The Prologue announces the deaths of Romeo and Juliet before they appear on stage, and it seems that there is nothing they can do to avoid this fate. Their doom is foreshadowed several times during the course of the play. Romeo’s clumsy attempts to swear to his love by “the inconstant moon” lead Juliet to reflect:

Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract to-night:

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

Ere one can say “It lightens.”

Even more ominously, the last time she sees Romeo alive, Juliet says:

O God, I have an ill-divining soul!

Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,

As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:

Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.

Romeo replies that she also looks pale, remarking portentously “Dry sorrow drinks our blood.” He then says “adieu,” a final farewell, meaning “until God.” They never meet again.

At key moments, we are reminded of the role of fate. When Romeo and his friends prepare to attend the Capulet ball, Romeo ominously remarks that he feels the events of the night will somehow lead to his death. Despite this, he is determined to attend, acknowledging that his fate is ultimately out of his hands: “But he that hath the steerage of my course, / Direct my sail.”

Later when Benvolio tells Romeo of Mercutio’s death, before Tybalt re-enters, Romeo has time to exclaim:

This day's black fate on more days doth depend;

This but begins the woe, others must end.

This seems at the time as though it might refer to his own imminent death, for Tybalt is a skillful swordsman. Romeo does not know or care whether he is likely to die. When he challenges Tybalt, he says that one or both of them must go to join Mercutio, and leaves the issue, like many others in Romeo and Juliet, to fate.