Metaphors In Romeo And Juliet

Throughout history, literature has attempted to define love using different styles of writing to convey a multitude of opinions of what love is. Love is easily described as a metaphor, and oftentimes, metaphors change the way people think about simple tasks and ideas. Catron states that metaphors “shape the way we experience the world,” and one of these experiences is love (TED Talk). Although metaphors are very commonly used to define love, there are many other similar ways that the life-changing experience of love is able to be explained. Love is a feeling of attraction, affection, and difficult experiences that are capable of transforming the way a person views the world.

Whether from positive or negative experiences in the relationship,

romantic attraction facilitates the way people view others. When Mrs. Baroda learns that her husband invited his friend to visit for a couple weeks, Mr. Baroda describes his friend as a connoisseur, leaving Mrs. Baroda to draw the conclusion that he is “tall, slim, cynical; with eye-glasses, and his hands in his pockets…” When Gouvernail, Mr. Baroda’s friend, arrives, Mrs. Baroda learns that “he wasn’t very tall nor very cynical; neither did he wear eye-glasses nor carry his hands in his pockets… [but] She rather liked him when he first presented himself” (2). Chopin utilizes imagery to help the reader understand Mrs. Baroda’s initial attraction towards Gouvernail. Imagery allows the reader to conceptualize Gouvernail before and after he is presented in the story. Although Gouvernail is not what Mrs. Baroda expects, she is still initially attracted to him. Throughout Gouvernail’s stay, Mrs. Baroda’s view of Gouvernail changes from amiable to belligerent and finally back to amiable. Both the positive and negative experiences that Mrs. Baroda has with Gouvernail circuitously allowed her to view her husband in a more romantic way. In another text, an unnamed narrator identifies the attraction between himself and his lover to be strange because it is abnormal to “see only one being in the world, to have only one thought in one’s mind, only one desire in the heart, and only one name on the lips…” (2). Maupassant’s use of repetition emphasizes the emotions and perceptions of love according to the narrator. The repetition of the words, “only one,” assist the reader in understanding that the narrator is only thinking of and living for one person. By the end of the story, the narrator discovers that his lover had caught a deadly cold (which is later responsible for her death) in the process of cheating on him, changing his view of attraction from affection to betrayal.
Affection is another branch of love that facilitates a change in the way people view their purpose in the world.

As Romeo and Juliet converse about the feud between their families, Romeo explains that his affection for Juliet goes beyond the family feud. Romeo assures Juliet that nothing will be able to keep his love away from her because “With love’s light wings did I [he] o’erperch these walls; for stony limits cannot hold love out” (50-51). Shakespeare uses a metaphor to compare love to a bird. Love is more directly compared to a bird’s light wings and ability to perch on walls. The symbolism of a bird is also used to showcase the freedom that the two lovers desire to attain through affectionate love. Affection is also presented by an unnamed narrator who describes the way he cares for his lover. The narrator explains that he “met her and loved her; that is all. And for a whole year… [he] lived on her tenderness, on her caresses, in her arms, in her dresses…” (3). Maupassant uses rhyme to bring a sense of musicality to the story. Music is often used as a platform for an individual to convey their affection to their lover. Because the narrator was affectionate towards his lover, he writes with rhymes and musicality in order to provide the reader with the sense of love and affection through

music.
Difficult experiences and challenges are unavoidable in romantic love relationships, and although they may be tough to get through, the challenges assist in changing a person’s view of whether or not something is worth the challenges.

Daley-Ward attempts to explain love and its challenges in a poetic form as she describes that love is “weight / it is weight and it is too heavy to feel / good sometimes” (16-17). Daley-Ward uses a metaphor to compare love to weight. Weight commonly has a double meaning of being burdensome, concluding that love can be heavy as well as burdensome. Daley-Ward uses metaphor to describe that although love and weight are not alike, they have some of the same attributes, one of the attributes being burdens. In another text, Mr. and Mrs. Baroda face challenges in their romantic love relationship because Mrs. Baroda is not particularly fond of her husband’s friend. Although Mrs. Baroda does not prefer to have Gouvernail- her husband’s friend- around, she “proposed, wholly from herself, to have Gouvernail visit them again… ‘I am glad, chere amie, to know that you have finally overcome your dislike for him…’ ‘I have overcome everything! You will see. This time I shall be very nice to him’” (29-31). Chopin uses diction to express the certainty of Mrs. Baroda as she exclaims to her husband that she has overcome her previous issues. Through Mrs. Baroda’s exclamation, the reader is able to understand that she has made a sacrifice to accept Gouvernail

because the love she has for her husband is stronger than the challenges that Gouvernail had presented them. Because of the word choice that Chopin thoughtfully presents, the reader is able to interpret the Baroda's relationship challenge and resolution as the reader wishes.
Different opinions of what love is have been described through short stories, plays, poems, and videos. A timeless depiction of love and its attributes have been defined through various types of literature and media. The definitions of love and its attributes differ from author to author and reader to reader. How an individual’s view of the world changes is actualized through attraction, affection, cheating, betrayal, one sided love, and temptations, known as love.