits, you know what they are doing, what they are hiding.

BOLD  =    nouns

           =    verb

           =    adjective

[      ] = relative clauses

You walk through the tall and intimidating gates of the deserted looking school. You see the so familiar classrooms, empty, thinking back to the times when they were full and bustling with the going ons of the everyday school life, remember it’s a Saturday, of course it’s looking deserted. You walk up to the back wall of the PE shed where you and your friends all carved your names into the slightly rotting soft board of wood. You can see scraping marks showing the efforts one of the staff must have made trying to get rid of them. They didn’t have enough time to give you and your friends a detention as it was on your last day there.

 

You feel the blast of freezing wind almost knock you off your feet and you crouch to wait for the helicopter to leave to go pick up another load of excited tourists thrilled with the idea of standing on a sea of frozen sheets of ice wedged together between the sides of a valley. Even though you have done this many times before, it still makes you stop and take in how big and beautiful it is. You make it to the designated waiting area without slipping and sliding too much on the chipped ice and wait for further instructions.

 

Beneath the blanket of grey miserable sky, you stand. On the bridge, guard dog at your feet, surrounded with other soldiers, nervous and watching. Inside your head was a thought about how you were hoping there would be no flying pigs sent from Isis today, this is a common thing. Below you lies an almost still river of secrets. On the bridge a car pulls up to the checking point. Around here checks were considered extremely important. On your watch you wouldn’t want to make any mistakes. Over the barrier of the checkpoint, beyond your limits, you know what they are doing, what they are hiding.

How does Shakespeare present the hand of fate in his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’?

“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their lives” Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was very fate inspired and fate relying play of two lovers who believed that everything that happened, happened for a reason with a bigger power/force (God) directing the paths and courses that each and every person would take. Implying that they had no control over what was to occur, everything was already laid out and predetermined. Shakespeare incorporated a lot of situations to help the viewer or reader of the play understand it more deeply, and in his play, Shakespeare used multiple ways to do so. This essay will talk about some of the ways he communicated fate in his play ‘Romeo and Juliet.

The first way Shakespeare communicates the idea of fate in his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is through his prologue. Shakespeare has written the prologue to give the viewer a quick overview of what is to happen during the play that they are about to watch before it begins. In the prologue, the idea of fate that Shakespeare is trying to be understood is throughout the whole thing, it is fate because no matter what happens in the play, those points will occur and the characters can’t do anything about it, they just have to play their part. Shakespeare also uses Metaphors to help get his idea of fate across.

In his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, along with using the prologue to develop an understanding of fate, another way Shakespeare helps the reader/viewer is by using metaphors. This helps to develop the characters ideas and inner thoughts. In Act 1, Scene 4, just before Romeo goes to the party at the Capulet household, Romeo, who is part of the rival family, Montague, says: ” … He that hath the steerage of my course direct my sail!” When Romeo says this he is describing himself as if he were a ship and will let the captain choose his course. In this case, Shakespeare is implying that the captain who Romeo is referring to when he says this is God. We can tell this because he has written the word ‘He’ in capital letter which is only done when referring to God. Shakespeare extends on this further on in the last scene of the play before Romeo takes the poison that kills him, he says “Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark.” This suggests that Romeo’s faith in God’s guidance has not worked out for him and has led to his destruction. This relates to fate as Romeo is giving up control of his life to a higher power, God. 

Metaphors give good examples of fate but by cleverly adding coincidences in throughout his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Shakespeare has been able to expand on the idea of fate through the plot of events. An example of a coincidence through the plot of events is in Act 1, Scene 2, when a servant from the Capulet household asks Romeo and Benvolio in the street “… I pray, sir, can you read?” The servant is giving out invitations for a party at the Capulet’s household but can not read. Romeo and Benvolio take advantage of this situation and invite themselves to the party. This is fate because if they had not been asked by the servant to read the invitations, they wouldn’t have attended the party and further more, Romeo would never have gotten over Rosaline and met Juliet which is what Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about. In this situation this was a bad thing as they didn’t know that they were enemies. During the play, both Romeo and Juliet experience premonitions.

Coincidences help when understanding fate and Premonitions in Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ also help to show the act of fate as it directly gives the characters a quick view of something that is predetermined in their lives. An example of this is in Act 3, Scene 5, Juliet says “O God, I have an ill-divining soul. Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low as one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eyesight fails, or thou looks pale.” This line suggests that Juliet thinks Romeo looks dead and very pale. Also at the end of the play Juliet has another vision of Romeo looking pale. This is fate trying to let the characters know that something like what Juliet saw is going to happen, to warn them. Even though fate tried to warn them, Juliet and Romeo ignored the indications from the premonitions when they could have avoided their deaths altogether. To help the viewer/reader to understand the premonition, Shakespeare has used dialogue.

Throughout Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ there are a lot of direct references to fate, luck, fortune, death and consequences through dialogue. In the prologue, when the Chorus says: ” … a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”, This is a  direct reference to death because it is saying that Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed lovers who will end up taking their lives. Also in the prologue Shakespeare extends this idea of fate by writing ” … The fearful passage of their death marked love”, again talking about how their love is branded with death and is bound to take place sometime in their lives. When Romeo travels back to Verona to see Juliet one last time, he does kill himself. This is fate as the prologue had predicted it. Another example of this which refers to fate is when Juliet’s mother says “I would the fool were married to her grave.” when she says this she is talking about Juliet not wanting to marry Paris and this can be looked at as fate because Juliet never ends up marrying Paris but dies which is like she is marrying her grave to her parents because they didn’t know that she had secretly married Romeo.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was very fate based and incorporated a lot of situations to help the viewer or reader of the play understand it more deeply, and in his play, Shakespeare used multiple ways to do so. By using a variety of different situations and examples he was able to show how the characters believed that everything happened for a reason with a bigger power/force (God) directing the paths and courses that each and every person would take. Implying that they had no control over what was to occur, everything was already laid out, predetermined. 

SCENE SUMMARY

Act 5, Scene 3

CHARACTERS:  paris, Page, Romeo, Balthasar, Friar Lawrence, Juliet, Captain of the Watch, Second watchman, Third watchman, Prince, Capulet, Lady Capulet, Montague

SETTING: at night at a churchyard at the tomb of the Capulets.

Paris and his Page are at the cemetery with flowers for the Capulets tomb. his page is watching to let Paris know if someone is coming, he gives a whistle to warn Paris and they hide. Romeo and Balthasar arrive and romeo says goodbye to him, Romeo starts to open the tomb when Paris stops him, accusing Romeo of murdering Tybalt which then killed Juliet with grief. they fight, Romeo wins and places Paris inside the tomb, meanwhile his page has run to call the Captain of the Watch. Romeo lies with Juliet then takes the poison. Friar arrives at the scene and realises he is too late to save Romeo, as soon as he comes Juliet starts to wake. When Juliet finds him dead beside her she decides to kill herself. she uses a dagger and stabs herself. Paris’s page and people from the watch arrive and access the scene, the Prince comes along with Montague, Capulet and Lady Capulet. Friar Lawrence explains the whole situation and what had happened between the two star-crossed lovers.

QUOTE: “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

SCENE SUMMARY

Act 5, Scene 2

CHARACTERS: Friar Lawrence, Friar John

SETTING: Friar Lawrence’s cell

Friar John goes to Friar Lawrence’s cell to tell him that he could not get his letter to Romeo as there was a plague in Mantua so he was not allowed in. Now Romeo was on his way back and had know idea what was going on. Friar Lawrence is to take action and try to fix the situation before it was too late.

Quote: ” now i must go to the monument alone, with in this three hours fair Juliet will wake.”

SCENE SUMMARY

Act 5, scene 1

characters: Romeo, Balthasar, Apotheacary

setting: Mantua

balthasar comes to Mantua to notify Romeo that Juliet had died Romeo goes to Apothecary to get poison so that he can kill himself after he sees Juliet

QUOTE: ” if i may trust the flattering truth of sleep my dreams presage some joyful news at hand.”

SCENE SUMMARY

Act 4 Scene 4 and 5

CHARACTERS: Juliet, Nurse, Lady Capulet, Capulet, Paris, Friar Lawrence, serving men, musicians

SETTING: Capulets house and Juliets room

On Wednesday morning the morning of Juliets wedding Juliets family were busy getting ready making food ect Nurse went to wake up Juliet when Juliet didn’t wake up to her calls the Nurse found out that she was dead, Friar lawrence came, knowing that she was still alive and organised her to have her funeral. Using the wedding  preparations for that instead.

QUOTE “my child is dead, and with my child, my joys are buried.” – Capulet

“alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!”