Celestial Imagery In Romeo And Juliet Essay

Is it the beauty of one 's face that love forms from or the beauty of one 's heart, which is never put to the test? The play, “Romeo and Juliet,” by William Shakespeare displays the origin of the stereotypical model of love at first sight, as well as the tragedy that forms from this flawed form of lust. In fact, Shakespeare uses celestial imagery throughout Romeo’s balcony speech to Juliet to exhibit the egotistical universe in which Romeo is the creator and the center, suggesting Romeo’s oblivious nature in his objectification of Juliet.

Notably, Romeo’s dictated orientation of the celestial bodies in his egocentric universe reveals his self serving love. To begin with, Romeo compares Juliet and Rosaline, easily maneuvering their placement in his cosmos with their new status of sun and moon. He demands that Juliet, the sun, “Arise...and kill the envious moon,”(II.ii.4), commanding her to take the place of his previous infatuation while at the same time degrading the value of Juliet as her own person, since her sole purpose in Romeo’s

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s use of celestial imagery during the speech Romeo makes to Juliet displays Romeo’s inner universe of which he is the heart; the center that controls the other parts of the body or in this case celestial bodies. In his selfish nature, he exposes his ignorance towards his need to possess power over Juliet, too arrogant to even realize his own objectification of her. Ultimately, Romeo indirectly offers Juliet an ultimatum, her voice, her vulnerability and her freedom in exchange for not his vows of love, but of lust. Unlike Romeo’s definition of love, true love is when a person realizes that someone else 's happiness deserves to be greater than their own. It’s when someone morphs you into a better person, without forcing you to give up any part of yourself. True love is sacrifice, it is surrender and it is the dreams of someone else mixing with the dreams of your own, creating a beautiful color for the