Romeo and Juliet the Ticking Clock

Mrs. Macri Lee

ENG 1D1

May 23rd

Romeo and Juliet the Ticking Clock

Time is a social construct that people are affected by. Actions made when the clock is ticking cannot be reverse your fate. Romeo and Juliet are written by William Shakespeare. Time and fate are a factor in this play. Both the characters make a time-based decision which leads to an untimely death. Fate in the form of a ticking clock took the life of the young couple by the convenient timing of their meeting, the unfortunate timing of not being united in Mantua, and the unfortunate timing of their tragic suicides.

Time plays a role in Romeo and Juliet but how does the timing of the characters in the story led to them getting married. During the beginning of the book Capulet throws a ball at his house and makes a guest list. This guest list is then given to the servant. Servants in this time period do not know how to read. So, to actually invite the guest a person has to know how to read. This is where Romeo comes in, Romeo read the guests. ‘stay fellow I can read/... Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great/ rich Capulet, and if you be not of the house of/ Montagues, I praise come and crash a cup of wine. Rest/ you mercy. While reading the guest list, Romeo finds that his crush, Roseline is on the list (I, ii,63-83). This is the first-time based action that led up to the couple getting married. The servant coincidently runs into Romeo out of all the people in the city, the servant runs in to Romeo. If Romeo wasn’t passing by at that exact moment the servant went by. Romeo and Juliet would’ve never met, Tybalt would've never killed Mercutio or died, and Romeo and Juliet would’ve never killed themselves. Another scene which proves that Romeo and Juliet is highly time based is the balcony scene. Romeo runs out of the ball after getting found out by Tybalt, and finds that Juliet is out on her balcony talking about how she loves him (II, ii, 33-36) “O Romeo, Romeo where art thou Romeo?/Deny thy father and refuse thy name;/ or if thou wilt not, he but sworn my love,/ and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” This is the exact scene where they agreed to get married. During this scene, Romeo climbs up to her balcony and hears her say that she loves him. This shows that the main reason of Romeo running out of the ball and Juliet going on her balcony is due to timing. Out of all the thing Juliet could’ve done, she went out on her balcony and called out Romeo. The actions that led up to this were Romeo dancing and kissing Juliet and Romeo getting caught by Tybalt. Juliet could’ve gone and talked with the nurse about this, or went to sleep, but she chose to go on her balcony and explain her love to Romeo. Who is coincidently outside listening to her.

Death is in Romeo and Juliet but how do time their actions play a role in altering their fate and leading to their death? In the scene when Romeo kills Tybalt, Romeo gets banished from Verona and delays the wedding that Romeo and Juliet were going to have. (III, I, 184-193) “Immediately we do exile him... Let Romeo hence in haste, / Else, when he is found, that hour is his last. / Bear hence this body, and attend our will: / Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. This scene shows that Romeo has committed murderer and will be banished from the city. Doing this by his own actions will delay the time in which Romeo and Juliet will get married. This is a huge turn because everything was going fine until this scene. Time turned on them by their own actions, now Romeo is going to find out that Juliet is “dead” this then leads to their eventual suicide. If Romeo let, go of Tybalt to be punished by the prince this all wouldn’t have not happened. Romeo is also not to blame though. He was right to avenge his friend but if he wanted the best for him and Juliet, he wouldn’t have done that. This leads to when Romeo is on the path to Mantua, Friar tries to send the letter that Juliet drinks a potion that last 40 hours and she’ll look as if she was dead but coincidently, due to the timing of the plague going around the messenger, Friar John couldn’t send the message