Predetermination-or are our lives in our own hands?

Remember that Shakespeare was a humanist and believed that humans had a certain amount of responsibility for the way their lives turned out. In medieaval Europe, however, it was believed that the events in human life were predetermined, and that people's fates depended on the stars.
In his play "Romeo and Juliet", there is much mention of the stars and fate - "star-cross'd lovers", "I am fortunes fool", and "I defy you stars" are just some examples. However, what evidence is there in the play that Shakespeare thought that people brought their own downcomes upon themselves?

"I defy you, stars!", Romeo, (V, i)

Friar John never reaches Mantua because of fear of the plague. Balthasar, Romeo's man, having heard the dreadful news of Juliet's "death" , rushes to Romeo to tell him. Romeo buys some poison from a poor apothecary, which he intends to drink by Juliet's side. After a lot of commotion and a fight in which Romeo kills Paris, Romeo drinks the poison and dies next to Juliet "O you, The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kissA dateless bargain to engrossing death!Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!Thou desperate pilot, now at once run onThe dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!Here's to my love!"
Friar Laurence enters the Capulet tomb and sees Rome and Paris dead. Juliet wakes up and sees her love dead. Hearing to noise of coming guards, Friar Laurence urges Juliet to leave with him. She does not, but instead kisses Romeo so that the poison on his lips may kill her. It does not, and stabs herself with Romeo's dagger before the guards arrive, "O happy dagger!This is thy sheath;there rust, and let me die."
The Capulets, Montagues and Prince Escalus come onto the scene. The Prince chides the elders of the two families, "Capulet! Montague!See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.And I for winking at your discords too Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd". The two families decide to end the blood feud, and the Prince concludes:
"A glooming peace this morning with it brings;The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
...

Act IV

"O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,From off the battlements of yonder tower;Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurkWhere serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;Or shut me nightly in a charnel- house,O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls;Or bid me go into a new-made graveAnd hide me with a dead man in his shroud;Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;And I will do it without fear or doubt,To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love." Juliet, (IV, i)
Juliet is truly horrified at the idea of marrying Paris and would rather die, as the quote above so picturesquely shows. In this act, Friar Laurence conjures up a plan that he intends will reunite the two young lovers. On the night before her wedding, Juliet is to drink a potion that will make her appear dead. She will then be placed in the family tomb. In the meantime, the Friar will send a letter to Romeo explaining the situation, and the latter will leave Mantua to be at Juliet's side when she wakes up. They will then escape. Or will they........?

Interactive folio

Take a look at this media-rich, interactive folio made on the play Romeo and Juliet. It contains audios and videos and a variety of resources. Someone did a good job!!

http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/folio/folio.html

"A plague o' both your houses!", Mercutio, Act II scene i

Mercutio's curse as he draws his last breath is an omen of events to come. After the light romantic comic interlude of Act II, Act III is where the important events leading to the ultimate death of the two young lovers take place. Tybalt comes to fight the duel he had challenged Romeo to by letter in the previous act. Romeo, only hours after his clandestine marriage to Juliet, is unwilling to fight Tybalt, saying he loves him "better than thou canst devise". Instead Mercutio, who is angered by Romeo's pacifistic attitude, leaps to the challenge and is eventually dealt a mortal blow by Tybalt. Now Romeo, enraged at his own "effeminate" behaviour for which he blames his love for Juliet, fights with and kills Tybalt, then flees. Prince Escalus arrives at the scene and declares that Romeo should be exiled.
In the meantime, Juliet is waiting impatiently for the night to come so she can be reconciled with Romeo. The nurse rushes in screaming "he's dead" and Juliet thinks for a moment that she is talking about Romeo. Then she learns tht it is her cousin Tybalt who is dead, killed by her husband Romeo. She is momentarily angry, and curses Romeo, "O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!" However, when the nurse curses him she has a change of heart, "Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, your three-hours wife have mangled it?" The nurse decides to find Romeo so that the young newly-weds can spend their first and last night together.
Romeo has gone to Friar Laurence, from whom he learns the punishment he will receive. Romeo says he would rather die than live in exile, "'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, Where Juliet lives; and every cat, and dog, And little mouse, every unworthy thing , Live here in heaven, and may look on her; But Romeo may not".The nurse arrives at Friar Laurence's cell and tells Romeo to come to the Capulet mansion that night.
In the meantime, Capulet and Lady Capulet decide that Juliet should marry Paris soon, in three days time, hoping it will help her to forget her cousin.
The next morning, at dawn, Romeo is about to leave Juliet's chamber, never to see her again, and Juliet pleads with him to stay a little longer, "Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear". He leaves, and Lady Capulet arrives, bringing news of Juliet's impending marriage. This time, Juliet is not submissive to her parents' wishes and she openly defies them. Capulet is furious, saying that if she does not marry Paris, she will end her days begging and starving on the streets. The nurse thinks she might as well marry Paris, who she always thought the better match, now that Romeo was effectively dead for Juliet. Juliet pretends to agree with her, but after she's gone she curses her behind her back. She states that she will go to the friar for advice, "If all else fail, myself have power to die."
Well, it all happens in this scene!

What's in a name! that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" Juliet, "Romeo and Juliet" Act II, scene ii

Act II is full of high spirits and promise as the two young lovers defy their families and the ancient animosity between them in order to marry. However, this merriment is not to last long, and we get a hint of what is to come when we learn that Tybalt has sent Romeo a letter inviting him to a challenge in revenge for his gatecrashing of the Capulets' ball...

"Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night!" Romeo and Juliet, Act I scene v

Act I serves as the exposition-introducing the characters and the context. It introduces the blood feud between the Montagues and Capulets in the form of a street brawl, as a result of which Prince Escalus decrees that the next person to breach the peace will be punished. Thus, even at the very beginning of the play, we are shown the cruel twists of fate that eventually lead to the deaths of the two young lovers. Romeo is suffering unrequited love for Rosaline, Juliet is about to be betrothed to Paris. However, a fateful meeting with the illiterate Capulet servant causes everything to change....