Fate and free will

How Shakespeare explores fate, the stars and chance against the characters' own choices across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life', 'Some consequence yet hanging in the stars', 'O, I am fortune's fool!', 'I have an ill-divining soul', 'Then I defy you, stars!', 'A greater power than we can contradict'.
Chance, haste and choice: the plague that stops the Friar's letter, and the characters' own decisions.

What you need to know