Of Fate and Fortune
Or providence and the human agent
Two types of factors usher us to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths. The first factor is rashness and hasty passion. Giving in to their first impulses; how they felt in the moment. It causes Mecrutio’s death, Tybalt’s, Romeo’s banishment, until finally, the young couple die. They hardly stop to think, allowing themselves only moments to voice these hot passions. This is the biggest factor to this tragedy.
The second factor is fortune. Fortune does not stop playing chess with all the human agents. By fortune, Romeo meets Juliet —at a party his friends illegitimately got them in that he might get over his burning passion for Rosaline. And by fortune of a plague, Friar John failed to deliver the letter detailing Friar Lawrence and Juliet’s conspiracy. These are Lady Fortuna’s greatest moves. And one feels that she laughs at these cruel moves.
Yet, it is not Lady Fortuna that strikes the final blow. She orchestrates the play setting. She never tells the actors what to do. Her plays and cruel moves might all have ended comically if the actors were a little less hasty, a little more temperate in their actions. If Mercutio had refused to fight, or if Romeo had restrained his sword. Had Romeo acted with virtue and reason; had he a little sobriety, he would have heeded the laws of Mantua and not purchased the poison. With a little kindness, he would not have berated the Apothecary as he did:
Romeo Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor. [He shows him a bag of money] Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear As will disperse itself through all the veins, That the life-weary taker may fall dead, And that the trunk may be discharged of breath As violently as hasty powder fired Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. Apothecary Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua's law Is death to any he that utters them. Romeo Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness, And fear'st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes, Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back. The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law: The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it and take this. Apothecary [Taking the money] My poverty, but not my will, consents.
If Romeo sought counsel, and was not hasty to suicide, Juliet would have come around from her deep sleep. If Lord Capulet was not so rash, hastening the wedding preparations, he would not have stirred his daughter to that action. Friar Lawrence ought to have been wiser. Finally, if Juliet listened absolutely to the laws of God, to not take a life, including hers, she would not die.
In the end, as such, we learn this: that Lady Fortuna is a great player at the game of chance and circumstances. Yet, her powers have their limits —they do not prevail over a wise actor. She may set up the world in a bid to play a cruel joke. Yet, a reasonable agent, one operating within the ambits of good law and virtue will find some safety. In the end, one is doomed by his own actions. For, “the only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behaviour.”1
Fooled By Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb,