Explore the changing moods and feelings of Romeo and Juliet in Act 2 Scene 2 and analyze how Shakespeare uses language to convey character.

Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 2 is known more famously as the balcony scene. The significance of Act 2 Scene 2 is to convey Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other, but the fact they cannot touch symbolises that because of the flares and tensions between the two families they come from (Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet). They will never be able to join each other and get married happily, without having to run away and leave all their families and friends and livelihoods behind.

In lines 1-9, Romeo is trying to distinguish himself from all the other Montague young men. His very first line ‘He jests at scars that have never felt a wound’ is a dismissive comment on Mercutio’s joking about love. Just as someone who has never been wounded can joke about a soldier’s battle scars, so someone who has never been in love finds it easy to joke about the sufferings of a person deeply in love. He goes on about how he is infatuated with Juliet; also he is hinting that love seems to have created pain for him. Though he only met Juliet several hours ago for the first time, he says: ‘Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief’. He seems to think of himself as the moon, which is being tormented so badly by the sun (Juliet and love symbolising the sun), that he wants the sun to kill him, as the grief of waiting is too much. This shows that Romeo is blinded by what he feels as love towards Juliet even though he has only met her recently. He feels he has become so madly in love he is reckless in a way, he has lost the thought of reason through this mad love he is feeling for Juliet. This is true now, but it also foreshadows further on in the play with the young men. They are almost all reckless and don’t seem to mind too much what they do, and are constantly testing the prince’s temper. This is done possibly by choice and trying to make themselves look good in front of their friends trying to show off. Romeo however does the opposite, not that he isn’t reckless, but he is reckless not by choice but because he loses all sense of reason through this love.

After these lines, Juliet appears, and Romeo can see her, although she cannot see Romeo. Yet in lines 10-23 Romeo carries on talking in soliloquy. When he first sees Juliet here, he reopens his speech with exclamations about Juliet: ‘It is my lady, O it is my love: O that she knew she were!’

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He seems delirious in his love, as if he’s being swept along by a wave of emotion. He is taking the love affair beyond ordinary human emotions: ‘As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven, Would through the airy region stream so bright, That birds would sing and think it not night.’ Here she is idealised as the sun, the light in Romeo’s life. This is typical of Romeo exaggerating things far beyond reality and some may say sanity. But on the other hand it is probably Shakespeare’s way of suppressing Romeo’s insatiable lust for Juliet, and nothing but Juliet.

Line 24 is when Juliet first makes an apparent noise. It is nothing more than a simple sigh, yet it seems to set Romeo off again on another speech where he is over reacting. Again he starts idealising her, but this time he compares her with an angel: ‘As glorious to the night, being o’er my head, As is a winged messenger of heaven’. It also has an idea of courtly love to it.

Again in line 25 Juliet simply says: ‘Ay me’ and in it sets Romeo off yet again raging on about love, and idealising Juliet in lines 26-31.

In lines 32-48, we get to see how Juliet has reacted to the events of the night. Unlike Romeo she doesn’t overreact and still is able to think straight with her sanity seemingly intact, though she is still deeply in love with Romeo. She starts asking logical questions to herself, like why are you called Romeo or as written in the original text: ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ which is a problem as he is a Montague allowing for no relationship to partake with any Capulet. Though that line has been misinterpreted a lot into where are you Romeo. But back to the point, she is able to see the problem that exists between them, and she wants to sort it out, unlike Romeo who has just thrown that and many other intruding factors to the side and even put his life at risk. Her tone is the opposite of Romeo’s, almost despairing, very melancholy. She is also far more reflected, worried and anxious. However her language is logical and rational. She works through the problem. She knows it stupid how they cannot see each other due to stupid loyalties and the long running dispute between the families, so she reduces Romeo’s name to herself as an item of clothing, which can be taken off, and she begs the question of why can’t it be that simple.

Lines 49-51 are where Romeo chooses to reveal himself to Juliet. The mood when this happens is then altered slightly into one of slight shock of Juliet realising Romeo is there. But the way Romeo chooses to reveal himself is to agree with Juliet by saying that he will change his name, if she does love him. But still Romeo fails to see this is an unrealistic idea, as in the days it was set, changing your name was like becoming a traitor to your family, as family loyalty is in such great emphasis during the play. Though Romeo has said this, Juliet does not realise who has said it. So she asks who is there hiding out in the night spying on her in lines 52-53.

Lines 54-57 show Romeo using a selection of religious language toward Juliet, but using spiteful, hateful language towards his name, just because Juliet has earlier said that it blocks them from having an open relationship with each other so Romeo has decided to join her in hating his name.

This seems to continue throughout the whole play, where Romeo is always exaggerating and Juliet is seemingly down to earth. But, even though it may not seem like Juliet is madly in love with Romeo, but it is confirmed that she is at the end of the play, when she wakes up to find Romeo dead and she then kills herself.

All in all, I feel Shakespeare has done a great job conveying the mood swings in the scene, which goes from lust to actually being able to speak to and see the person Romeo is lusting for. Also, he has done well by using the language he had done, as it adds more emphasis and also makes it easier to become more emotionally involved in the play, which in turn can lead to a highly successful play, like Romeo and Juliet was, and still is.

Arjun Phakey