FLE: Romeo and Juliet: Fate Versus Free Will“...A pair of star-crossed lovers take their own lives;/...What happens to their deaths buries their parents' conflict./ The fearful passage of their death-marked love,/ And the continuation of their parents' anger,/ Which, except the end of their children, nothing could remove,/ It is now the two-hour traffic of our stage;/ to which, if you listen with a patient ear,/ what will be missing here, our effort will try to repair. "(Prologue, lines 6-14, p.7) William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet begins with the chorus telling the audience how the tragedy ends. He describes Romeo and Juliet as “starry” (Prologue, line 6, p.7) and their love as “marked for death” (Prologue, line 9, p.7), implying that the result of their love, their death, was the fate set by the stars. However, the audience seems not to be the only one to know this tragic ending: Throughout the play, several characters consistently believe that fate is in action, although they often confuse it with free will. Using diction, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing, Shakespeare compares fate and free will and connects them to the theme of responsibility. Romeo is one of the characters who repeatedly suspects that he is being dragged by fate. In Act 1 Scene 4, just before meeting Juliet, he states that he fears that there is "some consequence still hanging in the stars" (Act 1 Scene 4, line 114, p.49) which will begin that night and end with his “early death” (Act 1 Scene 4, line 118, p.49). Shakespeare's repetitive use of the word 'star' connects Romeo's thoughts with the mention of Romeo and Juliet as "star-crossed lovers" (Prologue, lines 6-14, p.7), foreshadowing what would happen that night . This is also an example of dramatic irony; the audience knows that he was faced with... middle of paper... a tragedy resulting from his choices and free will. Literary devices that appear in lines that Shakespeare believes are the result of fate are important. Dramatic irony and foreshadowing are both forms of ignorance; this shows that a person has not made a choice that can influence their destiny. So, further telling the circumstances of Romeo and Friar Laurence, although they try to make themselves and others believe that it was indeed fate that caused the death, in the end they are both forced to take responsibility for what was caused by the their own will; the prince banishes Romeo and implies that he will punish Friar Laurence accordingly. In this way, Shakespeare connects fate and free will by demonstrating that free will can determine one's destiny. In other words, to lead a stable life, a person must be responsible and ready to take all the consequences of their choices.