Notes

Romeo and Juliet Persuasive Essay
Ill fortune and grand tragedy transformed into something remarkable and perennial, all because of astounding acts of love. This should sound familiar. It is the unforgettable tale of Romeo and Juliet, perhaps the most well known love-struck rebels in history. Romeo and Juliet is a play of romance set in Verona Italy, that was written by the renowned Shakespeare in the 1590s. As with all prodigious stories, there is a very large and inviting space for question and debate. Yet all of the viewpoints are equally false, because they are all equally justifiable.
True love, or not true love? That is the question. Well, it is one of many. Readers have rigorously pondered over plausible viewpoints, backing them up with quotes from the text because Shakespeare himself has long since lost his ability to verbally answer the questions. One moot question that can be posed is whether Romeo and Juliet’s bond was a hormone-induced dalliance or an authentic soulmate discovery. Another main disagreement is whether fate was at fault for their merciless misfortune or if it was merely cause and effect with a dose of unfavorable coincidence. These are excellent questions, with varying viewpoints that are inspiring and, in the big picture, amusing. The truth is that actions and infatuation are created by men, while fate and true love are not. Fate and true love are not trusted in the hands of humans, so they are decided by some superiority. Everyone can disagree about who those big conspiracies that control destiny are, but no one can dispute the fact that they are not human. That said, every single occurrence, characteristic, and word spoken in Romeo and Juliet, was spawned directly from the mind of a mundane human being. Shakespeare was undoubtedly spectacular, but a bit shy of omnipotent. Even so, he was able to construct a world which contained a love affair which contained a thousand opposing opinions. He was able to do this because Romeo and Juliet was fictional. It was a masterpiece of the imagination. In this fictitious story, or any fictitious story for that matter, of course there can be fate and true love! The inclusion of supernatural or spiritual concepts is up to the author, not the reader. Therefore every opinion is nothing more than personal interpretation or random speculation. The beauty of literature and art is that what isn’t clearly stated is entirely subjective to the audience. That’s why admitting to ambivalence actually displays higher comprehension of the story.
There is a thin and blurry line separating true love and infatuation. The difference is that infatuation is simply defined as shallow attraction, whereas love is one of the most complex words in our language. The fact that the meaning of love varies from person to person makes the viewpoint of Romeo and Juliet sharing true love even more disprovable. Who are we to measure the level of delusion or sincerity in emotions that we haven’t experienced? When Romeo first sees Juliet, he exclaims, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (I.v.50-51). In this one statement, opposite opinions could be simultaneously proven. When Romeo asks himself if he had ever felt true love before, he is expressing the sudden, ardent feelings he has developed for Juliet. This shows that what he feels for Juliet is more powerful than the connection he held with his previous lover, Rosaline, who he was convinced was his soulmate quite recently. If he can differentiate the false love from what he is overwhelmed with when looking at Juliet, then his love for her must be real. However, he also states that he had never seen true beauty before that night, “seen” being the prominent word. This declaration confirms that what he feels is a result of his vision, and is therefore purely physical.
The other major dispute on Shakespeare’s design of Romeo and Juliet is whether destiny or consequence dictated the transpiration of events. It is made so easy to distinguish a bright-spirited believer from a cynical pessimist by which way they lean in this regard, because once again, both routes are equally navigable. In the beginning of the story when the new companions are just starting to enter their maze of marriage and murder, Juliet is speaking to Romeo from her balcony. When he is about to declare his love, she interrupts him and says “Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden” (II.ii.16-18). Juliet is rationally saying that to officially swear to their love so soon would be impetuous. However, she agrees to his marriage proposal in that same conversation! This proves that Juliet was well aware of the absurdity and liability of their relationship at the time that she decides to plan the largest conflict generator of the whole story. Fate had nothing to do with her judgement, or lack thereof, in this scene. Later in the play, Friar Lawrence is introduced. He is a very wise character with refined philosophy and perspicacity. When he finds Romeo’s corpse and is explaining the situation to a devastated Juliet, he tells her “A greater power than we can contradict / Hath thwarted our intents” (V.iii.165-166). He is basically saying that a superior force is the cause of Romeo’s demise and that there is nothing they can do to contradict the fate it decides. Granted, Lawrence is a religious man, and his faith in God might’ve compelled him to make a claim like that. However he is also a key character whose words are strongly heeded and trusted throughout the play, so this is cogent support that destiny plays a significant role in the story of Romeo and Juliet.
Hopefully now it is understandable that all stances on Shakespeare’s intentions are assumptive and refutable because they can all only be validated by speculation. Because intangible concepts such as fate and love cannot be truly composed by any human, it is absolutely impossible to know whether love or lust sparked the fire between Romeo and Juliet, and it is also impossible to know whether kismet or actions smothered it. Sometimes the most meaningful works of art are the most ambiguous. There's no reason to taint it's grandeur with biased scrutiny.