Romeo And Juliet Light And Dark Imagery Essay

‘’The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,’’ shows readers that Juliet is now Romeo’s everything and nothing could compare against her. (2.2.19) Shakespeare convinces the audience that Juliet is the most important to Romeo by writing, ‘’But soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!’’ (2.2.2-3). Before meeting Juliet, Romeo had a bad heartbreak. He had convinced himself that he will never find love again, and his life will forever be consumed by darkness. By comparing Juliet to the sun, that gives bright light to everyone, Shakespeare is conveying the message that Juliet is the light to overcome Romeo’s darkness. Juliet is the one that Romeo will fall in love with and once again will be happy. The sun is not only a provider of light, but is essential for survival. By having Romeo call Juliet, the sun, Shakespeare means that without Juliet, Romeo will not be able to survive. Juliet has become Romeo’s everything and is the reason why he is happy and is able to love life again. This also shows Romeo’s infatuation with Juliet, because by comparing Juliet to the sun, Shakespeare is also saying that everything now revolves around Juliet for Romeo. Due to applying metaphors in his dialogues, Shakespeare is able to persuade readers that Juliet is Romeo’s true love and how much she means to

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest love stories ever told. This is evident in today’s society, with the story being retold again and again in theatre productions, books, and movie spinoffs. The story is of two lovers, whose love was doomed from the start due to their disputing families, the Capulets and Montagues, who would never see a marriage between the two. Romeo and Juliet eventually take their own lives, ceasing their families’ fighting. William Shakespeare, the playwright who wrote Romeo and Juliet and likely the most famous playwright ever, uses light and dark imagery within the story to highlight the lovers’ affection for one another against the backdrop of their lives. The motif of light and dark is used, with

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – popularly considered by many to be the quintessential love story of all time – is a play that we are all familiar with in one way or another. Whether it be through the plethora of portrayals, adaptations and performances that exist or through your own reading of the play, chances are you have been acquainted with this tale of “tragic love” at some point in your life. Through this universal familiarity an odd occurrence can be noted, one of almost canonical reverence for the themes commonly believed to be central to the plot. The most widely believed theme of Romeo and Juliet is that of the ideal love unable to exist under the harsh social and political strains of this world. Out of this idea emerge two

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet are a pair of star-crossed lovers who had an unfortunate fate throughout the story. The theme of light and darkness in the play symbolizes that their love story is just a fairytale, it is unreal.The theme gives Romeo and Juliet characterization, Not to mention that the constant use of light and darkness foreshadows the story’s outcome.

As the play continues and the continues and the conflicts become more complicated, light vs. dark illustrates that love cannot be conquered by hate. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks!/it is the East, and Juliet is the sun.” (Romeo, 2.2.3-4). This quote relates to light vs. dark because it shows that Romeo is happy when he sees Juliet and compares her beauty to the sun, which is like the light which the light is also representing that he is happy at the same time

Imagery is a very important aspect of literature. Many different types of imagery exist and there is at least one dramatic purpose for each image. By analyzing William Shakespeare's

Last Spring when I performed in one of William Shakespeare's classics 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Shakespeare felt to me like a mystery of words jumbled up together in a beautiful poem. In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ I learned the true meaning of Shakespeare's genius writing. A technique of writing William Shakespeare often uses in his plays like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is juxtaposition. This technique puts two unlike things next to each other. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to show the irony, drama, and the different views between characters to give his story's depth.

In figurative language, imagery is an expressive way that helps the audience understand the plot thoroughly by creating descriptive visuals. In the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, two factors that contribute to the imagery of the play are light and darkness. William Shakespeare includes these two factors within the poetic structure and elements of the play by using techniques like word play and descriptive language.

Romeo’s light and dark imagery demonstrates how opposites help people better understand these abstract concepts. In the beginning, Romeo was rejected by his one love, Rosaline, and his father Montague has no idea what to do about Romeo’s moping:

Throughout Romeo and Juliet’s flourishing relationship, celestial imagery is used when talking about each other and bringing out the pure love they have for one another. Through a combination of metaphors, personification, poetry, similes, and allusions, their emotions for each other are shown with celestial imagery being the center theme of their love. Romeo speaks delicately about Juliet’s eyes when he acclaims “Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,” (2.2.15) Romeo refers

Although their love continues to get stronger, everything around them starts to fade away and crumble underneath their feet. The idea of light and dark, or good and bad, helps us to differ between the ideas in the play as well as understand concepts or choices made before their big adventure began. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, he continuously shows the difference between light and dark and it plays an essential role in conveying love, creating mood and foreshadowing conflict and fate. The love between Romeo and Juliet shows the power of love, or light, over conflict, or dark, and the difference between good and bad.

Secondly, Shakespeare relies heavily on light and dark imagery in order to portray the rapture of falling in love, as well as the longing and distress that it can inflict. Romeo repeatedly uses light imagery to convey the elation and excitement aroused by his love for Juliet. For instance, when standing under her balcony and hearing her speak, Romeo states,

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun." (2,2,2-3) In his soliloquy, he continues to collate Juliet's beauty and his love for her to light. " Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven [...] do entreat her eyes [...]

Directions: Use your Romeo and Juliet theme tracker as well as the passages you read from the text to write a essay where you explain how a theme develops throughout the play. The story includes many themes, so choose the one theme that you best understand and can support with three strong quotes from the text. Be sure to include where the theme emerges (first appears) and how it is refined or shaped (developed) by details as the play progresses.

Professor Oscar James Campbell said that through imagery Shakespeare “made his figurative language intensely an auditor’s response to particular situations and also used it to create and individualize his characters.” Bradley showed that the imagery helped to intensify certain themes (for example, the animal imagery in ‘Hamlet’ and the fire imagery in Coriolanus’) in the plays. Spurgeon demonstrated that the “Cluster” of imagery and certain “recruitment images” revealed Shakespeare’s “personality, temperament and thought,” together with the “themes and characters of the plays”. Clemen showed that through imagery, Shakespeare reveals characteristic features of his characters and the atmosphere of the play. Such study of imagery is purposeful and pertinent. But claims such as the purpose of imagery in Shakespeare is to probe the “transcendental realities, or, the imagery is inalienably related to a “developing pattern”, or, Shakespeare’s play is a poem where characters are non-existent, sound rather preposterous and make us legitimately think that the critic is “using the façade of the Cavendish to hide a convective of impressionist anarchists”. F.E. Halliday