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Literary Devices In Romeo And Juliet

Decent Essays

Shakespeare utilizes several literary devices to display a reversal in his plot. In the prologue of Act two, Shakespeare employs word choice, personification, connotation, and symbolism in the first five lines of the Chorus as literary mechanisms of conveying meaning to his audience deeper than the surface of the text. Through these literary devices, we are able to see the progression of a reversal within Shakespeare’s plot, as Romeo’s romantic situations have begun to shift in his favor.
In Act Two, the first word utilized is “now,” which propels the plot forward and signifies the occurrence of a change taking place in Shakespeare’s plot (Shakespeare, 2.1.1). Then personification is apparent in regards to “old desire” lying “in his death-bed” (2.1.1). The word choice of using, “old,” as an adjective to describe “desire,” emphasizes that Romeo’s previous state of nostalgia for Rosaline’s affection is a thing of the past by generating a sense of distance in time. The personification of Romeo’s past intentions lying down in a “death bed” illustrates to the audience that his feeling for Rosaline are gone, deceased, and are never to return. Using the concrete image of lying in a death bed, facilitates the sense of permanency. This first line of Act Two relates to the theme of dying love in Shakespeare’s plotline because it demonstrates to Shakespeare’s audience that love is unpredictable and changes with time. Any romantic feelings that Romeo once held for Rosaline have been put to rest and are no longer present.
In line two, Shakespeare uses the word “young,” as an adjective to describe “affection,” in order to generate a sense of newness (2.1.2). This conveys that a new romance has suddenly sprung into existence between Romeo and Juliet. Through Shakespeare’s usage of the verb “gapes” within his personification of “young affection,” he manifests the allusion of a pregnant woman’s vagina opening wide during childbirth in preparation for a baby to be born. Within this allusion, the word choice of “heir,” in reference to what line one’s “old desire” is giving birth to, promotes the theme that out of something old comes something new (2.1.2). Line two advances this theme by symbolizing the circle of life that is

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