How does Shakespeare emphasize that Romeo and Juliets love affair is doomed from the start?

By Samiha Rahman N11 We can answer this question by looking at different aspects of the language Shakespeare used, and the characters and settings that were employed to almost fate Romeo and Juliet into the destiny that they ended up in. This leads to the question of whether Romeo and Juliets love is doomed from the start. The story starts with a chorus (although in that time, it would be one person speaking) describing the ending. Before we even learn about the characters, we know that it is a tragedy. This shows that fate is a prominent theme throughout the play. Both Romeo and Juliet are victims and agents of fate as they both have premonitions. We see that firstly, Romeo has premonitions about his death before he meets Juliet when gate-crashing the Capulets ball. We see this in the words: I fear, too early, for my mind misgives Some consequences yet hanging in the stars Also: Direct my sail. The words consequence and hanging in the stars shows how fatalistic Romeo is. This is also dramatic irony for the audience as they already know the tragic ending from hearing the prologue. The phrase Direct my sail shows that the horrific premonitions have not prevented Romeo from going to the Capulets ball therefore adding to the fatalistic behaviour. Hence, if Romeo knew that going to the Capulets ball would start events that eventually lead to his death, then we see that Romeo and Juliets love was doomed from the start. Also, we see that Juliet has just as many premonitions and one of these is when she asks about Romeo. Juliet foreshadows her death in the words: My grave is like to be my wedding bed we then find this out to be true as the day that she is to be betrothed to Paris, she dies. However, when she says this line, it is more likely to mean that she will die unmarried if Romeo is already married (she is asking the Nurse about Romeo). Premonitions mean that fate brought them together and fate led them to their death. This also shows that their love was doomed from the start. Also, we see that the bad events were also (in Romeos and Juliets view) caused by fate. When Tybalt is killed by Romeo, he refers to himself as fortunes fool. The word fool suggests a toy rather than a fool. This shows that Romeo thinks that he is being played around by fate and although still believes in fate, he questions the time in which his fate was written (the goddess of Fate is writing his fate as he goes along). However, this shows that fate still controlled Tybalts murder and this caused more hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets and this led to his death, which shows that Romeo and Juliet were doomed from the start.
Fate also has a large part to play in the society that Romeo and Juliet live in. We observe that society ignores Romeo and Juliet and causes them to behave differently. Firstly, in the Montague house, Romeo is seen to be more of a soppy lover who is mocked by his family and friends. This is seen in the words: If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark, in this quote, Mercutio mocks Romeos love for what he thinks is Rosaline. Mercutio also believes that Romeos love is just lust and will go

away when his love is requited. This is seen in the words: If love be rough with you, be rough with love, the word rough shows that Romeo is being tormented by love and Mercutio tells Romeo to find another woman. This caused Romeo to gate-crash Capulets Party and meet Juliet. Fate made Romeo born into his society and this shows his love was doomed from the start. Another reason is seen in the prologue, read in the chorus. The prologue sums up the ending of the story and mentions the family feuds as partly to blame. This is seen in:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents strife

The line: doth with their death bury their parents strife shows that Shakespeare uses language that puts the blame on the family and star crossd lovers shows that his fate was written in the stars (unchangeable) and therefore his love was doomed from the start. So, in conclusion, we find that there were different factors which show that Romeos and Juliets Love was doomed from the start. We saw that there were many different factors that supported this, like family and fate.