Fate In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

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Many of the popular quotes in the present day relate to choosing your own path in life. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is often (incorrectly) viewed as a calling to stay off the beaten path and follow the sound of your own drum, and choice has become one of the most important deceptions to each person’s identity. The opposite of choice and pre-conditioned destiny is fate. Fate is often set in stone, and it tells the story in the past tense--the story has already been written, and it is not a story that is in the making. Some people believe in fate and leave their lives up to it, whereas others think that choices are what determine what our future will look like. Regardless, both fate and destiny, while opposites, are inherently linked …show more content…
The famous Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet, a masterpiece about two young lovers who claimed their own lives for their love, contrasts pre-conceived fate with destiny; through the play, Shakespeare shows how belief in either destiny or fate can influence a character's decisions, and shelter a person from reality, which can lead to disastrous …show more content…
The friar is the character in the play that propels both Romeo and Juliet forward on the path that they’re taking, he agrees to marry the two lovers, and later, when they are ripped apart, he risks his reputation to help Romeo and Juliet reunite. In order to defy the expectations (Montagues and Capulets are expected to hate each other), Friar Lawrence must believe in destiny, or else he would not have intervened to help out Romeo and Juliet, as many roadblocks, such as Romeo’s banishment and Juliet’s marriage to Paris, seem to suggest that the two were not fated to be together. After learning that his letter to Romeo was not delivered, Friar Lawrence again set to defy fate because of his belief in destiny, he says to Friar John, “But I will write again to Mantua, / And keep her at my cell till Romeo come. / Poor living corse, closed in a dead man’s tomb!” (Rom.5.2.27-30). The Friar again tries to help Romeo and Juliet choose their own way by trying to help Juliet escape Verona and her family, even though it is more than obvious that his plan is not working, nevertheless he still perseveres, with his belief in destiny pushing him forward. The friar believes so much in choosing one’s own path that he goes to any risk in order to ensure that Romeo and Juliet will be together (in the friar’s mind, Romeo and Juliet’s romance goes against fate, because their families were
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