Romeo’s emotive language in the first scenes of Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 2 Scene 2, show his feelings in several different ways. His feelings differ dramatically in the two extracts. In the first he is depressed, morose and lovesick because he divulges his love about Rosaline to Benvolio, but she has sworn to live a life of chastity. In Act one Scene one, we can clearly see that Romeo is feeling sorry for himself. Through the use of emotive language, Romeo attempts to make his cousin Benvolio feel for him. Romeo’s use of language in the first scene tells the audience that he seems unhappy. ‘Ah me sad hours seem long.’ Tells us that Romeo is upset but the audience is yet to find out. Romeo uses oxymoron’s to express his true feelings about his relationship with Rosaline. The oxymoron Romeo uses tells the audience that his view of the world in unbalanced and confusing; ‘O brawling love, O loving hate…’ , The oxymoron does not make sense and neither does his love for Rosaline. The words don’t go together which tell us that they do not go together. These contradicting words show that Romeo is confused by love and his feelings. Romeo's use of oxymoron shows his state of confusion over his unrequited love from Rosaline: "Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health" The oxymoron shows Romeo's conflicting ideas about love; it is all in opposites; "sick health", showing he has perplexed emotions. "Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast". This extra weight of sadness is heavy and it pulls him down, he is dragged down by lovesickness. Also, ‘I have lost myself. I am not here / This is not Romeo: he’s some other where,’ reveals to the audience that Romeo is lost at finding himself so confused about his love for Rosaline, when love should be uplifting and exciting, whereas for Romeo it is the opposite. Romeo enjoys the attention and sympathy that he is receiving from Benvolio, ‘What, shall I groan and tell thee?’ he clearly wants to talk about his love for Rosaline but doesn’t want to make it obvious, and Benvolio replies, ‘But sadly tell me who.’. Romeo then starts to use a metaphor. He talks about archery and cupid’s arrow. He talks about Rosaline, like she is a target. Romeo says ‘she’ll not be hit with cupid’s arrow.’ He is saying Rosaline will never love him. He then continues to talk about Rosaline’s beauty. This shows Romeo loves her, as he is talking about her being beautiful. The audience may interpret that Romeo is lovesick when they hear, ‘a sick man in sadness… one that is so ill… in sadness… I love a woman.’ The use of linking sadness, illness and love give the impression that Romeo is lovesick, that his love has been sent out to Rosaline, but no love from her has been sent to him. Because of the unreturned love, I don’t believe Romeo is experiencing true love. Romeo uses imagery when he talks about Rosaline. ‘From love’s weak childish bow she live uncharmed.’ This quote shows that Romeo is feeling rejected and frustrated that love is not returned to him, and shows that he feels that Rosaline is shielding herself against his love. He seems annoyed by how love has deceived him because he calls it "weak" and "childish". ‘Making me despair/ She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow/ Do I live dead,’ tell the audience that Romeo feels there is no point in living if he cannot have Rosaline. Also, the use of ‘dead’ meaning he will eventually give his life for true love. However, in the second extract, Romeo’s mood has significantly lightened. ‘Juliet is the sun,’ When Romeo uses celestial imagery, he refers to Juliet as the "sun", so everything revolves around he compares Juliet’s beauty to the bright and natural sun, which could also be implying that Juliet is the centre of his world just as the sun is to the solar system. Shakespeare continues to describe Juliet as having eyes like stars, ‘her eyes in heaven…birds would sing and think it were not night!’ This tells the how beautiful Juliet seems to him, and he describes her as natural thing, different to how he described Rosaline. The celestial theme is continued as Juliet is said as a ‘bright angel’ and ‘winged messenger of heaven’. When Romeo uses imagery to describe Juliet, it sounds like he is be-witched by her Goddess-like beauty. "Juliet is the sun", Romeo seems to believe that Juliet is above everything else and feels that she is out of his reach, which demonstrate how empowered he feels by love. Romeo is attempting to impress Juliet.
