How have emotional voices in Romeo and Juliet and The Laboratory been effectively created by the writers?

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How have emotional voices in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘The Laboratory’ been effectively created by the writers?

William Shakespeare uses creative linguistic devices and incorporates many relevant themes into his writing. Romeo and Juliet being one of Shakespeare’s most credited plays, uses the themes of love, hatred, conflict and anger. Shakespeare successfully portrays strong emotions in his play by the use of these themes and different poetic devices. Similarly Robert Browning conveys strong feeling such as hatred, betrayal and love in his poem ‘The Laboratory. In this essay I will be exploring and explaining the emotional voices that are expressed throughout both texts.

Love is one of the strongest emotions expressed in the play. Shakespeare first used light and dark imagery during the Capulet ball when Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. He describes her as a “snowy dove trooping with the crows”. The word “dove” suggests she is both beautiful and a figure of peace. Shakespeare represents strong feeling of love and how it is effectively presented through this quote. This is ironic because her family are the Montague’s enemy and the conflict before peace arrives between the two families. The “crows” could represent the Capulet’s who are the Montague’s enemies. It can be said that Romeo uses the word “crows” to contrast Juliet to the other females; it is evident that he finds her to be one of the beautiful beings. In ‘The Laboratory’ the theme of love is also conveyed.  In stanza 4 the persona shows interest in the poison that the scientist is making. The speaker reveals elements of love through rich colours “such gold oozing come/exquisite blue”. By using beautiful and harmless colours to describe the poison shows us to what extent she would go to get her partner back. However, it can also mean that she is relating the deadly alcohol to exquisite harmless colours which shows that she is truly mad. 

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Another type of Imagery that both writers use is religious imagery. “O speak again, bright angel! / a winged messenger of Heaven.” The purity and true nature of Romeo’s love is reinforced with light and religious imagery, as he describes Juliet as being heavenly. This also creates the scene’s uplifting, emotional mood which reflects the good aspects of their love in the play, also highlighting its concept of hate by vivid contrast. Romeo also refers to Juliet as a shrine that should be worshipped by his pilgrims or lips. 'The holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, my lips two ...

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