Fate vs Free Will

“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.” ~Jawaharlal Nehru.

The debate over the concept of humanities free will or predetermined fate has been raging for centuries. Are human’s lives completely up to us or are lives destined to their fates? More importantly were the lives’ of Romeo and Juliet ended by the recklessness of their decisions or were they doomed at birth? Or was it their families choices that slain the star-crossed lovers? The concept of fate and free will was debated in the time Romeo and Juliet werepublished, around 1597. At that time the Catholic Church pretty much controlled every aspect of life, and one of the doctrineswidely accepted was that God controlled everything. Also by just reading the book anyone can point out that fate played a curtail role. However was it also the choices that both Romeo and Juliet made that caused their own deaths and the death of Tybilt? One must take in consideration both sides of the argument, the first of which is the role of fate.

Fate is a vastly concept to dwell on, one must contemplate on the fact whether or not who controls fate? Is it God, is it many Gods, or even past lives? A Christian might maintain that God has complete control. So in essence no matter what measures that the coupled made the death of Tybilt, the death of Romeo and Juliet and even the fact that Romeo was even invited to Capulet’s party were all decided by God. However a Jew might state that God controls your ultimate outcome but he gave us free will, which is what Romeo and Juliet would agree with. So was Tybilt an unwilling victim to Romeo’s final destiny, or even the fact that Romeo’s invitation was a coincidence. But that begs the question would Romeo and Juliet met in the first place? Or maybe Juliet would of married Paris? An Existentialist might ensure that there is no God and the concept of fate is a human’s imagination and that ultimate responsibility only put upon the shoulders of humans themselves and the only fate anyone can be insured of is inevitable death. So simply all the actions that took place really meant nothing because the only destiny that they had coming was there death. So really the Existentialist’s view was somewhat free will, however there was no free will when it came to their deaths. However free will might of caused a bigger impact.

Free will really could have been a life saver to Romeo and Juliet, if they could of gone in front of their parents and proclaimed their love all the events wouldn’t of happen. Maybe if Romeo could of controlled his rage he would of not killed Tybilt, which in the end would of not gotten Romeo banished. The paradox of the situation is the fact that all the events that free will could of changed were caused by fate. Even when they thought they had their entire lives planned out fate comes and messes it up. Even if they wanted to tell their parents, the Capulet’s’ wanted Juliet to marry Paris. Also when the Friar gives Juliet the potion fate prevents the message from being delivered to Romeo, thus causing him to poison himself. So at least in this story fate decides over free will and even if a character tried to use free will fate would cause it to fail.
Personally I believe that fate of maybe even God himself had Romeo and Juliet’s destinies planned from the beginning, so that the choices were ultimately futile and in vain. However the deaths of them, Tybilt, and Paris were all casualties that in the end ended the family feuded between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. Is that not worth the pain and suffering that has been caused by centuries of conflict over a reason that is not even known by the houses. If they haven’t met wouldn’t the killing and conflict between the houses continue?

Finally, at least in the story, fate was the main contributing factor to the deaths and events in the story. Romeo and Juliet both were doomed since the beginning, “A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life. Prolouge.5” Although free will could of caused some events to occur it was fate that ultimately caused the outcome. So really, it is their fault for a least trying to pursue their true love? Is this not inspirational in the sense that they were going against all odds just to be together? Even the author himself had a few words about fate, “What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide” William Shakespeare.