The use of rhyme at other points in the play is used to make the play seam less serious. Juliet use rhyme when she is not serious about obeying Lady Capulet. ‘But no more will I endart mine eye/ Than your consent gives strength to make it fly’. When Juliet says this, at the time she is telling the truth, but she doesn’t obey her throughout the play. The use of rhyme emphasizes this and suggests to the audience that she is not serious. Juliet uses rhyme with mostly every main character but she doesn’t but she doesn’t use rhyme with Friar Lawrence. The reason why Shakespeare makes her character not rhyme with him is because she has nothing to hide from him. She has nothing to hide from him because he knows that Lady Capulet wants her to marry Paris and he has already married Juliet to Romeo. She also doesn’t use rhyme with him because she doesn’t want to deceive him in any way because he has a plan which can help her.
She uses imagery to compare the size of her love for Romeo to the sea. ‘My bounty is boundless as the sea’. This tells us that she has enormous love for Romeo because the sea is huge. She compares the newness of their love to a bud. ‘This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath’. She says this because she describes their love as a bud that will eventually bloom and blossom into a wonderful thing. She compares the suddenness of her and Romeo’s love to lightning. ‘Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be’. This use of imagery is an explanation of the suddenness of her love to Romeo as if it was as quick as lightning. Romeo is compared to a night sky when Juliet says ‘give me my Romeo, and when I shall die, / Take him and cut him into little stars,/ That all the world will be in love with night,/ And pay no worship to the garish sun’. This comparison of Romeo to the night sky firstly compares the size of her love to the size of the sky. Shakespeare use of the word heaven to describe Romeo as if he has came from heaven and therefore being holy and divine. When Juliet says she wants to ‘cut him into little stars’ she describes him as the night and she implies that everyone will fall in love with night. Shakespeare’s use of imagery makes the audience think that their love will change the world. In the quotation Shakespeare uses personification when Juliet says, ‘…he will make the face of heaven’. This describes the night as having a face. Juliet uses imagery in the play when she wants to combine a great deal of information into a short description. She usually uses imagery when speaking about Romeo, but never in conversation with him. This sows us that she is not comfortable using imagery when speaking with him. The imagery used in the play is advanced for a thirteen-year-old. This tells us a lot about her character; it tells us that she is extremely intelligent and mature. Her behavior in the play tells us otherwise. This shows us that her love for Romeo is so strong that she will do anything (even if it is ludicrous) to be with Romeo.
Shakespeare makes the choice of her language, when she uses language referring to nature; reflect the changes in her mood. In the morning after Juliet slept with Romeo, when she wants him to stay, her language is wonderful and loving; ‘nightingale’ when she accepts that he has to go she refers to terrible language when she says, ‘… Loathed toad…’ Shakespeare uses this type of language in the play to show the audience how Juliet is feeling at the time.
When Juliet makes a speech before she takes the potion she says ‘… I am laid into the tomb, / I wake before the time that Romeo…’ Her language tells us that she is terrified and worried about what is going to happen to her. She uses language referring to death when she is scared about waking up to find her dead ancestors and the body of Tybalt, ‘…my buried ancestors are packed, /Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth? Lies fest’ring in his shroud…’. This builds up her fears of waking up to see her ancestors and Tybalt; emphasizing her emotion and exacerbating it. In this scene her use of language shows us that she doesn’t trust the Friar, ‘…be a poison which the Friar subtly hath ministered to have me dead’. This tells us that she feels that he wants he dead so he can escape the daring situation which he is in. In this scene Shakespeare makes her speak in soliloquy. This makes her feel that she is alone and draws attention on her fears. The language that Shakespeare uses builds a vivid picture of Juliet’s fears. ‘And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth’. His of words gives the audience a picture of how she is feeling and therefore this tells us that her fears are horrific.
In the first full conversation between Romeo and Juliet she uses religious language to flirt with Romeo. ‘And pal to pal is holy palmers kiss’. When this play was staged, the audience would have been disgusted to see that the characters were flirting with one another using holy and religious words. Religious words are used in this quote to describe each other as divine and heaven-sent people. They both use religious terms to show that they have an understanding for one another. Romeo: ‘My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand/ To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.’ Juliet: ‘Good pilgrims you do wrong your hand too much, / Which mannerly devotion shows in this’. This is used to make them connect and to feel like one, in this scene. The effect of Juliet’s religious terms with Romeo reflects her love and devotion to him and this is why she only uses religious language with him.
In Act Three Scene two she is alone in her room, speaking in soliloquy, she uses sexually explicit language, ‘love- performing’. It appears to the audience as if she is fantasizing about making love to Romeo. She explains that she is a virgin. ‘…my unmanned blood…’, therefore revealing to the audience that she is a virgin. She says that she wants to oppose Romeo in a game where they would both lose their virginity. ‘Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.’ This tells us that she is willing to lose her virginity to Romeo. She describes their relationship as if they got married but not enjoyed the pleasures of making love together. ‘I have bought the mansion of a love,/But not possessed it, and though I am sold ,/ Not yet enjoyed…’ This tells the audience that they haven’t made love; it shows us that she enjoys the thought of making love to Romeo. She compares her impatience to a ‘child that hath new robes/And may not wear them’. Her sexually explicit language is highly advanced; it is too old for a thirteen year old. This highlights the fact that her character has evolved from and innocent, obedient child to a sexually active woman.
Throughout the play Juliet’s words are generally polysyllabic. She uses various metaphors and similes and long structured sentences. In Act two Scene five, (when persuading the nurse to pass on Romeo’s message) she uses simple, monosyllabic words. ‘Now, good sweet nurse’. She uses this kind of language because she is simple minded and determined to hear form Romeo. Her determination is portrayed in her monosyllabic words. She eventually gets what she wants.
Juliet users both types of irony and they often overlap. She uses verbal irony in the play when she talks to her mother. She says she wants to ‘wreak the love I bore my cousin/ Upon his body that hath slaughtered him!’ Her mother thinks she means that she wants to kill Romeo but Juliet really means that she wants to make love to him. Shakespeare makes her use verbal irony to avoid questions. ‘But no more will I endart mine eye/Than your consent gives strength to make it fly’. She is avoiding her mother’s question so that she doesn’t have to directly answer it therefore she keeps her mother’s expectations. She uses verbal irony when saying that the nurse has comforted her. ‘Well, thou hast comforted me marvelous much.’ Juliet means that the nurse hasn’t comforted her at all. She uses verbal irony when revealing to Paris who she loves. ‘I will confess to you that I love him.’ Paris believes that she loves Friar (which is innocent) however Juliet means that she loves Romeo. Juliet uses dramatis irony, when she tells her father that from now on she will always be obedient to him. ‘Henceforward I am ever ruled by you. The audience recognizes this as dramatic irony because Juliet has already been to Friar Lawrence and she has the potion: She has no intention on obeying her father. The use of irony in the play tells us that Juliet is not Comfortable telling the truth there fore she uses irony. In the play when she does tell the truth she doesn’t get want she wants. When she tells her father that she doesn’t want to marry Paris he yells abuse at her. Therefore she benefits from using irony.
Throughout the play we see Juliet’s character grow. It has evolved from the sweet and innocent girl we met at the start of the play, to the disobedient, mischievous young women at the end. Shakespeare uses language to reflect the feelings and emotions of Juliet so that the audience is well informed. Juliet’s love for Romeo grows from strength to strength. Towards the end of the play Juliet shows absolute devotion to Romeo. She avoids telling the truth by using irony and rhyme. Her use of language is advanced showing how mature her character is; her behavior portrays a different image. Her trust for Friar Lawrence stays constant throughout most of the play. Juliet forms a great friendship with the Friar this is why she trusts him to give her a potion which could kill her. Her character develops during the course of the play. As the plays goes on she is more outspoken and decisive and this is what leads to her death.
