if, if. If onlyJuliet's wedding had not been moved up, forcing her to take the sleeping potion earlier than planned; if only Romeo had gotten word of the plot so that he would have known Juliet was not really dead; and if only he hadn't immediately and impulsively killed himself, all would have been well—at least potentially. Of course, we learn in the Prologue that the lovers are fated to come to a tragic end, so we have to believe that if this series of mishaps had not ruined their chances, something else would have.

Timing plays such a huge role in Romeo and Juliet that it no doubt became frustrating at points for the audience to watch. There are so many "perfect timing" moments that lead up to the eventual tragedy that it would lead the viewer to believe that the titular characters were indeed fated to meet their miserable end.

First, there is the uncanny timing of the outbreak of plague that causes Friar John to become quarantined. With Friar John indisposed, the letter informing Romeo of Juliet's plot with the sleeping potion cannot be delivered. Because of this, Romeo believes she truly is dead. Lord Capulet also moves the day of Paris and Juliet's wedding a day earlier, compelling Juliet to take the potion earlier. Finally, and most cruelly, Romeo decides to take the poison upon seeing what he thinks is Juliet's corpse. However, with uncanny timing, he ends his own life mere moments before Juliet wakes up.

Of all the issues of "timing" in Romeo and Juliet, the most essential one is Romeo's arrival at Juliet's "tomb" before the drug simulating death has worn off. Romeo enters the tomb, sees his beloved newly dead (as he believes), and carries out his intention to join her in death, rather than live without her.

Shortly after his suicide by poison, Juliet awakes, finds him dead, and ends her own life. Neither of these deaths would have been necessary if only Romeo had been delayed just a little longer.

However, Shakespeare, basing his play on a much older story, is intent on writing a tragedy, and fate, or "timing," often plays a large role in his tragedies, as he wrestles with the issue of exactly how much control we actually exert over our lives.

Timing is everything in Romeo and Juliet. The Capulet servant happens to run into Romeo in Act I, scene i to tell Romeo of the Capulet party that evening. In Act I, scenes ii and iii, the idea of marriage is proposed to Juliet, however Lord Capulet has not yet committed his daughter to anything. This leaves her open to the thought of marriage and allows her room to fall in love with Romeo. In Act IV, scene ii, Capulet moves the marriage of Paris and Juliet from Thursday to Wednesday. Because of this, Juliet has to take the potion a day early. This complicates the situation for Friar Laurence when he finds out that the letter never gets to Romeo but has no time to send it again. (If Juliet had gotten married on the day originally scheduled, Friar Laurence would have had more time to get word to Romeo again) Timing plays fate again in Act V, scene iii when Romeo decides to take the poison just as Juliet is about to awake.

In many ways. The three I think are most important are the servant running into Romeo in Act I (it is a big coincidence that this servant runs into them, no?), that Friar John was unable to go to Mantua (and contact Romeo, letting him know Juliet is not dead), and that Romeo gets there just before she wakes (if she woke earlier, it wouldn't be necessary for everyone to die).

The fact that the Capulets and Montagues cannot even remember the reasons for their feud (as it occurred so long ago) makes Romeo and Juliet's demise all the more tragic. 

As both families suffer immense grief from the loss of their children, they are left with the harrowing realization that they don't even remember why they were fighting. Their children died over a feud that neither family could even remember the reasons for.

The tragedy of the play is that this feud, which is clearly rather trivial at this point in time, could only be resolved through the deaths of two innocent young people. Essentially, Romeo and Juliet paid the price for the folly of their older family members, who should have known better than to feed their own pride by perpetuating their feud. With the deaths of their loved ones, their selfish behaviors are thrown into stark relief: both families realize just how pointless the feud was in the first place, and that their children lost their lives for no good reason.

Time affects the progression of the feud in Romeo and Juliet in two major ways. First, the passage of time renders the feud almost mythological in proportion; although the Capulets and Montagues continue to hate each other, neither family remembers how or why the feud began. The feud started so long ago that neither family can recall its origins and simply perpetuate the feud out of ego. It is a spiteful and violent tradition that is way out of hand.

Second, time has created a continued escalation in the gravity of the feud itself, as the warring factions' attacks and acts of retaliation continue to worsen. The play itself begins with two Capulet men antagonizing a group of Montagues, which leads to an all-out brawl. The families are fighting over the unknown hurt between them, and, it seems, just for the sake of fighting. This approach is circular, self-defeating, and dangerous.

Overall, time has evolved this rivalry into mayhem while preventing the two families involved from recalling the rivalry's source; as a result, the relationship between the Capulets and Montagues ripens into an increasingly chaotic, violent, and unstable pattern of offensive and defensive lashes. This pattern ultimately leads to the tragic death of the story's protagonists and the wild grief of their loved ones.