Both act 1, scene 5 and act 2, scene 2 relate Romeo and Juliet(TM)s first meeting and declarations of love to the rest of the play. Shakespeare has achieved this through foreshadowing events that are yet to come, introducing or reusing imagery th

Juliet later comments to herself that if he is already married, she feels she will die “If he be married, My grave is to be my wedding bed.” This line can be very moving to the audience, especially those familiar to the story, as we know that shortly after marriage Juliet does die and serves the purpose of foreshadowing the later ‘untimely’ death of both Romeo and Juliet. In order to find out Romeo’s identity without raising any suspicions, she asks the Nurse to identify a series of young men. This highlights Juliet’s naivety and youth, and hence builds empathy towards the character. The Nurse goes off and returns with the news that the man’s name is Romeo, and that he is a Montague. Overcome with anguish that she loves a Montague, Juliet follows her nurse from the hall, “My only love sprung from my only hate”. This line foreshadows the themes of love and hate and how they are intertwined, and the affects they have on Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Here, the language used is strongly empathetic, Juliet’s despair can be detected from the strength of her language “I must love a loathed enemy”, and rather than having Juliet in a confused state of mind, Shakespeare’s language, although showing how distressed Juliet is about Romeo’s identity, thus making the audience aware that it is courage, not naivety that leads Juliet to not once question her loyalty to Romeo. Instead of being in two minds of what to do, Juliet instantly condemns herself, and forgetting Romeo isn’t an option, “I must love a loathed enemy”. As such, the audience cannot help but feel sorry for Romeo and Juliet, and thus, enthralling them into curiosity as to what will happen next and how they will overcome this problem.

Act 2 scene 1 is, in my opinion, the happiest in the play. Within this scene Romeo and Juliet pronounce their love for each other and agree to marry the next day. Although star imagery is prevalent within this scene, “the brightness of her cheek would shame those stars”, reminding the audience of the prologue and the fate of the two lovers, Shakespeare has predominantly devoted this scene to exploring the young love shared by Romeo and Juliet. This scene is commonly known as ‘the balcony scene’, (so called because it is often staged with Juliet on a balcony, though the stage directions suggest only that she is at a window above Romeo).  Shakespeare plumbs the depths of the young lovers’ characters, and captures the subtleties of their interaction, as in Juliet’s struggle between the need for caution and an overpowering desire to be with Romeo “That I must love a loathed enemy”.

In this scene Romeo decides he cannot go home, but instead ventures into the Capulet mansion regardless of the dangers doing so entails, again highlighting the fact that their love overtakes everything else. Shakespeare must use the full length of each day in order to compress the action of the play into just four days. Also prevalent in this scene is light and dark imagery, Romeo’s long, impassioned description of Juliet in the balcony scene is an example of this theme. In this scene Romeo uses several images about the way he views Juliet such as “Juliet is the sun” meaning Juliet is beautiful, dominant of the skies and most importantly, light giving. Shakespeare uses star imagery throughout the play to express the love shared between Romeo and Juliet, in Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote “...Doubt thou that the sun doth move, doubt thou that the stars are fire...” suggesting that Shakespeare had a similar view of both the sun and the stars.  Romeo imagines that Juliet is the sun, rising from the east to banish the night; in effect, he says that she is transforming night into day. This may seem to contrast with the idea of Romeo and Juliet’s love only being possible at night, however, in my opinion it is Romeo’s way of acknowledging Juliet’s beauty and innocence, also by turning night into day, Romeo is possibly suggesting that Juliet has the ability to turn a bad situation into a good one. Here is an example of the power of language to briefly transform the world, in the service of love, by saying Juliet is the sun Romeo briefly transforms the scene from night to day, in a moment of revelation.

In Romeo and Juliet, star imagery is very important as it is a common theme within the play, light being good and dark being sinister. Perhaps, by only allowing Romeo and Juliet’s love to take place at night, Shakespeare is suggesting that the conditions in which there love is possible is in itself doomed. The line “arise fair sun and kill the envious moon” could imply that Romeo sees Juliet as some sort of salvation from his woes. Juliet, being the fair sun, could be viewed by Romeo as an answer to solve the conflict between the families or his personal depression. It is true that within the play Juliet’s love proves an escape for Romeo (they later plan to run away together). ‘Kill the envious moon’ could mean all the hatred and Romeo is subconsciously asking Juliet to take him away from it. This refers to the juxtaposition of light and dark that is prevalent throughout the play. This contrasts with Romeo’s previous love for Rosaline in which he said “Blind is love, it best befits the dark”, whereas now he is urging Juliet to overcome the dark and light up his world, “arise fair sun and kill the envious moon”. This line, although not applying to Juliet, could be as a warning to the audience. It contradicts the ongoing suggestion of love and light going hand in hand, which is also contradicted by the fact that Romeo and Juliet’s love only taking place at night, but adds a more sinister view of love. This line suggests love being destructive and/or an illusion of the lovers, not really seeing their love for what it was, or what it was capable of in ‘the cold light of day’.

This scene is crucial in reaffirming the importance of names and their relevance. Juliet’s soliloquy on the balcony tells us a lot about her nature and gives clues as to how she shall behave within the relationship. “What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot”. Here Juliet questions why Romeo must be her enemy. Juliet refuses to believe that Romeo is defined by being a Montague, and therefore implies that they should be able to love each other without fear of social repercussions. This idea is later confirmed as both Romeo and Juliet are willing to renounce everything, including their names, for love. Although Juliet is correct in believing names do not define a person, she fails to realise or chooses not to realise, the implications names can have.

This scene is also important in both introducing and reaffirming key ideas. The flower imagery used to describe Romeo by his father earlier in the play, “the bud bit with an envious worm”, is repeated when Juliet uses the metaphor of a rose to describe Romeo “by which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet”. This reminds the audience how Romeo felt for Rosaline and that although Romeo’s love has changed; he is still Romeo and loves in the same manner. Also, the word ‘envious’ is repeated, “Kill the envious moon”. Romeo uses it to presumably describe the negatives in life, whereas his father uses it to describe love, without knowing it, Romeo too could be describing love, after all love does prove cruel and treacherous in conclusion to this play. Juliet uses a rose as a simile to express her point of names, “which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet”.

Also within this scene, a change in Juliet is noted. In her first speech, Juliet claims how embarrassed she is, “else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek”. Her language almost seems rushed and exasperated, suggesting her youth and excitement, “whose direction found’st thou this place?” It also makes it clear that Juliet has never before been in such a situation. Juliet goes on to say that she must be honest about her love as by doing so she is proving it to be pure and true, “not to impute this yielding light to love”.  This speech truly highlights her naivety and faithfulness in putting all her trust in Romeo, perhaps suggesting a sheltered upbringing. Within her speech, Juliet has rejected formal ways of conversing and directly asked Romeo if he loved her. This is another example of putting love before all else, as Juliet has here put love before her morals and etiquette, whereas prior to this scene, Juliet was polite, timid and obedient, “Than your consent...”

Both these scenes introduce us to the kind of relationship Romeo and Juliet are about to enter. It is evident from both scenes that the love shared between them is extremely passionate and possibly dangerous. These scenes foreshadow the marriage, due to religious implications, Tybalt’s death, due to his anger of Romeo’s arrival and the death of Romeo and Juliet, due to many factors, namely Juliet’s anxiety as to whether or not Romeo was married. The religious language creates an impression of awe and wonder on Romeo and Juliet’s behalf and also their naivety and innocence is affirmed. Also, these two scenes link the prologue as the foreshadowed death of the two protagonists is confirmed. This much anticipated scene, in which the two protagonists first meet, lifts the play off the ground and soaring into a whirlwind of tragedy. Despite the play being four hundreds previous to a modern day audience’s era, and the natural change in social arrangements, all this is forgotten. The focus gets quickly drawn away from the time period due to the forceful and gripping nature of the plot and language. These scenes, in particular, provide an excellent example of Shakespeare’s unparallel combination of love and tragedy, in which the love is touching, but daunting, as the audience are aware of the sinister side waiting to emerge.  In true Shakespearian style, however, Shakespeare manages to give the audience a time to forget about the forthcoming tragedy. The language used to describe the love of Romeo and Juliet is so powerful, all other concepts are forgotten, hence building empathy for the characters, allowing us, the audience, to revel in the wonders, not just the tragedies, of forbidden love.