To love means to feel a strong fondness towards somebody. It is represented romantically, ancestrally, or when referring to a cherished item or idea. Love is commonly shown between two people in a relationship, and some spend their entire lives striving for a sense of adoration and comfort. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the use of literary devices illustrates the complexity of young love. This is shown by pathos, light and dark imagery, and dramatic irony.
To begin, dramatic irony is seen during many discussions. The device is used when the audience has knowledge of events the characters are unaware of. Dramatic irony is repeatedly shown through conversations about marriage, love, and death. First, Juliet compares marrying Paris
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to marrying Romeo. She does not want to “marry yet; and when [she does] . . . it shall be Romeo . . . rather than Paris” (3.5.122-124). In saying this, Lady Capulet believes Juliet means she does not want to marry at all, since Romeo is an enemy to the Capulets. This shows dramatic irony because Juliet is literal in her meaning. She wants to marry Romeo, but does not want to marry Paris. Furthermore, Romeo is infatuated with a woman named Rosaline. She is “too fair, too wise” (1.1.218) and “rich in beauty” (1.1.212). This is dramatic irony because he falls in love with Juliet later in the night. Romeo does not think anyone will compare to Rosaline, but Juliet surpasses his expectations. In addition, Romeo kills himself when he hears of Juliet’s death. He goes to an apothecary where he purchases “a dram of poison” (5.1.60) and commits suicide. This is another example of dramatic irony because Juliet is not dead. The potion she takes only makes it look like she has passed away. The inconsistencies between thoughts and reality make it hard for Romeo and Juliet to be together. Therefore, dramatic irony plays a role in illustrating the intricacies they face as young lovers. Next, light and dark are recurring images used throughout the play.
This emphasizes the darkness as a negative symbol and light as positive. The terms are used to develop the plot, show Romeo’s feelings, and reinforce Romeo and Juliet’s fates. First, Romeo uses light imagery to describe Juliet and dark imagery to describe Rosaline. He wants the “fair sun” to arise “and kill the envious moon” (2.2.4). This is comparing the two girls; Juliet is the sun and Rosaline is the moon. This shows Romeo is moving on and finding a new love in Juliet. Furthermore, darkness is used to describe Romeo’s depressive state when he is heartbroken over Rosaline. He “shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, / And makes himself an artificial night” (1.1.139-140). This is another example of darkness as an undesirable symbol due to his dreary mood. In order to make himself feel better, Romeo shuts out all light around him. In addition, Romeo and Juliet’s last scene takes place during the night. When Romeo is looking for Juliet’s body, he needs Balthasar to “give [him] the light” (5.3.25) so he can find it. He is searching for her in the darkness which creates a gloomy mood. This shows they are doomed from the beginning, since the darkness is a negative motif. It is difficult for Romeo and Juliet to be together when the light represents a positive ideal and the dark represents a negative one. Therefore, recurring light and dark imagery reinforce the obstacles Romeo and Juliet have to overcome …show more content…
in order to be together. Finally, pathos is a literary device often seen in relation with events happening to Juliet.
In this literary work, pathos is used to induce a sense of sadness for a character. This feeling is created by Juliet’s arranged marriage, family life, and suicide. First, Juliet is forced to marry Paris, ruining her plans to spend the rest of her life with Romeo. Capulet and Lady Capulet want her to marry “the gallant, young, and noble gentleman” (3.5.114) Paris “. . . next Thursday morn” (3.5.113). This creates pathos because Juliet does not want to marry Paris. She is already married to Romeo; the man she wants to spend her life with. Furthermore, there is an ongoing feud between the Capulets and Montagues making it impossible for Romeo and Juliet to be together. Each brawl “bred of an airy word” (1.1.87) displays the Capulets and Montagues “pernicious rage” (1.1.82) toward each other. This shows pathos because the conflict that began years before is still affecting those who want to be civil. In addition, Juliet ends her own life once she discovers Romeo’s body. She takes Romeo’s dagger and stabs herself, where the knife will “rust, and let [her] die” (5.3.169-170). This creates an extreme sense of sadness because all hope Romeo and Juliet have for being together is wasted on their deaths. The events Romeo and Juliet have to endure are challenging and it affects their ability to be together. Therefore, the use of pathos shows the complexity of Romeo and Juliet’s
relationship. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the difficulties young lovers have to overcome are shown by the frequent use of literary devices. Romeo and Juliet’s challenges are shown by dramatic irony, light and dark imagery, and pathos. Overall, there are many challenges to face when it comes to falling in love. Despite these challenges, many strive to find their sense of happiness even when it could take a lifetime. This makes falling in love at a young age a complex and trying situation.
Love, what a small word for being one of the most powerful and complicated emotion someone can receive. Love grants people an experience of other emotions such as, sadness, happiness, jealousy, hatred and many more. It is because of those characteristics that love creates that make it so difficult to define the emotion in a few words. In the play, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, defy their parents in hopes of being able to be together and live a happy life. The characters in “Romeo and Juliet” show the characteristics of love through their words and actions throughout the play. The attributes the characters illustrate throughout the play are rage, loyalty, and sorrow.
With dramatic irony, on the other hand, it was used mainly for a comedic effect, rather than creating a plot twist for the audience. By creating a comedy using these two types of irony, Shakespeare was able to deliver his message of the true meaning of love. Situational irony is when the reader or audience is surprised by the outcome of the story. We see more of situational irony later on in the story, especially since it often leads to disputes and fights. For instance, when Robin was supposedly ordered to put flower droplets shot from cupid’s arrow into the eyes of Demetrius, he ended up putting them in the eyes of Lysander instead, mistaking him for the Athenian man Oberon had seen and causing a dispute.
An example of this is “Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaways’ eyes may wink and Romeo leap to these arms, untalk’d of an unseen”. Juliet is longing for Romeo to come and consummate their marriage at night, which is when they can be together, as their relationship is too unnatural for them to meet at day, due to the hatred of their families. It is further proven that the dark imagery represents passion. Juliet is passionate about Romeo, as she has made up her mind to give her maidenhood to him, which is something she can never undo. An additional quote is “Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. I must be gone and live, or stay and die… Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death; I am content, so thou wilt have it so“. Romeo has just consummated his marriage with Juliet. He says that the stars are gone, and that daylight is coming. Romeo must leave, as Verona is waking up, and he will be killed if he is seen with Juliet. Even with this risk, he considers staying with Juliet, as he enjoys being with her. Dark imagery is used to show how passionate Romeo is about Juliet. He made their marriage legal, and is even considering risking death to stay with her longer. He has permanently committed to her, and cannot go back. As the evidence presented shows, the dark imagery in Romeo and Juliet reflects the theme of passion.
When we look at the text closely Juliet uses the word black a lot, with thy black mantel and black-brown night. When the word black is used when we think of death, which evidently occurs a few times in the play. Juliet also uses words like 'hooded' which again. makes us think of death. In her speech she uses pathetic fallacy when she says 'cloudy night', which also suggests negative feelings.
The purpose of the light/dark motif in Romeo and Juliet is to show how Romeo and Juliet are unable to tell light from dark, or good from bad. I think everyone has the potential to discern what choices lead to “light” and what choices keep them in the “dark”. So Romeo and Juliet had that potential but I don’t think they wanted to know about that, since nothing else mattered to them but them. In this play, Romeo and Juliet do never make a clear choice of light over dark because they almost do not want to deal that decision in the midst of their romantic bliss. They could have brought their situation, which was becoming more of a mess each day, into the light by speaking openly about it. However that would’ve ended, I think the feud would have to be reconciled in some way and I’m sure Romeo and Juliet would not have lost their lives doing this. By ignoring their responsibilities and ignoring the darkness that was impeding upon them, Romeo and Juliet in essence allow tragedy to befall them both.
Everywhere you go, there is love. Whether it’s someone loving their cat, or someone loving another person; it can even be someone loving life in general. When you feel love you make sacrifices for the thing that you love because it is special to you. You feel like you only need that one thing in your life and you’ll be content. If you love that thing very much and that thing just disappears one day then you may feel as if you cannot go on without it. All of these feelings are expressed throughout the novel, Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare. Love is a powerful emotion that can make people do crazy things in life.
The most obvious use of dramatic irony is in the prologue. The chorus summarizes the entire play in a fourteen line sonnet, revealing the plot and the conclusion of the play. The prologue creates a sense of fate because the audience knows and expects that Romeo and Juliet will die despite all their efforts to sustain their true love. In Act 1 Scene 5, at the masquerade ball, Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, and fall in love before either is aware that they are supposed enemies. Juliet says “If he is married.
Shakespeare uses dark and light imagery throughout the play to stand for death, violence, sadness and secrecy. In act one, scene two, Shakespeare uses dark imagery to convey Romeo's sadness. Montague describes romeo as creating an 'artificial night' which seems to reflect his dark, depressed mood.
As Mehmet Murat İldan once quoted, “A man who refused light will remain in darkness even by the side of light.” Throughout Romeo and Juliet, light and dark imagery is used to intensify the tragedy in this story. Romeo exists in a dark, depressed state while thinking about his first love, Rosaline. Romeo doesn’t ever think he will be happy or see light again, yet Shakespeare provides light imagery that implies Romeo could have a positive future. Light imagery conveys that Juliet, a beautiful, young girl full of hope, dreams of bringing Romeo out of the artificial darkness he creates for himself. Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery in many ways, including setting the mood, capturing the characters’ personalities, and developing the characters
True love is one of the most genuine, not to mention precious feelings in the world. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, a pair of lovers denotes the strength of true love and it's ability to overcome nearly all obstacles. However, this kind of love is a rarity due to it's pureness but somehow many cheap imitations are still mistaken for real love. Romeo and Juliet's love is authentic and by no means an infatuation seeing as first of all, they both risk their lives to see each other and would rather die than be separated. Juliet also has an unusual level of loyalty towards her partner for her age which supports the idea of true love. In addition, throughout the play, Romeo's demeanour started to change and he began to mature in a considerably short period of time. Young love is a petty sentiment nonetheless when it develops into a fully-fledged unconditional love, both partners will begin to evolve and will do nearly anything for the other.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is arguably one of the most beautiful yet tragic love stories ever written. Romeo and Juliet, two lovers from feuding families, fall instantly in love when they first lay eyes on each other. Romeo compares Juliet’s beauty to the bright torches as well as the sun, and he realizes that the only time they can see each other is at night when all is dark. Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery throughout the play, with each having a different meaning. He turns light and dark imagery on its head by showing darkness as a safe place for the lovers, and light as both harsh and a representation of beauty.
One example of dramatic irony is when Oedipus is looking for the killer of the king Laius-his father. The irony here is that he is looking for himself because he is the murder of his father. Oedipus knows that he killed someone, but what he does not know is that it was Laius, the one he murder. Oedipus wants to punish the person who killed Laius, but we, the audience know that Oedipus was the one who killed Laius. Also Oedipus married Jocasta without knowing that she is his mother. We, the audience knew that he was Jocasta's son, but he was unaware of that.
Throughout acts one and two Romeo is portrayed as a romantic teen that believes in love at first sight. Before meeting Juliet, he is madly in love with a woman named Rosaline, but it was to his dismay that she did not love him back. One night Romeo decides to go to a party where he first sees Juliet and instantaneously falls in love with her. Romeo expresses his dire love by passionately elucidating “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun, arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief.” Shakespeare uses metaphors and personification to describe how important Juliet is to Romeo. Romeo uses a metaphor to compare Juliet to the sun, which is in the center of the universe. He also uses personification to give the moon human qualities. Romeo describes the moon as envious, sick, and pale with grief. Shakespeare also expresses the idea of love at first sight, when Romeo is pouring his heart out to Juliet. He lovingly
Yet he manages to display the same aspects of love using motifs like night, and other things associated with night. In the balcony scene, Juliet exclaims to Romeo “I would not for the world [the guards] saw thee here” and Romeo responds with “I have nights cloak to hide me from their eyes and but thou love me, let them find me here” (2.2.79-81). Romeo believes the darkness of night is in his favor. His devotion for Juliet is pure and strong, for if the night does not hide him, he will take death if it means Juliet will still love him. When death does occur for Romeo, Juliet gives a speech about him that says, “Give me my Romeo, and when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heav’n so fine, that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun” (3.2.23-27). As night approaches, stars come out Stars are associated with angels, as angels are associated with heaven. Daytime is the time people can go out and do their daily things, for there is light. But when Romeo does die, Juliet believes that he will become the stars and make night so precious, everyone will want it to be night over
Love has been expressed since the beginning of time; since Adam and Eve. Each culture expresses its love in its own special way. Though out history, though, it’s aspect has always been the same. Love has been a major characteristic of literature also. One of the most famous works in literary history is, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This story deals with the love of a man and a woman who’s families have been sworn enemies. There love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end they both ended up killing their selves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.