Romeo and Juliet has a very gripping prologue, which pretty much gives you the entire storyline, letting you know exactly how the story ends. A clear, strong theme that we see is fate, the idea that the relationship that Romeo and Juliet shared brought along sorrow and misery with it. The use of the term ‘star crossed lovers’ shows that their love was going against what would normally be considered their fate because, as members of feuding families (Montagues & Capulets), they weren’t supposed to be involved with each other. (star crossed means going against one’s destiny because stars are often associated with one’s fate) Another line proceeds to call their love ‘death-marked’, which is self-explanatory. This means that their relationship was meant to have a dark ending right from the start, the moment they went against their families in the name of love.
In my opinion, the aspect of fate is very important throughout the story. When we consider the setting of the story, the fact that the common notion of things ‘meant to be’ was very commonly accepted makes a lot of sense. It was considered the norm to connect general mishaps and events to fate, as we see in the story.
Even in the case of the Montagues and the Capulets, their rivalry seems frivolous and unnecessary, almost as if it were ‘written in the stars’ that they could never see eye to eye. The feud was carried forward, and, as we see, it ended in tragedy for both sides.