After the ball has ended Romeo climbs over the wall into Capulet’s orchard. He speaks of his love for fair Juliet “it is the east and Juliet is the Sun,” “Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief.” Juliet is just as radiant and bright as the sun, Romeo sees her as above everyone else and powerful. The “envious moon” is jealous of her and is nothing compared to her beauty. Juliet’s an innocent virgin, her “vestal livery is but sick and green,” others are jealous of her, as she is more powerful and beautiful than they’ll ever be. Romeo is in love with her “O, it is my love! O that she knew she were!” but Juliet doesn’t know that he’s in love with her and so he wishes she knew he was. In her eyes he sees “two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,” her beauty makes the other ‘stars’ jealous as Juliet is so powerful, “the brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.” As daylight “doth a lamp. Her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright,” the light of a lamp is nothing compared to the brightness of the Sun, just as Juliet is brighter than everyone else.
The birds “would sing and think it were not night” when they see Juliet’s eyes as they are so bright and full of light. Romeo wishes he could touch her, “see how she leans her cheek upon her hand, o that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek.” Juliet is an angel, “a winged messenger of heaven,” Romeo longs to hear what she is going to say and thinks of her as a pure and innocent angel. Everyone is in awe of Juliet “the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,” Romeo thinks of himself as a mere mortal in comparison to his goddess, Juliet. She speaks of how she wishes Romeo wasn’t called Romeo “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” she longs for Romeo to not be a Montague and wants him to refuse his family. She has been thinking for a while and is very upset that his name is forbidden in her family.
Juliet thinks aloud “if thou wilt not be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet,” if Romeo won’t change his name she is prepared to give up her family because of her love for him. It is only the “name that is my enemy, thou art thyself, thou not a Montague. What’s a Montague? It is nor hand nor foot belonging to a man,” Juliet contemplates that a name doesn’t matter and doesn’t change a man. Shakespeare uses this metaphor as it describes it well “what’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” Romeo is still the same and as perfect to Juliet no matter what his name just like a rose. A name is easy to be rid of, “Romeo doff thy name; and for thy name, which is no part of thee, take all myself.” Romeo speaks out to his lover, interrupting her thoughts, “call me but love and I’ll be new baptised; henceforth I never will be Romeo,” his love for her is so pure and strong he agrees to change his name so they can be together.
Juliet cannot see her Romeo in the dark night’s cloak, “thus bescreen’d in night, so stumblest on my counsel,” the night separates the two 16th Century lovers as the priest does from their marrying. Shakespeare uses religious imagery throughout Romeo and Juliet to describe her, “with love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; stony limits cannot hold love out.” The boundaries of Capulet’s garden couldn’t keep the two lovers apart, in the same way the feud between the two households can’t separate their love. They have to hide their love from everyone else “I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes; and but thou love were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting of thy love,” they both keep their love secret until they know if they love each other.
Shakespeare uses water and sea imagery, “by love, that first did prompt me to inquire. He leant me counsel and I lent him eyes. I am no pilot; yet wert thou as far as that vast shore wash’d adventure for such merchandise.” By using the word “merchandise” Shakespeare emphases Juliet’s jewel qualities. Love forced him to look at her. The sea metaphors Shakespeare uses, “pilot” “vast shore” and “farthest sea” are all used to help emphases the largeness of their love. Shakespeare doesn’t use any extravagant language for Juliet as their love is honest and true and doesn’t need clever language to prove it. By including another religion, it adds on a different dimension, for example “Jove” the chief of the classical Gods. “If thou thinkst I am too quickly won,” Juliet isn’t easily won over and she’ll stay faithful to Romeo, she shows her love for him by not using elevated language. Traditionally lovers used elevated language, stars and moons in courtship.
Juliet idolises him as a God, “which is the god of my idolatry,” and she has “no joy of this contract,” she’s talking about the engagement. They both jumped into love too fast, “it is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden; too like the lightning.” She doesn’t want their love to end too soon, as it hasn’t yet blossomed, “this bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath may prove a beauteous flower when we next meet.” Spring is the time of year for flowers to blossom and also the time of love. Juliet will give up everything for him “and all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay and follow thee my lord,” she gives Romeo importance by calling him Lord. Shakespeare uses school imagery throughout the play, “love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books,” this is a good metaphor as schoolboys really dislike their work and get away from it as quick as possible and love runs to love as fast as it can.
Romeo and Juliet are as one “my soul that calls upon my name,” it feels to them like a long time for the next day to arrive, “tis twenty years till then.” There is an aspect of positive imprisonment “like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,” Juliet would like Romeo to be on a tight string and imprisoned to her. She doesn’t want Romeo to leave, and wants him only a short while away so she can call him “Good night! Parting is such sorrow, that I should say goodnight till it be morrow,” they don’t want to part but know they’ll be together again in the morning. A “ghostly sire’s close cell,” the spiritual father, a priest, will marry them.
In conclusion I think these three extracts from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet firmly establish the two as 16th Century “star-crossed lovers” well by using the different types of imagery in their speech and as the play is very romantic with sonnets and love poems included. The feud between the two households “both alike in dignity” is adding fuel to their love and making the story so much more dramatic. Traditionally lovers in the 16th Century did use very elevated language and were very romantic, I think Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example of this.
Word Count: 1,669