Juxtaposition In Romeo And Juliet Essay

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.

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.

Romeo and Juliet Essay A key part in reading a book is learning and understanding the characters. Some of the characters features are directly given to you; however, a larger amount of the the details are left for you to interpret. Indirect characterization is a way a writer reveals a character’s personality through its speech or action . William Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to add complexity to his characters.

Oxymorons and juxtaposition help audiences understand how two individuals with opposite traits can join together to become related and work together perfectly. In William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses oxymorons to emphasize the transformation of different characters. Oxymorons also help readers think about a character's situation and bring attention to the ideas being shared. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare sends across the message that nobody is simple. This creates indirect characterization when he uses complex juxtaposition to describe Romeo and Juliet's complex love.

Romeo becomes infatuated with Juliet and even before meeting her, claims to love her. However, his love is based on her beauty which causes him to uncontrollably profess his love for her: “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For

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 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.

Shakespeare uses personification to show love is complicated in Romeo and Juliet. On page 935 “But soft! What light through yonder window break! It is the East and Juliet is the sun”. Shakespeare compares Juliet to the sun.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship has often been romanticized as being authentic while his love for Rosaline has been depicted as being a superficial infatuation. This is what many die-hard romantics want to believe; however, the text represents Romeo’s love for Rosaline as a genuine one—at least on Romeo’s part. In the beginning of the play, Romeo lashes out at love’s cruelty as do many heartbroken individuals. In Act I Scene I, the depressed Romeo describes love as a deadly poison, a smoke, a swollen sea, a madness, and a choking gall. When he describes love as a “smoke,” this evokes images of a choking black cloud of doom.

From the very beginning of the play, Shakespeare, is holding fate to blame for the death of the two lovers. In the line “from forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life” foreshadowing, metaphor and alliteration are used to show how Romeo and Juliet’s love would end in tragedy. Foreshadowing is used to create suspense leading to a later scene in the play where the lover’s suicide. The metaphor “star-crossed lovers” suggest the prophetic alignments of the stars are against them. The lovers are ill-fated from the start. Furthermore, alliteration is used to emphasize the woeful fate of Romeo and Juliet, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes”. The repetitions of the “t” and “f” sounds highlight

A few days prior, he was love sick about Rosaline, and confessing his love about her, but the moment he set eyes on Juliet, he was struck with love once again. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is developed through tragedy, romance, and most importantly dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the other characters do not know. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to create suspense and to help create action in the play. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses dramatic irony such as Romeo and Juliet’s feuding families, Juliet’s arranged marriage to Paris, and Juliet’s death to keep readers on edge and wanting to read more.

This is one of the best examples of the use of light and dark imagery, as Shakespeare creates a visual picture to compare Juliet’s beauty to the light of the sun, but it also symbolizes the lover’s plight to remain together. Though they love each other so deeply, Juliet is the sun while Romeo is the moon; their fate enables them to be together briefly just as the celestial objects are only to meet at dawn and dusk successfully portraying their love. Romeo continues the inference of Juliet’s eyes to that of the light and beauty of the brightest of stars, when he states, " Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes

Tara Jahns Ms. Zita Szigeti Language and Literature Advanced 9 9th of March 2015 English Essay Summative Assessment of Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is such an interesting play because even now, five hundred years later we are still talking and learning about this play. It is so relatable till date because people fall in love now as Romeo and Juliet did, families fight, as the Montagues and Capulets did. We can relate to each character in some. Which is what makes this play so compelling and lets it live, five hundred years later. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic tale of two lovers, separated by an epic feud of their two houses (Romeo a Montague and Juliet a Capulet.)

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.