A Tale of Love & Tragedy: Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Romeo and Juliet is a story written by William Shakespeare, and the main characters are Romeo and Juliet. The two characters fall in love despite the hatred between their families (Montague and Capulet). The hostility between the two families makes love between Romeo and Juliet end in despair, whereby both of them die. William Shakespeare uses various figurative language like personification, similes, and metaphor, symbolism, and imagery to explain the themes he uses in his plays. He brings all the elements together to support his themes. Love is the most important and central theme in the Romeo and Juliet story. Shakespeare uses many ways to portray love in Romeo and Juliet. This essay will discuss various techniques used by William Shakespeare to explore the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet play.

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Dark and Light Imagery

Shakespeare uses the imagery of light and dark to portray the love and destiny of Romeo and Juliet. Love is contrasted against death, and it is also linked to sight and appearances. He associated their love to sight and appearance. The lovers are star-crossed, and their destiny is pre-identified because their love is uncontrollable. The image of light indicates the world of reality, while darkness is death. At their first sight, Romeo says, "ne'er saw true beauty till this night." (Shakespeare and Duthie, 2015: 11). The statement indicates that the love between the two depends on sight. Although their love surpasses everything, it highly depends on appearance and sight. Mostly, Romeo and Juliet meet at night and mention that the light can expose the truth about their relationship, which can lead to their separation.

Additionally, Shakespeare uses light imagery to show danger, violence, and impatience that is associated with love. The fire personifies the love between Romeo and Juliet, and their love grows when they kiss, just like the mixture of gunpowder and fire (Novy and Marianne, 2015). The dark imagery foreshadows a frightening ending of love between Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare uses different symbols of light to represent strong emotion among all the characters. The use of dark imagery personifies comfort and intimacy between Juliet and Romeo. Juliet imagines, "spread thy curtain, love performing night..." the two lovers can only show their true love at night. The light and dark are separated when Juliet closes the curtains. Even though dark is considered as an omen of death, Juliet finds solace in the dark, and their passion burns in the presence of the moon. The imagery of light and darkness enables the author to provide frequent twists within the story.

Character's Language

Shakespeare uses character's language to demonstrate the theme of love in the play. The language of the characters is utilized to illustrate the passionate feelings that every character tries to express. The choice of words is used to differentiate the types of love between Juliet and Romeo as love beyond the ordinary. When Romeo speaks about his love for Rosaline, his words do not come from his heart. However, when he talks about or to Juliet, the audience can feel that he loves her with his whole heart and soul. The connection between Romeo and Juliet is evident when they speak to each other. They even complete each other's sentences to create poetry, sweet music, or rhythmic melody. Juliet uses flirtatious and witty words towards Romeo in the first instant they meet at the party. The audience can detect danger is the line that Juliet is playing with fire because this indicates that their love will not end well.

Additionally, their love is founded on love and not sexual interest because of both Romeo and Juliet pledge faithfulness towards each other (Novy and Marianne, 2015). Also, Shakespeare portrays love through language methods like alliteration and repetition that Romeo and Juliet used when speaking to each other. The language that both Romeo and Juliet uses shows that their love surpasses even God.

Religious Metaphor

Shakespeare uses religious metaphors to describe the love between Romeo and Juliet. It is logical to implement religious words as a way of describing the divine existence of love because the religious words are supreme. In the first encounter of the two lovers, Romeo calls himself a sinner and says that Juliet is a shrine (Shakespeare and Duthie, 2015: 11). He hopes that Juliet will free him from the torment he underwent with Rosaline. Shakespeare uses spiritual allusions to indicate that the love of the two main characters was exalted, unusual, pure, and more of the divine than ordinary. The use of religious metaphors displays that the lovers consider the presence of God in their love.

Consequently, Juliet considers Romeo as the God of her fanaticism. Shakespeare used religion to describe love because Christians believe that the lack of God's presence can lead to torture, just like how Romeo believes that pain of banishment will occur if Juliet is not in his life. However, as the play ends, religion fails to allow the two lovers to end up together due to the power of their love; hence, they commit suicide (Novy and Marianne, 2015). Shakespeare decided to use religious words to describe love because both God and love develop a dilemma when one tries to define their essence. The use of religious words strongly displays the power of love than the use of secular words.

Foreshadowing

Another technique that Shakespeare uses is foreshadowing conversation. Foreshadowing is used to show a love that will frustrate and to provide a change between love and death. In the play, Friar Lawrence cautions Romeo regarding the perfect and secret love for Juliet because he knows that hidden secrets do not end well. He advises Romeo that "violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die, like fire and powder/ Which as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey/ is loathsome in his deliciousness/ and the taste confounds the appetite." (Shakespeare and Duthie, 2015: 21) Lawrence advises Romeo to love moderately because "too swift arrives as tardy compared to too slow" (Shakespeare and Duthie, 2015: 21). Friar Lawrence's advice to Romeo foreshadows the dark ending of his love for Juliet. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing to make love between Romeo and Juliet as real as possible.

Conclusion

William Shakespeare uses various techniques in Romeo and Juliet's story to provide an outstanding meaning of love by using religious metaphor, foreshadowing, language conversations, and imagery. The methods describe the meaning, reasons, and effect of the love of the two characters in an effective way. Shakespeare wanted to show how boundless love can positively or negatively consume us. The first meeting of Romeo and Juliet was filled with desire and passion. If they should have told their parents about their love, maybe the ending could have been positive. A combination of literary elements in a story like Romeo and Juliet leads to an easy understanding of the meaning that the author attempts to portray to the audiences. Shakespeare provides an effective exploration of the theme of love through the use of literary techniques.

References

Novy, Marianne. "Violence, Love, and Gender in Romeo and Juliet." Romeo and Juliet, Aug. 2015, pp. 359-369., doi:10.4324/9781315724928-23.

Shakespeare, William; Duthie, George Ian (2015): "The Copy For Romeo And Juliet, 1599". In: Romeo and Juliet., pp. 1-44, http://learningstorm.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/RMEOJLET-1.pdf