Romeo And Juliet

A large part of the beliefs for both Romeo and Juliet involve fate. They believed in the stars, and that their actions weren't always their own. For example, "I am fortunes fool ( 794)". Romeo cries out these words when the full impact of what he has just done and the consequences of his actions hit him. His secret marriage to Juliet of the Capulet family, his own families' sworn enemy, had earlier prevented him from accepting the challenge of a fight made by Tybalt, Juliet's cousin. Romeo's friend Mercutio cannot stand by and watch Tybalt degrade Romeo, and so he takes up the sword, but is fatally wounded. When Romeo sees Mercutio dead he then fights Tybalt, he ends up killing him. It is when Tybalt falls dead that Romeo realizes what he has done. He also knows he will now be executed by the prince, who had said that there would be no more fights between the Capulets and Montagues. Romeo, for example, page 755, he says, "Some consequence yet hanging in the starsÐ'...by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage over my course Direct my sail." He's basically saying to his friends that he had a dream which leads him to believe that he will die young because of something in the stars, something that will happen. He ends with "Ð'...he that hath steerage over my courseÐ'..." which implies that he does not have control.

Free will is the "philosophical doctrine" that our choices are, ultimately, "up to us". Consequently, an un-free action must be somehow "up to" something else. The phrase "up to us" is vague, and, just like free will itself, admits of a variety of interpretations. Because of this vagueness, the usefulness of the concept of free will is questioned by some. We can ask several logically independent questions about free will. There are also many instances of free will being executed. When Balthasar tells Romeo that