Sunday, June 13

Were Romeo and Juliet Fated to Die?

In year nine my class studied Romeo and Juliet and we were given the above essay question. The obvious answer was yes. The easiest option to argue was yes. Everyone in my class went with yes. I said no. This is the essay that earned me both 100% and a drawing of a cranky face in red pen. Keep in mind I was in year nine when I wrote this, over four years ago, so it may be a little dodgy.
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I have to say No Way! Despite the strong reasons for it (I’m sure you can think of many), I have two reasons that totally over-rule all other arguments. Reason one: Every one has choices, Romeo and Juliet just made the wrong ones, if they made wiser decisions the out come would have been different, more than likely better. Reason two: is there really such a thing as fate? And if so what really is it?

It goes like this- everyone has choices, if Romeo and Juliet made wiser choices they mightn’t have died. For example, if Romeo hadn’t killed Tybolt and instead let the law handle it (Tybolt was going to be executed anyway) then Romeo wouldn’t have be banished and none of the following events would have taken place.
Then you’ve got Juliet faking her own death, if she had thought through her options (skip town for example) they may both have lived.
And you have to agree that turning to that priest was the stupidest thing they could have done. For starters, what kind of priest just so happens to have a date-rape drug lying around? One that can't be trust, that's what kind.

Secondly, the whole fate thing, does fate really exist? There are actually special people who dedicate their lives to trying to find this out. They are called metaphysicians and they try to solve questions that can’t be answered on factual terms. Some of these guys think that if the universe is rational it must be based on a sequence of cause and effect: Every action or effect, must be began by a cause and must form an unbroken chain of causation going back to the first cause, that is, God or the Devine.
So. For there to be fate there must also be a god.
But as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy says there can be no god because of the existence of the Babel fish. I quote-
‘The argument goes like something like this: “I refuse to prove I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”
‘ “But,” says man, “The Babel fish is a dead give away isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED”
‘ “Oh dear.” Says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanishes into a puff of logic.’
So that also means that all the miracles we have ever had prove God doesn’t exist by the above argument.
So by proving that God doesn’t exist we prove that fate doesn’t either and thus Romeo and Juliet were not fated to die.

Romeo and Juliet were not fated to die because they couldn’t make a good choice to save their lives, literally. And because from a reliable source (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) I have been able to deduce that fate doesn’t exist so they couldn’t have been fated to do anything!
I rest my case.

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What do you think? Did year nine Penguins Quack prove her point or do you have a different opinion about our star-crossed lovers?

10 comments:

  1. Also, if you're interested, I think I wrote a brilliant essay onto MacBeth's decent into villianry in year 10 which focuses on the historical portrayal of MacBeth rather than, well, on the play.

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  2. Hehe I LOVED that argument from Hitchhiker's Guide. My other favorite part--
    Arthur looked up. "Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out."
    Seems you were quite the essayist in year Nine, Penguins! Taking on weighty topics like the existence of God and fate and all that. That's awesome. :D

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  3. Very nice essay, Penguins!

    I love classic tragedy and the concept of fate, but I must admit, I have trouble applying it to Romeo and Juliet. To me, their demise does ultimately seem more like bad decisions, whereas with other Shakespearean characters, I can see how fate would work.

    I would like to see your MacBeth essay. *is a totally nerdy English major who enjoys essays* :D

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  4. Ah, Marfy. Such a conflicted English teacher. You always managed to annoy him with your arguments, didn't you?

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  5. Wow, great essay.
    I have to agree with that - Romeo and Juliet made the wrong decisions and consequently, ended up where they did.
    And the priest was a bit shifty, idk.

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  6. Thanks Scott. Hitchhiker's Guide is amazing. Have you seen the quote at the bottom of the page? It pretty much influenced my love of penguins.

    Zella, I'll try and hunt out my Macbeth essay for you. I seem to remember it not being to incredible, but it was quite nerdy.
    People tended to argue that falling in love with your families enemy basically made you fated to die. I don't agree. Obviously.

    Chairman, MarfFy (double F) loved me. I was his favourite student until Erika realised sycophancy scored you better than witty debating.

    Laura, thank you. Romeo and Juliet were really just a couple of idiots. Serious, every fourteen year old sees a little fling as "true love" and Romeo had been "passionately in love" before. It wasn't something for them to kill themselves over. When Romeo was exiled a box of chocolates and a rom-com would have had Juliet feeling better in no time. And the same for Romeo when he thought Juliet was dead.

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  7. I believe that in fact they were not fated to die.
    The choices they made led us to believe that they were fated to die.There are many reasons and points I could argue about, because when you think about it it really does make sense that they weren't fated to die. I'm in the ninth grade and reading Romeo and Juliet was actually a fun way to express myself in writing about what I felt was the truth.

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  8. It's a play. It was designed to give one the actual impression of there being fate involved in all of the choices and situations that took place in the story. People in the Elizabethan Era liked to believe in fate, fortune, and that everything eventually falls into place. Shakespeare was not only a writer, he was also an entertainer, he gave his audience what they wanted. Also, fate/fortune was mentioned all throughout the story, I believe that according to the story, fate exists and it is what ruled the tragedy of Rome and Juliet.

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  9. I think everything leads to their death is fated. And I think Shakespeare actually did a great job on it, I mean you can find proves and examples everywhere throughout the entire play.

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  10. Writing an Essay on this exact topic. Im currently making an outline and notes and this was EXTREMELY helpful, Thanks-Anonymous

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