's
destiny is to die a tragic death by her own hand. We know this because it explicitly says so in
the play's . It's all in the stars, apparently, an indication of the widespread belief in
astrology that characterized the age in which the play was written.
What we
don't yet know, of course, is how this all comes about and why. There's an awfully long way to
go before we reach that heart-rending moment when a distraught Juliet will stab herself to death
upon finding the corpse of her beloved . That gives Shakespeare plenty of time to devise a
suitably intriguing and convoluted plot that brings the star-crossed lovers together forever,
but only in death.
It's a measure of The Bard's considerable skills as a
dramatist that we're emotionally invested in , even though we know of their tragic fate. There
always seems to be the faintest hope that maybe, just maybe, the two young love-birds will avoid
their unhappy fate. That such hope exists at all is a testament to the immense skill with which
Shakespeare draws his two main characters and of the rich, intriguing plot in which he embroils
them.
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