Shakespearean Language Used to Create Meaning
Romeo and Juliet is a well-known tragedy and play written by William Shakespeare. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are two adolescent lovers separated by the feud between their families. Even after marrying each other, sneaking around and faking dead, Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other ends up resulting in them taking their own lives. Shakespeare uses imagery, hyperboles and sonnets to emphasize the relationship between Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare accentuates the love between Romeo and Juliet through the use of imagery. In act two, scene two, when Romeo is looking up at Juliet on her balcony, he expresses he would risk everything to gain Juliet. Romeo indicates, “I am no pilot; yet, wert
…show more content…
thou as far/ As that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea,/ I would adventure for such merchandise.” (II.ii.87-9) By this quote, Romeo convey’s although he is not a sailor, if Juliet were across the farthest sea, he would risk everything just to retrieve her; he emphasizes how important Juliet is to Romeo. Guided by emotions and love, Shakespeare is able to depict Romeo as a naive romantic. Through this quote, Pettet describes Romeo as willing to dare anything but still modest. Shakespeare also uses religious imagery to accentuate the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo first learns of his banishment to Mantua he expressed his feelings to Friar Lawrence; “Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here/ Where Juliet lives,” (III.iii.31-2) By this, Romeo means he will only experience happiness and euphoria where Juliet is, in Verona. Although he was banished, and spared from death, he doesn’t find any relief in banishment being his consequence of killing Tybalt. He sees his banishment as torture because he is separated from his love, Juliet. Religious imagery is also seen throughout the dialogue of Romeo and Juliet’s first encounter. In every part of the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet, the imagery of prayers and kisses are evident; which are very contradicting ideas. (I.v.104-17) Through this, shared intimacy is represented among them. Not only does the imagery emphasize the love, it also foreshadows the violence of Romeo and Juliet’s love. Friar Lawrence cautions Romeo, “These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,/ Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey/ Is loathsome in his own deliciousness/ And in the taste confounds the appetite./ Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so./ Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” (II.vi.9-15) Through this quote, Friar Lawrence means abrupt happiness can also have abrupt endings. Friar Lawrence declares when Romeo and Juliet meet in a kiss, they explode. He cautions to love each other in moderation which will then result in long lasting love and too fast is as miserable as too slow. By using violent imagery, Friar Lawrence foreshadows Romeo and Juliet resulting in long lasting pain and grief. Shakespeare uses astrological imagery to create an atmosphere and intensifies the love between Romeo and Juliet.
In the first sonnet, used as a prologue to the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet are described as “star-crossed lovers” (line 6). The meaning of star-crossed lovers establishes the idea of failed romance. All throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet are referenced to stars and astrological imagery. When Romeo is wandering in the Capulet’s garden after the party, he finds Juliet on her balcony, and expresses how beautiful she is, “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?/ 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.” (II.ii.2-5) Through this imagery, it is evident Romeo views Juliet more beautiful than the moon and she can easily surpass the moon turning darkness into daylight. Romeo also personifies the moon as “sick and pale with grief”. By this, he emphasizes her beauty as brighter and possessing much more beauty than the moon. As Romeo watches Juliet on her balcony , he observes, “Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,/ Having some business, do entreat her eyes/ To twinkle in their spheres till they return./ What if her eyes were there, they in her head?/ The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars/ As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven/ Would through the airy regions stream so bright/ that birds would sing and think it were not night.” (II.ii.15-23) This quote …show more content…
is Romeo’s way of admiring Juliet’s beauty. Romeo compares her eyes to the fairest stars and the brightness in her cheeks outshining the stars. Pettet comments this quote identifies Juliet now as Romeo’s star and fate. As his star, Juliet has the magical power of transforming night into day, of changing pain into contentment and the hatred of their families into love. After the killing of Tybalt, Juliet waits for Romeo to come to her, “Give me my Romeo, and, when I shall die,/ Take him and cut him out in little stars,/ And he will make the face of heaven so fine/ That all the world will be in love with night,/ And pay no worship to the garish sun.” (III.ii.23-7) Juliet uses the stars to describe that if Romeo were stars in a constellation, the whole world would fall in love with the beautiful, star-filled night, and pay no attention to the sun (Pettet). Wheelock comments on the extravagance of the “garish sun.” He points out Juliet has only seen Romeo at night and she will never see him by daylight. Juliet is able to reject the “garish sun” considering it has never shone on Romeo and Juliet. With help from astrological imagery, the audience is able to fully understand Romeo and Juliet’s intensified love for eachother. By using hyperboles, Shakespeare is able to describe characters and explain character development. When Romeo discovers his punishment for killing Tybalt is banishment, he exclaims, “There is no world without Verona walls,/ But purgatory, torture, hell itself.” (III.iii.18-9) This quote helps the reader understand, with this extravagant statement, that Romeo is still a child; he is homebound and immature. After Juliet’s father had arranged the marriage between Paris and Juliet, Juliet immediately fled to Friar Lawrence to beg for a solution to stop the marriage. Juliet was so troubled with the arrangement she’d rather face death than marry Paris. “Give me some present counsel, or, behold,/ ‘Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife/ Shall play the umpire,…” (IV.i.62-4) In this quote, Juliet threatens Friar Lawrence to either provide a solution or she will kill herself. This represents the vulnerability and immaturity seen in Juliet. During Juliet’s encounterment with Friar Lawrence, Juliet displays how much she would abhor it to marry Paris: O, Bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,/ From off the battlements of any tower,/ ...bid me lurk/ Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,/ Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,/O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,/With reeky shanks and yellow [chapless] skulls./ Or bid me go into a new-made grave/ And hide me with a dead man in his [shroud]/(Things that to hear them told have me tremble),/ And I will do it without fear or doubt, To love an unstained wife to my sweet love. (IV.i.79-87) Although these things make her tremble, Juliet exclaims she’d rather jump off a tower, sit in a field of poisonous snakes,be chained to wild bears, or hide in a morgue full of bodies than have to marry Paris. This passage truly demonstrates how Juliet is a naive lover, like Romeo. This quote explains Juliet would do literally anything than have to be the unhappy wife to Paris. Shakespeare is able to explain and allow the audience to understand characters better through the use of hyperboles. Through the three Shakespearean sonnets incorporated into Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare is able to intensify drama and introduce the theme of love and fate.
The first sonnet acts as a prologue and is spoken by the chorus. The first sonnet gives the audience an insight of what to going to happen and background knowledge. The quote, “Two households, both alike in dignity/(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),/ From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,” (1-3) explains the play takes place in Verona, involving two families of high social standing, who have been rivals for a long time. The lines, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/ A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,/ Whose misadventured piteous overthrows/ Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.”(5-8) explains the children of the enemy families become lovers and commit suicide. In the end, their deaths is what contributed to the end of the two families feud.Through these lines, the audience is able to receive an overall summary of the plot. These lines also introduce the theme of love through the “star-crossed lovers.” The second sonnet in Romeo and Juliet is incorporated into the dialogue between Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting. Through their first encounter, Romeo and Juliet discuss lust and physical desire while masking it through religious terms. Romeo says, “Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.” (I.v.118) This quote means Romeo’s sins have been taken away by Juliet’s lips; [he
juxtaposes two contradicting ideas.] The sonnet being expressed through dialogue expresses unity between the two lovers. The third sonnet recaptures events that occurred in the first act and [prepares] the viewers for the second act. Through the lines, “Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,/ And young affection gapes to be his heir. / That fair for which love groaned for and would die/ With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.” the viewer understands Romeo is still a child and is unsure of what love really is. Through these lines, it is described the love Romeo had for Rosaline has now turned into the love he has for Juliet. It can be seen Romeo is a naive lover. It is said, “Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,/ Alike bewitchèd by the charm of looks,”(II.5-6). This means Romeo now loves again, but both Romeo and Juliet are in love with each other's looks. This represents them both as superficial or materialistic. Through the line, “Temp’ring extremities with extreme sweet.” (II.14) the viewers are able to fully understand the conflict between the feuding families greatly affects the two lovers. Cole emphasizes the structure of the play greatly heightens Romeo’s character. Romeo is both reckless and desperate because is he is in love and immature, which is seen through the sonnets. However, by the end of the play, Shakespeare makes Romeo out to be more of a man than a boy desperate for love. Through Shakespeare's use of sonnets in the play, the audience is able to understand the plot and develop a better understanding of the characters. Romeo and Juliet is a well known tragedy and play by William Shakespeare. One reason for the abundant fondness of the play is from its effective language. Shakespeare uses many hyperboles and imagery to exaggerate and emphasize Romeo and Juliet’s love and to develop a plot. Shakespeare also uses sonnets to help the audience grasp better knowledge of the play.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a story of two young lovers. These two hearts, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet belong to feuding families. The family feud causes them to keep their love a secret and therefore only Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio, the Nurse and Friar Lawrence know of their love. Romeo and Juliet are able to look past the feud and let themselves fall in mad love with the other. They let themselves do almost anything for the other and at times it seems like too much to do, even for the one they love. Although fate and character traits play a key role in the play, ultimately Rome and Juliet’s personal choices lead to their downfall.Fate originates all of the conflicts in Romeo and Juliet, from when they met until they die.
William Shakespeare’s diverse use of rhetorical and figurative language enhances and develops the moods he conveys, thus creating vast and various atmospheres throughout his works. An example of one his works that uses many of these devices is Shakespeare’s renowned Romeo and Juliet. In the famous play, the two lovebirds (Romeo and Juliet), fall in a forbidden love as the long-lasting rivalry between their two families continues its onslaught. The couple later on tragically commit suicide, which ultimately ends the feud. During the journey of the two lovers, Shakespeare expresses clearly the mood of each scene using figurative language.
In Romeo and Juliet, it is clear that Shakespeare commonly embodies metaphors in his play to elaborate on Romeo’s love for Juliet. The use of metaphors invites the audience to develop a further understanding of the object comparing values of love. An example of a metaphor can be noticed in the balcony scene when Romeo claims that “Juliet is the sun”. When we analyse this quote we notice that Shakespeare is displaying the respect that Romeo offers to Juliet. The purpose of using this particular metaphor is to show that Juliet’s appearance will always be accepted in Romeo’s heart. When the sun is mentioned it is referred as Juliet being high in the sky; overlooking and invalidating all those beneath her control. This metaphor is referring to Juliet as being truly out of this world, Romeo’s world; conveying ideas of excitement and affection. When Juliet is compared to the sun, powerful messages are given off such as Juliet being forever existent, and forever the love of Romeo’s life; as the sun will never die out, meaning that Romeo will always have a desire towards the angelic figure in his life. To conclude, metaphors are one of the most common language techniques that Shakespeare incorporates into his highly successful play, Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare models metaphors to analyse the affection so we can determine how much love is present in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. As a result, the messages founded by metaphors helps us connect to the jubilant, however, catastrophic
The famous poet Oscar Wilde once said that “The heart was made to be broken.”. Romeo and Juliet is a tale of two star-crossed lovers who in their love for each other were willing to sacrifice their lives. In Act 1, Scene 5 of “Romeo and Juliet”, William Shakespeare portrays Romeo as temperamental using hyperbole. Romeo says “ Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
“‘Romeo is banished.’ There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, in that word's death. No words can that woe sound.”– or so Juliet grieves over Romeo’s banishment, hurt with the reality that nothing will never dull its pain (3.2, 135-137). In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Romeo and Juliet, a young, tentative girl named Juliet meets the charming Romeo who, even after knowing for just a day, causes her to disregard rationale and reason in order to pursue the new feeling of desire she had yet to experience. Her heart takes her to express her love in a soliloquy on a balcony, and to craft poetic speeches about this lover whose outward presentation later proves to be a facade masking a darker side she never knew existed. Juliet first viewed
middle of paper ... ... Through the ingenious use of personification in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare competently conveys the messages of love as lust, clouded judgment and death. In this dramatic tragedy, all of the character’s problems are a result of basing decisions off of their emotions rather than logic. Because of this, two lustful teenagers end up taking their lives over extreme affections and fear of their parents’ disapproval.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare revolves around the love affair of Romeo and Juliet, whose families are sworn enemies. They fall in love early in the play in spite of their backgrounds, and pursue their love relentlessly, eventually leading to their tragic deaths. The main themes that Shakespeare addresses in this romantic tragedy are love and romance. This is conveyed through Shakespeare’s use of celestial, sun and moon and nature imagery, which captures the purity of the love felt and expressed by the lovers. Shakespeare also talks about the strength of the love between Romeo and Juliet and he refers to heavenly beings to propel Romeo’s burning desire for Juliet’s love.
Romeo And Juliet, alongside Hamlet, is probably Shakespeare’s most performed play and has also been adapted in many forms. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet killed themselves due to the conflicts between the Capulets and the Montagues, Romeo and Juliet’s families. Regardless of the differences in reactions regarding the conflict between the two families, both Romeo and Tybalt are characters that act before they think, causing an unfortunate effect on the tragedy of the play.
However, in act two, scene two, the mood is altogether more optimistic and Shakespeare uses a lot of light imagery particularly when Romeo is describing Juliet. When he first sees her on the balcony, he compares her to the sun. This clearly conveys Romeo's passion for Juliet as the sun is a giver of life, a brilliant source of light and has connotations of happiness and cheer, which contrasts greatly with Romeo's previous melancholy. Furthermore, Romeo exclaims that Juliet's eyes and cheeks are 'bright and later call her a 'bright angel' which suggests the strength of his admiration for her - to him, she is more of a divine, or spiritual light; a beacon of hope.
The play Romeo and Juliet is a widely known tragedy written by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet features two rival families and their children. When a daughter of Capulet and son of Montague meet at a party, sparks immediately fly. However, because of their family rivalry, they married in secret, and were happy. That is until things took a turn for the worse.
Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare, where a boy and a girl fall in love with each other during a party hosted by Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet. The two teenager decide to get marry, despite their family's hate for each other and only meeting each other a few hours ago. However, the Montagues (Romeo’s Parents) and the Capulets end their feud after they discover that their children killed themselves. Romeo and Juliet’s death was caused by Juliet’s parents, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two young lovers, whose love was destined for destruction from the beginning because of the hatred between the two families, Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare juxtaposes the themes of love and hatred. He continuously puts them side by side, and even though they are opposites, when seen together you realise that they are driven from the same thing; passion. Shakespeare uses many different language and dramatic techniques to convey this idea.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.
In a male dominated world, women are often viewed as dependent on men and will often go against their personal morals. In Romeo and Juliet, the author William Shakespeare illustrates this through the characters of Romeo and Juliet, and portrays Juliet going against her own morals of not wanting to marry after meeting a man, Romeo. Shakespeare illustrates how Juliet is not an example of a strong female character through oxymorons, irony, and figurative language. Shakespeare expresses how Juliet is a weak female character through his use of oxymorons. Juliet has recently learned of the death of her cousin, Tybalt, caused by Romeo.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, is a well known play. That it is still performed in theaters and English classes to this day. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a play about two star crossed lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. They fall in love, despite of the feud between their families. They were forced to keep their love secret because of their families, and they also got married without their families figuring out. This story is still read now because of its strong usage of literary elements. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet endures time because of its expert use of literary elements including foreshadowing, metaphor, and simile.