What is one major theme in Romeo and Juliet? I need to give evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the play to clearly demonstrate that the...

: Fate is inescapable; haste makes waste; hatred breeds disaster; arranged marriage vs. love. I'm going to look at some examples of fate in Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the whole story, almost every character blames Fate or Fortune for everything that happens.

Fate is such a strong theme in the play that it is first introduced in the prologue: "From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life." The phrases 'fatal loins' and 'star-cross'd' both refer to fate. These two lines says that no matter what they do, from the moments of their conceptions to the moments of their deaths, Romeo and Juliet's fate is predetermined.

In Act III scene I, after Romeo slays Tybalt, Romeo cries, "O, I am fortune's fool!" This means that Fate is toying with him, making him do stupid things. Romeo knows that having slain Tybalt, he is going to be tried and sentenced, probably to death. He realizes at this moment that he will not be able to stay with Juliet. He also knows that it was fate that determined his actions and will determine the consequence.

In Act III scene V, as Romeo exits Juliet's bed chamber, the last time she will see him alive, Juliet has a vision of Romeo dead at the bottom of a tomb, and then she calls on Fate to bring Romeo back to her:

O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

Juliet doesn't know what Fate has in store for Romeo and herself, but she speaks to Fate as if she is praying for Romeo to be sent back to her.

When Friar Lawrence's letter does not reach Romeo, in Act V scene III, the friar does blames not the messenger but Fate: "Unhappy fortune!" Even Friar Lawrence, a man of God, considers destiny prewritten.

At the end of the play, when the Prince is chastising the two families at the death of Romeo and Juliet, he says, "See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love." By 'heaven' he also refers to Fate.