preview

Romeo And Juliet Light And Dark

Decent Essays
Open Document

Light and darkness alternate on a twenty-four hour period, where light represents life and darkness is a time of rest. However, in Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, the alternating roles of light and dark impact more that just the characters’ patterns of sleep. Romeo and Juliet, the main characters, are star-crossed lovers from opposing households who hide their love from their disapproving families. From the moment they meet, every situation they encounter is influenced by light and dark forces which take on different roles to trace their motives and actions. Thus resulting in emotional development over the course of the play. The relationship between light and dark and the various scenarios of the play is a key component …show more content…

After Romeo is warned of his banishment he meets with Juliet and tells her that because “night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops,” he “must be gone and live, or stay and die”. She replies that the “light is not daylight” but rather “some meteor that the sun exhales”. They beauty of the morning, as illustrated by light imagery, is negated by Romeo’s need to leave or face death and by Juliet’s comparison of morning light to a catastrophic meteor. Dark imagery allows the reader to imagine the swift act of candles ceasing to burn, and how visualisation enhances the negative connotation of the phrase “burnt out”, which is attributed to their anguish over the end of night. By stressing the adverse nature of light, imagery contributes to the couple’s strong desperation for each other, and dark’s continued protection. Once Juliet caves in and accepts that Romeo must leave, they bid their final goodbyes with Romeo agreeing that “more light and light- more dark and dark our [their] woes”. The pair’s pain increases the brighter it gets because the rising light is casting a shadow over, or darkening, their emotions. Dark and light imagery are used in conjunction to reveal how the role of light has become dark and Romeo and Juliet’s dislike towards this change. To Romeo and Juliet’s pleasure, darkness maintains its role in easing their love, while only for the duration of this scene, light becomes an obstacle impeding their

Get Access