Light In Romeo And Juliet

During Act One of Romeo and Juliet, the reader may notice the switch between prose and poetry. There are many explanations for switching between the two. Shakespeare uses prose and poetry to differentiate the social classes. This is seen right at the beginning when Sampson and Gregory are speaking in prose. As soon as the Prince enters to break up the fight the reader can see that his first lines “Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace” (1.1.83) are written differently than the others. This represents the civility he currently has and shows that he is above the others in rank. Another reason to switch between the two is for comic relief or to show the change of mood. One such case is with the nurse, who will occasionally say a depressing statement

Shakespeare uses light and dark as a contrast to show how the two characters are lovers meant to be, because without light there is no darkness and vice versa. During Act One Romeo is seen as dark rather than light due to his depressing moods. Now Romeo is brighter since he has met juliet, who represents light. The reader can tell that Juliet is meant to represent light, to prove further that she is, Romeo states that “Juliet is the sun” (2.2.3). Without the sun, most organisms would not be able to survive, like how romeo thinks he cannot survive without Juliet. After Juliet has left and Romeo is alone, he states that it is “a thousand times the worse to want thy light” (2.2.165). romeo is saying how bad it is to lack light, which is the same as saying how bad it is to lack

Mercutio is a foil to Romeo and makes Romeo’s view of love stand out to the readers, by showing his own opinions of love. Mercutio believes that “dreamers often lie” (1.4.56) and lovers dream of love. This shows that Mercutio thinks that love is just an illusion, this contradicts the views of Romeo and Juliet who believe they are deeply in love. By putting these two characters by each other, the reader can clearly see their different views. Mercutio also is used for comic relief. Mercutio makes the play more interesting with his wordplay and jokes. He makes a mockery of many characters, even telling Peter “to hide [the nurse’s] face”(2.4.109). Without Mercutio adding humour to the play, it would not be as interesting to the audience. Mercutio’s personality is one of the best to look upon in the