Romeo And Juliet Light And Dark Imagery Essay

A happy moment is surrounded by smiles, laughs, and light. Sadness is associated with frowns, tears, and darkness. A beautiful day is bright, sunny, and light, while an awful day is gloomy, rainy, and dark. The good things in life are often associated with light, and unfortunate times identified with darkness. These correlations have been known for ages, and were used by Shakespeare when he wrote his well-known, beloved play, Romeo and Juliet. His use of inimitable language, the parallelism of light and dark imagery symbolizes the emotions felt by the characters and influences the atmosphere of the play. Romeo is a romantic, but his ever-changing feelings can be hard to read. Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery is used to help the reader establish where he is mentally. Initially, Rosaline was who Romeo considered the love of his life. He is distraught due to the fact that she does not love him back, and never will because she is a nun. Rosaline will “...not be hit with Cupid’s arrow. She hath

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet light and dark imagery is an example of just that. Light and dark imagery is expressed countless times in the play, in both direct and indirect forms. The imagery is clearly used when Romeo compares Juliet to the light time and time again, because he bluntly says it in the dialogue. However there are more sly references to it as well. As Romeo is learning about his banishment from Friar Laurence, he is enraged because “Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here, Where Juliet lives…” (Act. 3, Sc. 3, ln 33-34). Banishment is such torture because “There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself”(Act. 3, Sc. 3, ln 20-22). Heaven is where Juliet and Hell is where she is not, as Juliet is to light and being without her is to darkness. This is yet another form of light and dark imagery, it is everywhere in Romeo and