Indirect Characterization In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

The Power of Contrast in Literature Juxtaposition is defined as a side by side contrast. Shakespeare uses this literary device throughout many of his works to demonstrate the intricacies of his characters. He uses juxtaposition in Romeo and Juliet to show the chararcters’ complexity and inner conflict. Juliet is a perplexing character because her feelings for Romeo go from being clear to vague.

In William Shakespeare’s timeless play Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers are faced with great adversity as they hide their romance from their feuding families. As author James Lane Allen once said, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it”. Romeo, a Montague, struggles to hide his love for the Capulet daughter, Juliet, from his family and friends. The challenge of lying to his closest companions, and going against his family’s ways to secretly marry Juliet causes Romeo to act erratically and carelessly. Throughout Act 3 Scene One, Shakespeare exposes the lovestruck Romeo’s mercurial nature and impulsivity through his thoughtless actions.

William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet, provides great foils for the main character, Romeo. Shakespeare includes many foils throughout his stories to make his character’s emotions, attitude, and characteristics more apparent. Romeo’s character traits, lovestruck, cowardness, and emotional are highlighted through his foils, best friend Mercutio, and enemy, Tybalt. Romeo’s foils help to make his character’s personality stronger and clear. One character trait that’s highlighted through Tybalt is Romeo’s complete awe and love for Juliet.

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love and hate fall hand-in-hand. The oxymoron “This love feel I, that feel no love in this” demonstrates the sensation of love burning in Romeo, whilst annexing a mention of his struggle that Rosaline, the woman he seemingly loves, doesn’t reciprocate the same affection, indicating a prime example of a darker side to love (1.1.187). The oxymoron divulges a contradictory issue arising internally in Romeo. Shakespeare’s utilization of these oxymorons reveal that Romeo’s love indeed comes from an enemy family of his. As much as Romeo desires a perfect love life, his feelings of endearment perpetually battle with the supposed feelings of hate.

Romeo and Juliet Essay Indirect characterization is where the character’s personality is revealed through their actions, speech, or appearance. Using different figurative language techniques, lets the readers dig deeper into the different characters. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the author, William Shakespeare, uses a countless amount of juxtaposition to go into more depth of each character. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition as indirect characterization to explain the complexity of the character's personalities.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses imagery and other types of figurative language to help us see how each character felt when they speaked. It seemed almost as if on every page he used at least one form of figurative language.Whether it was personification, a hyperbole, or a smile. By doing so he contributed by helping us understand the meaning of the longer speeches in the play.

Romeo tells Tybalt, “I do protest I never injur’d thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise” (162). Romeo tells Tybalt he loves him but cannot tell him the reason why, the reason being they are technically family now through his marriage to Juliet. Mercutio grows frustrated because Tybalt calls Romeo a villain, Mercutio believes Tybalt should not get away with being so insulting. Romeo reacts to being called a villain by saying “I love you so I don’t care that you called me a bad name. But you clearly don’t know me very well, goodbye!”

Shakespeare uses juxtaposition as a kind of indirect characterization that makes Romeo and Juliet’s characters more complex. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, juxtaposition is used in the speeches of 3 different characters and it shows the personalities of each character. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to show the light in each character and explain their personalities. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to emphasize how Romeo’s romantic nature ironically leads to something bad. Romeo is a hopeless romantic and is deeply in love with Juliet he is saying that he is looking east and seeing Juliet would be seeing the sun coming up in the east.

Writers typically use oxymorons, paradoxes, and juxtaposition to help contribute to the indirect characterization of a character. Without the use of these literary devices, character personalities would have a lack of thought and emotion. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he uses several literary devices to explain characters personalities. This appears throughout the whole play of Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare uses oxymorons, paradoxes and juxtaposition to show the complexity of each character throughout Romeo and Juliet.

In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the use of multiple literary devices makes the play interesting. Dramatic irony, which is when the audience knows more than the characters, occurs numerous times throughout the play and grabs the attention of the audience. Soliloquies, which are lengthy speeches by a character to project their thoughts and emotions to the audience, this allows the audience to be more attentive. Allusions are references by characters to well-known places, events from myths or other literature that cause the audience to be absorbed into the play. After reading this marvelous play, it is obvious that Shakespeare uses dramatic irony, allusions, and soliloquies all written in blank verse to grasp the undivided attention of the audience.

Juliet’s personality develops hugely from the outset to the end of the play. She transitions from this young naïve law-abiding 13 year old to a cunning love struck grown up girl. The opening prologue gives a lot of the story away, without taking the suspense away. The chorus informs the audience that Romeo and Juliet are ‘star-crossed lovers’ implying that the couple are governed by fate and somehow linked to the movements of the stars. The Elizabethan period was very patriarchal and a way that Shakespeare exemplifies this is by making Capulet have absolute power over his wife and daughter or so he thinks.

In the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to indirectly characterize the main characters of the play. By doing this, Shakespeare adds depth to his characters as well as foreshadow the tragic events at the conclusion of the play. Shakespeare adds complexity to his characters when he uses juxtaposition to indirectly characterize Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Laurence. Through terms of contrast, Shakespeare adds complexity to Romeo showing how his romanticness hides his destructive actions. After Juliet was informed about the death of Tybalt, she describes Romeo as a “beautiful tyrant”( 3.2.75).

The underlying theme of the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare was the clash between the company pursuing their personal desires or deciding to conform to what is socially expected. The circumstances of this affray were on display when Romeo presented his plot of marrying Juliet to Friar Laurence. The consequences of Romeo deciding to pursue personal desire were also on display when displayed his disapproval to his punishment for extirpating Tybalt. These instances culminate Shakespeare's idea of that the pursuit of personal desire not always rewarding the aspirant. The asininity of carelessly pursuing your personal desires and not thinking about the ramifications was on display when Romeo presented his notion of espousing Juliet.

If you were challenged to a duel by you cousin what would you do? Well Romeo felt this when Tybalt Romeo’s new hateful, bold, and demanding cousin challenged him to a duel. Tybalt Juliet's cousin from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is all and more of these words used to describe him. And Tybalt is a hateful, bold, and demanding character that love nothing more than to see Romeo killed. Tybalt is an insanely hateful character especially towards Romeo and his household.

Romeo is extremely lovesick and unsure what to do with himself without Rosaline. But, within a matter of seconds of seeing Juliet he completely forgets about his love and sets himself up on a collision course with disaster. Romeo’s impetuousness causes him great trouble after seeing his cousin-in-law, Tybalt, murder his best friend, Mercutio. Momentarily after Tybalt returns to the scene of