William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is classified as a tragedy, and by definition a tragedy involves the working of fate in the lives of the protagonists. The inevitable downfall of the hero derives as a rule from some character flaw over which the individual has no control. For Romeo and Juliet, the "flaw" is their love for one another, a love which is not allowed given the antagonisms that exist between their families. At a number of points in the story, a change in one or two elements could have produced a different outcome. Shakespeare presents the matter as inevitable, however, because the characters could not possibly make those changes. They are living out their destinies, and the choices they make derive from their characters and the situations in which they find themselves. More than this, their choices have been limited for them by their parents and their parents' parents. They have inherited a family situation and a social and political structure that does not allow them to make choices that are completely free. Their choices are always under the control of forces outside themselves. This is why their deaths could not be avoided.
The inevitability of the story of these lovers is indicated in the Prologue, spoken by a Chorus, which means that the speaker stands outside the action as an omniscient observer and sees beyond the immediate situation, conveying to the audience the sense of fate taking a hand in the destiny of these individuals. The Chorus sets up the situation of the two opposing households in Verona, "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/ Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean" (4-5). The Chorus states clearly that these are "star-cross'd lovers," and he means more by this than we do when we use the phrase today. Today the phrase refers to Romeo and Juliet and to the idea that the lovers will be thwarted at every turn by circumstances. The Chorus would have meant much more, using the ...