‘a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear’. Gems are generally extremely striking in appearance, therefore this conveys Romeos feelings about her appearance once again. It is in this way that Shakespeare suggests that Juliet stands out so much against the other masked guests at the ball, and Romeos clear attraction to her.
The use of rhetorical question in the 9th line allows the audience time to comprehend what has been overstated in the preceding lines, suggesting that Romeo has felt this way before, and showing his personality is fickle, his feelings easily tainted.
Act 2 Scene 2 illustrates the intensity of Romeo and Juliet's love. This love contrasts with the artificial love played out by Romeo for Rosaline earlier in the play. Here Shakespeare uses an element of danger, Romeo aware he is in Capulet grounds. He uses fast paced words and phrases to express the urgency of Romeo to speak to his beloved, therefore perceiving him as irrational and spurred by love therefore perceiving him as irrational and spurred by love he is willing to abandon his families quarrels to profess this. Act 2 scene 2 is the happiest and least tragic act in the play. In it, Shakespeare explores the positive, joyful, and romantic aspects of young love. He examines the depths of the young lovers’ characters, and captures this with Juliet’s struggle between the need for caution and an overpowering desire to be with Romeo.
Romeo’s long, passionate description of Juliet in the balcony scene is contradictory to the surroundings.
“it is the east, and Juliet is the sun”
Romeo states that Juliet is the sun, rising from the east to banish the night; in effect, he says that she is transforming night into day. Shakespear set this scene in the dead of night, therefore he is using light imagery to show the contrast between fair Juliet and the blackness of the night.
Shakespeare uses this metaphor to show the devotion that Romeo has for Juliet, showing the audience for him, it is no simple metaphor. For Romeo, Juliet is the sun, and it is no longer night. Here is an example of the powerful language used to briefly transform the mood and emotion of the play, using the love felt by the two to convey this.
In this scene, Shakespeare contradicts this, with both Romeo and Juliet also questioning the power of language. Wishing that Romeo was not the son of her father’s enemy, Juliet says
“’Tis but thy name that is my enemy. Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot. Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name!”
Here Juliet questions why Romeo must be her enemy. She refuses to believe that Romeo is defined by being a Montague, and therefore implies that the two of them can love each other without fear of the consequences. But this cannot be forgotten because no other character in the play is willing to dismiss them. Juliet loves Romeo because he is Romeo, but the power of her love cannot remove from him his last name of Montague or all that it stands for against her family. In the privacy of the garden the language of love is triumphant. But this will not be accepted by either family. Shakespeare uses this battle of love versus hate to emphasize the lengths the couple are willing to go to to remain together.
The final scene combines all aspects used previously, uniting them in a powerful, bittersweet ending. It is enveloped in the grand irony that in death Romeo and Juliet have created the world that would have allowed their love to live. He uses the want this death, this tragedy. At the play’s end, we do not feel sad for the loss of life as much as we feel wrenched by the incredible act of love that Romeo and Juliet have committed as monuments to each other and their love. Romeo and Juliet have been immortalized as the archetypes of true love not because their tragic deaths bury their parents’ strife, but rather because they are willing to sacrifice everything—including themselves—for their love. That Romeo and Juliet must kill themselves to preserve their love is tragic. That they do kill themselves to preserve their love makes them transcendent.
Being unable to live for their love, Romeo and Juliet die for it. Shakespeare makes a comment that the world in which they lived was not worthy of the love they had for each other, and so the lovers have robbed the world of their special love. Shakespeare cleverly uses Juliet’s final kiss of Romeo as a weapon of potential death and when Juliet fails to pick up any poison from Romeo’s lips she is overjoyed to find his dagger, exclaiming ‘Happy dagger’ because this implement of death will reunite her with her love. The closing scene has all the powerful forces converging on the tragic set. From beyond the grave the love that Romeo and Juliet had for each other is sufficient to heal the rift between the two families and perhaps through their sacrifice, the world that they left may become a better place. The Prince recognizes this. The irony is that this new world in Verona would have allowed Romeo and Juliet to live and love together. Romeo and Juliet’s deaths were inevitable because they were products of the world in which they lived. Over the centuries, Romeo and Juliet have epitomized true love, because they were willing to sacrifice their lives in order not to compromise their love. They are making the statement that their love is not just for this world, but also for all eternity.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses primarily metaphorical language to convey the lovers emotions throughout the play. This allows the audience to become captivated in the passion that is shown, drawing together both sides of the schism of the two families in the concluding lines and proving inevitably that love conquers all. Shakespeare identifies these feeling and expresses them with soliloquies and sonnets, enhancing the experience for the characters and audience alike.
