We're in Act IV, and I'm Wondering about What If's!

As I look back over this Shakespearean tragedy, I can't help but wonder about all of the "what if's" that emerge in the storyline. What if Romeo had been kicked out of the Capulet ball? What if Romeo and Juliet were discovered by their parents? What if Tybalt saw them kiss, and he told Lord Capulet? What if Romeo's friends knew that Juliet was the new love of Romeo's life? What if the Friar hadn't married them? What if Tybalt hadn't killed Mercutio? What if Juliet decided to run away with Romeo to Mantua as he left her house in the early morning hours? What if...what if...what if!

As the calamity of errors builds in Act IV, it seems like whatever can go wrong does. As Juliet sits alone in her bed chamber (before she drinks the potion), she ponders all of the things that could go wrong. What if the potion doesn't work, and she has to marry Paris in the morning? What if she wakes up alone in the tomb before the Friar and Romeo come to rescue her? What if the spirit of Tybalt haunts her there in the vault? What if she loses her mind while waiting alone in the vault and dashes out her brains with the bones of an ancestor? Not very pleasant thoughts, but she drinks the potion anyway...

Do you ever ponder life with what if's? It certainly seems as if Shakespeare is inviting his audience to ask these questions and to agonize over the impulsiveness of youth. They (the young Romeo and Juliet) simply don't seem to anticipate the what if's (consequences) and their youth and impulsive love seem to drive this sad, disastrous drama. But then again...the Prologue tells us that it is fated that the two young lovers die in order to end the feud.