What do you think? Does free will guide the characters, or is it fate?
In a well-developed paragraph answer the question with one piece of text to support your opinion.
Make sure you do the following in your paragraph- order is a suggestion
Structure- NO I or MY or We or Us or any personal pronouns that make an opinion sound like an opinion. "Persuede peps, Yo".
Ist sentence- Free will or Fate? State why free will or fate is the variable that guides human activity.
2nd Sentence- An Example from the world that displays your opinion
3rd- Relate your perspective to the play- Does it support or oppose your view?
4th - Evidence from text
5th- Summarize main points
6th- Insight into fate or free will
41 comments:
Free will is the variable that guides human activity because what we do in our lives affects what happens to us in the future. For example if you start a rumor about someone it will eventually affect you. It supports it because just like when Romeo and other Montagues crashed the Capulets party it was their will to do that and Tybalt wanted revenge for that and in the long run killed mercutio. Free will is a great thing to have as long as you use it in a good way that won't affect your life.- Hunter F
Whatever happens in life is according to people's fate, which is guiding them. Fr example, the world trade center collapsed during the September 11. Some people in the world may not have been in shock at all due to the fact that there religion persuades them to believe that this was bound to occur or it was the fate of the United States. That is how fate works. Humans do not guide themselves under such opinions, their lives have already been written out and they must be followed occurring to destiny. The play does not support the view of fate. Romeo states in Act 2 Scene 2 that “Stony limits cannot hold out love”. Under fate, it can. Sometimes in life, things cannot be controlled depending on who you are. You may think that you are controlling them but the truth is that you, yourself, are being controlled. - SP
Free will is what sentient things have. Fate is nonexistent except for in stories and tales. Fate may be present in Romeo in Juliet, but is not present in real life. It is often used as a literary device to create more drama or move a story along. Also where fate is not present in stories, the idea of karma sometimes takes its place. Tybalt fought Mercutio and as a reaction Romeo will fight him. Did Tybalt have it coming to him all along, or is it a random action of free will on Romeo's part. You may believe that things are destined to happen to you, but you can always control your life, and make it how you want it.
free will is the variable that guides different people because with it allows any individual to set their own path, rather than already having it chosen. with free will, a person could choose to go left(at a fork in the road) where as in fate, that person may have been chosen to go to the right instead, even if they wanted to go to the left. in the play, Romeo chose to go back and see Juliet in secret, and that choice was his free will. in ACT II, scene 1, Romeo says "Can i go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out." that quote shows that he's making the decision of whether to go back or not, this is his free will. so, even in the play, there is evidence of some characters making free wills instead of just letting fate take over, and free will even shows up in every day situations. as anyone can observe, free will and fate are similar, but can also be quite different in what people feel about them.
Events that occur in life are due to free will, people controlling their actions. For example, in the world, if someone does something really unintelligent, and ends up getting very sick or losing their life, other people are going to view the incident as that persons fault for doing the stupid thing to begin with. The play does not support the idea of fate, it deals completely with free will. Romeo and Juliet decide to run away together, against their parents wishes, and that ultimately causes their death. It was their choice to elope, if they chose not to, and to just live out their lives, they could still be alive. Fate does not determine a person's life, it is determined by how they live and the choices they make. Sometimes in life, choices you make come back and change things in your life later on.
Any event in the Play Romeo and Juliet is already been set up or decided by fate. This is because of two reasons, for one, the prologue in the beginning of the play; the chorus is talking about how Romeo and Juliet are star crossed lovers. So in conclusion to that, there relationship, the topic that the play revolves around, is already been decided from the start. Also the events of Romeo and Juliet are fated to happen because the it is a play and the events in play don’t change, if already finalized.
-HS
I believe that fate guides characters, though in life free will guides characters. An example on how fate guides your life, is religion. People in some religion believe in a fated afterlife. I think there is fate in Romeo and Juliet's situation because they may think they are fated to be together. They may think their love is fated because it was love at first sight. Romeo and Juliet's love may be fated because they are very compassionate about eachother without knowing one another for a long time. Fate is like destiny and Romeo and Juliet are destined to be together.
-Dylan B
Free will guides human activity because people can choose what they want to do. For example a person that commites a crime chooses to do so, they didn't just do it because it was their fate and they had no control over it. Also, when Romeo and Juliet fell in love with each other, is an example of free will. Nothing forced Romeo and Juliet to fall in love or get married, they decided to on their own. Overall things in life do not happen because someone before you were even born decided what you will do all the time, you have the power to make your own decisions. Free will makes it so that you have control over your life.
~ED
Everyone has choices, free will guides human activity. People may believe that their fate is predetermined, but ultimately they choose what happens to them and the people around them. One example of free will opposed to fate is elections. Some people claim that a candidate's fate is to win, then they might not win. Others could say the same thing and that candidate might actually win but the people really chose who won not fate. Romeo and Juliet both made the choices that effected their life. Other things they did not chose that happened to them but someone else made that choice. Some claim that it was Romeo's and Juliet's fate to be married, but it really wasn't. If Juliet had thought that she and Romeo were going into things to fast and could have decided not to get married or Romeo could have decided not to go to the Capulet. The point is Romeo and Juliet both could have made other choices, but their free will lead them to each other. Free will is the variable that guides human life and society. Every single person on this planet has free will and they use it whether they know it or not.
On the surface, it appears that all characters in all fictional works of literature are, of course, fictional. So in a sense, the concept of a free will( or fate) does not exist for made up characters, as they do not exist. If one goes beyond that logic, however, and looks at the question of fate or free will from the world of the characters, it appears that free will is what guides the characters. Romeo and Juliet supports this because many of the events in the story unfold for the audience not through inevitable or mystic forces, but through decisions made by the characters. One example is Romeo's decision to attend the Capulet party with Benvolio and Mercutio. This decision is presented as what it is- a choice made by the free will of the character. Another example could be the decision of the Prince Escalus in the beginning of the play to forbid more fighting... what if he had decided to join in? There will be the argument that these decisions were fated, that fate caused these characters to make these decisions. But there is contradiction there- if fate was individuals making choices for themselves, then fate would be free will. So for Romeo and Juliet and any other characters in fictional stories, there is no fate, because fate is an illusion. There is only a sense of uncharted choice.
Free will is totally different than fate. Free will is chosen by the person to do whatever they please and fate is like destiny ( it was meant to happen) In Act II Romeo and Juliet decide to get married. Both characters are not fated to meet each other both of them decided to go love someone so these characters used their own free will to go find someone. They use their own free will to get married also because they didn't let anyone know so no one can stop them and fate is neither in their love and their marriage.
-Tk
Fate does not determine our lives, we make our own choices unknowing of the outcomes, but it is still our choices, not fate. If you decide to go to bike to work one morning, and a car strikes kills you, the car was not fated to kill you. You were the one who made the choice to bike to work, you did not know it would lead to your death, but it doesn’t mean you didn't make the choice. The play does not support my view, because Romeo and Juliet are star cross'd lovers, fated to die. But the truth is Romeo and Juliet is a fictional play. Just because the prologue states that the lovers are controlled by fate, doesn’t mean that fate exists. Also Romeo made the decision to go to Capulet's party even though he knew he was not welcome. He met Juliet at the party and it led to their love and therefore their deaths, but it was not fate that brought them to that party together, it was Juliet's house and Romeos choice to go there. Furthermore Friar Lawrence made the choice to marry them, and without them being married they would not had died in the way that they did. "But come, young waverer, come, go with me, in one respect I'll thy assistant be" (II, iii). This is a quote from Friar Lawrence where he agrees to marry the young lovers, it was his choice, and he did not know his choice would eventually lead to the lovers' deaths but it was still his choice. Fate did not make Romeo and Juliet fall in love, fate did not marry them, and fate did not kill them. The universe holds many forces, but fate is not one of them, we control our lives and make our own decisions and nothing can do that for us.
Free will is what guides the decisions people make, what happens in your life is not decided before you live it, you decide what happens as you go. People make decisions every day that determine an outcome. For example a runner could decide to run an extra mile at the end of the day, he pulls a muscle therefore he is unable to run in his next race. In Romeo and JUliet characters make decisions that have outcomes also, for example instead of keeping his mouth shut and walking away Mercuricio talks back to Tyblat and he is killed. What you do is determined by none else but your self, people can influence your decisions but in the end it's your call. Romeo and Juliet were not fated to die as Shakespeare believes, but they make decisions that led to the outcome.
Sam R
Free will is what guides human activity to let people have choices about what they want to do. For example, if a person kills someone it isn't their fate that has done that it is free will, they had control over it. Just like how Tybalt killed Mercutio,that wasn't fated to happen, he could have controlled the actions. Fate is when a person has no control over something that will happen even if they try and stop it. Romeo and Juliet aren't and example of fate because no one forced them to love each other or to get married, that was their free will. Overall things in life can be controlled however people choose to control them and free will is what makes that possible.
~a.p
Bothe free will and fate determine the way people live. We always will have more than one path to choose, each path leading to a different ending. These both apply to the play Romeo and Juliet. In the play Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed lovers, having to do with fate, and that it will end badly, death. There is also a lot of free will in the play too, for example Friar Lawrence has a choice to either wed Romeo and Juliet or not, he chooses to wed them. Another example of free will is Romeo going to Capulet’s party, and he chooses to go. In this play there is free will and fate, using both makes it more interesting. Human life depends on both fate and free will, free will makes it so people can control their own life and fate keeps it in place.
~Sarah
Free will guides human activity because we decide the outcome of our future. Some people believe in fate and but really we decide our future. Fate is am excuse for bad decisions. But, again some religious people believe in fate so it’s not a bad thing to believe in. Some freak accidents happen without any explanations. An example of free will is when Tybalt stabbed Mercutio. That wasn’t fate that was Tybalt’s choice and no one forced him to do it or controlled him. Free will is leaves you to decide you own future which is essential in someone’s life.
There are things that are out of our hands and no matter how hard we try, we cannot change them. Tybalt, for example, is a man who is violent and ready for a fight. Nobody is able to change that about him. To be more philosophical, if we plant a tree, it will grow to be a tree. No matter what we want it to be, whether a berry bush or a shrub, it will remain a tree. The play agrees with my opinion in the Prologue, saying that Romeo and Juliet are Star-crossed lovers doomed to die. Fate may not be as dramatic and visible as some people may think, but it does exist as a truth, not an event or phenomenon. Sometimes in life, there are things we cannot control which is fate.
Free will is the variable that guides human activity because it is the choices that people make which are variables themselves, not fate which is by definition predetermined and can not be changed. Recently two Boston politicians, Diane Wilkerson and Chuck Turner used their free will, albeit poorly, in accepting bribes in return for political favors; it wasn't fate that had them accept bribes. In the prologue of Act I in "Romeo and Juliet", Shakespeare speakes of star-crossed lovers which implies that fate is controlling the characters, not their free will. At the end of Act I Scene 4, Romeo says, "Some consequence yet hanging in the stars...but he that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail." Here, Shakespeare says that Romeo's consequence depends on the stars, or fate, rather than his own free will. He is asking that whoever is in charge of his life can steer him wherever they want. Again, Romeo is surrendering his free will to fate. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses fate as the cause of human activity. In the real world, people can not control outside forces acting on them, however, using free will, people can control their reactions to those forces.
- Chris
Free will guides human activity, because weather Fate is real or not, the decisions made with free will decide the path to fate, or sometimes even determine it. One example, is eventual death, that is the only real fate, but how we die and when and where, and especially why, are determined by free will. This is such a great example for "Romeo and Juliet", because from the beginning they both are destined to die, but their decisions through out it, of how they do things, is the reason for this, and therefore proof. Woohoo, Free Will Rocks!
-NNDB-
Free will is the ability to make choices on your own or as a free person and fate is destiny, or something that is meant to be and made in advance to the current event. Free will is the variable that guides human activity, because people choose, on their own, to make the decisions they make and do the things they do, whereas fate would just lead you there, but that does not happen in real life. You make the decisions to bring you were you are in present day. Romeo and Juliet shows free will because Romeo chooses to love Juliet, instead of Rosaline, and he goes back to see Juliet after the Capulet's banquet, fate doesn't bring him there. Another way free will controls the actions in Romeo and Juliet is that it is their choice to run off and marry behind their parents back. Most might think that their lives are being controlled, but in reality they can be changed when you want to change them.
-Hannah
The course of life is determined by a person’s decisions, which would mean free will is what leads everybody’s lives. Taking risks is an example of free will. A risk is something a person would usually decide not to do but then, suddenly choose something different. It is a person’s own decision that could lead to this. In the play, Romeo deciding to crash the Capulet’s party changed his life. There he met Juliet, and he otherwise wouldn’t. It was Romeo’s decision that brought the two of them together. If fate were what guided Romeos and Juliet’s story, then it would have to change, based on people’s decisions. Depending on what a person decides, the outcome of the situation can change. Romeo and Juliet may be described as star-crossed lovers, but it is not fate that chooses their destinies. It can only be the judgment and decisions of them and the people in their lives that will determine their future and the course their lives will take, because it can always change in a second.
Free will is what guide human activity, because a person has the right to make their own decisions. They can make their own decisions and the outcome of their decision might be good or bad, some people think that that would be their fate but the truth is that they are the ones making the decision that will determine the outcome. The play opposes my view because it sort of talks about fate, like how it relates to the moon and the stars and the sun. "Juliet is the sun". Someones fate is determined on their free will because they are the ones making the decisions, their life isn't already like planned out for them.
Free will is the variable that guides human activity. In the real world, humans always make their own decisions and can choose what they want to do. In “Romeo and Juliet”, Romeo and his friends Mercutio and Benvolio decided to go to Capulet’s party. In Act I, if the 3 friends never visited the party, then Romeo would’ve never met Juliet and still longed for Rosaline. However, with Benvolio’s free will he convinced Romeo to go. So free will is the variable that controls life. Romeo’s own will along with others led him to meet Juliet and lead both lovers to death. Free will makes sense because as humans, we can think by ourselves and change our minds and actions at any time.
In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, there are many different opinions on what controls life, fate or free will, but the answer is fate. In life, people think that free will and fate are working together, but when people get married, is it possible that they are meant to be together the rest of their lives, or is it their choice? Fate controls the events because when Romeo went to visit Juliet, Juliet was out on her balcony, wishing for him, it is an ironic scene of fate. “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” Juliet says on her balcony when she is unaware that Romeo is there. Romeo is a strong believer in fate, and he believes that him and Juliet are meant to be. Fate is why the two of them are together; Romeo didn’t want to go to the Capulet’s party anyway. Sometimes in life, fate takes control.
Free will is what causes life's events to occur. Everyone makes different choices and these choices affect the outcome of their daily life. Fate is coincidence but nothing more, there is no predetermined path for everyone. In Romeo and Juliet free will guides the characters not fate. Mercutio was not fated to be stabbed by Tybalt, he chose to provoke him and say stupid things. It were these choices that Mercutio made that were the cause of his downfall.
Free will is the variable that guides the activity of all humans because at any time or place a person has the capability of changing their course of action drastically. So, say a person is offered a recording contract with Hollywood Records and they turn it down, they have have just changed their course of action. My view is supported because if the Nurse had chosen to tell Juliets mother then this madness probably would have been stopped. Any previosely decided conclusion of event can easily be changed by one action and anything can be prevented from occurring. Therefore the future can be altered by a choice of free will.
Free will is the variable that guides human activity because you can always choose a different path no matter what and fate has nothing to do with it. For example you might choose to go to a certain place, and something horrible happens there, that is not an example of fate because if you had chosen to stay where you were nothing horrible would happen there. In Romeo and Juliet the idea of fate is supported, but fate can occur easily in a story where someone is dictating what happens next. If Romeo had not been in "love" with Rosaline then he would have never gone to the party and thus never meet Juliet. Romeo didnt make this happen though William Shakespeare did and he created the idea that fate runs our lives, while in fact it is free will and not fate. Free will is a great thing, but used in the wrong way can be dangerous.
Free will is the variable that controls our life because the people around us make choice based on what they want. If a person were to think to themselves that they should jump in front of a car, it wouldn't be fate, it would be crazy but still free will. The text supports the idea of free will because Romeo didn't have to marry Juliet and Juliet didn't have to marry Romeo. Romeo could have prevented his wants and not gone to the party, but those were the choices that he had made and they were because of free will. The main point is that free will is real and the people in the world are not just puppets on strings being controlled by powers we can't imagine and the stars are not aligned to make act a certain way. In the end, free will is choice, and it's everybody's choice to make.
Free will is the variable that guides human activity because the people’s actions are the main thing that changes what will happen next, or decided what will happen next. For example when people get married to someone they don’t have to fall in love with them if they don’t like the other person’s qualities, but if they do then they will marry them. Free will s also a big part in the play and is shown in lots of places. For example, when both Romeo and Juliet fall in love and get married, this shows that it was both of their free will to fall in love with each other both of their free wills to marry each other. Romeo fell in love with Juliet because of her loving him back and it was his choice to do so, and Juliet fell in love with Romeo because she was felling rebellious of obeying her parents and fell in loved with him to do so. Free will is the main thing that guides what will happen in the future, and it’s the only thing that does. Sometimes on life free will which is your own actions and opinions are what can change you life forever.
Free will is the true factor in which decides what happens to people in life. For example i choose to right this post their for hopefully i will achieve a good grade. The play states that they are fated to die no matter how you look at it but i believe it is truly their own fault that they die in the end and not the will of the heavens. This is true when romeo kills tybalt for he choose to do that an in return was exiled. This theme remains true through the entire plot we have gone over so far and i believe it will continue as well. Fate is truly a state of mind and free will is the end all be all.
Our own free will decides all the basic aspects of our lives, however fate controls only important matters such as love. Choosing something as basic as breakfast or weather to watch T.V. or not is decided by our own free will, fate decides weather or not you will find true love on a particular day. Romeo’s free will made him want to go to the Capulet party but fate brought him and Juliet together. There is Friar Lawrence’s quote “Young men’s love lies not in their hearts but in their eyes”. You have a free will, which controls everything but love, which is controlled by fate. The world would seem a bit darker if there was no idea that some form of higher power controls your actions.
Free will is what guides everyone's life. Fate has no meaning and is used as an excuse because people are lazy and cannot succeed. The best example to contradict fate is, people that commit suicide. There is no way that fate is what led to a person committing suicide. The play has mixes of fate and free will. This shows that Shakespeare was unsure about this subject. In the text, there seems to be more of free will rather than fate. " Romeo:" With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out.(II.ii.66-67)"
Romeo clearly chose to come back to Juliet because it was his own choice and had nothing to do with an outside force. In the end, all there can be said is, people and every other moving, living being choose to do things with free will and nothing is prearranged since birth. Humans could not be considered intelligent beings if they were not capable of controlling their own actions and future.
Free will definitly guides the characters of Romeo and Juliet, as well as many others. Romeo could have chosen any other girl to marry. It was not fate that brought them together. Free will also governs human life, because humans make choices for themselves. No one is fated to do anything. For example, no one is fated to become a doctor. They choose to. The way Romeo met Juliet was random, and definitly not arranged. It happened by chance, like the way it could happen to any two people. When Juliet is asking the Nurse who her new crush is, she is completely surprised to find out that he is a Montague. Before, this party, she had no idea that he was even alive, or that they would fall in love, let alone that he was from the other house, an enemy. The point of this is to show that fate does not govern our lives. People make choices for themselves, and therefore, sometimes in life, things seem fated, but they are chosen with free will and a free, not captured mind.
-Natalia Duranceau
Fate is what guides everything.
in Romeo and Juliet and in real life. Romeo couldn't decide what familly he was born into. Fate made him a Montague. Julie couldn't decie what familly she was born into. Fate made her a capulet. People can make some decissions but I think their are guidlines to what people can chose.
Free will guides human activity because people make decisions and choices in their lives that result in a controllable outcome. For example when a person chooses not do any assignments in school, they will not do well. Romeo and Juliet is a great example of free will resulting in human activity. Romeo and Juliet decide to run off and marry in secret without seeking approval from their parents. Although Romeo and Juliet knew that marrying without asking permission from their parents would result in conflict between the two families, they married regardless. Because they chose to do so, they set themselves up for death. In conclusion, free will causes the events that occur in our life, people control their future by making the choices and decisions at hand.
The characters in Romeo and Juliet are guided entirely by free will, which is the ability to make one’s own choices without being manipulated by a force that’s beyond one’s control. Anybody can decide to do whatever they want within reason (you can’t decide not to grow hair, but you can make the decision to cut it). In the play, however, some of the characters’ views on this issue are in keeping with the superstitions of their time. They feel that they are fated by the stars and other forces beyond their control. For example, the Chorus in the prologue of the play refers to Romeo and Juliet as “star-crossed lovers,” meaning that they are doomed to death by unlucky stars. But Mercutio does not entirely go along with the idea that supernatural forces are behind all the strange things that happen to people, as shown by the following lines, “Romeo: I dreamed a dream tonight. Mercutio: And so did I. Romeo: Well what was yours? Mercutio: That dreamers often lie.” This demonstrates that Mercutio doesn’t believe that people dream about true things. He seems less inclined to believe that forces beyond the human realm are influencing the way people act and think.
It is free will that guided the characters, because they could of chosen if they want to love each other or not with something very simple. An example from the world is, some people had made things possible that people said are not possible today and before. The play opposes this view because in the chorus line of act I the chorus says Romeo and Juliet were fated for doom. When Romeo was at the balcony of Juliet's room he was stating that they encountered each other from free will. Fate is a complaint people made who are too scared to reach their goals so people will say they fated not to be speacial like other people.
Free will is the variable that guides human activity because you are the only person who can decide your own future. A example is that if you stay in school throughout college and do well in college you are probably going to do great in life , but if you live poorly and have no education you are probably will not do good in life . My perspective of the play is that fate is bringing Romeo and Juliet together; although I don’t agree with it Romeo and Juliet are being brought together by fate. The reason why is because in Romeo and Juliet their families hate each other I don’t think it was just a coincidence that they fell in love. An example of free will is when Romeo is questioning if he should marry Juliet and become her husband. The main points are that I don’t think in the world we live in there is fate, but in Romeo and Juliet I think there is. In the world we live in fate does not exist but in Romeo and Juliet it just might.
Some combination of both fate and free will generally play a role in everyday life. In Romeo and Juliet, however, fate is the main guiding variable. In the play, many specific events and circumstances lead to the final tragedy, such as Romeo attending the Capulet’s party, where he meets Juliet, and the fight between Mercutio, Tybalt, and Romeo. Romeo himself feels that fate plays a large part in everyone’s life, and he demonstrates this belief in many statements, for example, when he says: “My life were better ended by their hate than by death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” Fate can definitely be influenced by one’s free will, but the story of Romeo and Juliet demonstrates that fate or destiny can often be an overpowering force.
Every event that happens in this play is fated; it is all set in stone from the beginning and none of the characters can do anything to change things. For example you may want something very badly but in some cases your situation will not permit you to get that thing, it is something that can not be changed no matter how hard you try. This play opposes many views on fate, but it is impossible to ignore that in this particular play there are things that are fated and things that are unchangeable. In the beginning of the prologue it says that Romeo and Juliet are "star crossed lover" or that they are destined to be doomed. This is saying that no matter what they do they are destined to die; the play's role with faith is very different from how fate really acts in the real world. Perhaps in the play things are unbreakable and fated but in the world fate acts only as a mere guideline and it can be altered if you set your mind to it.
sean c
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