O shows a snowy dove trooping with crows.
Even though Romeo is described as a very young boy, he still believes that the love he feels for Juliet is pure and strong. He describes her with a particular notion towards light, as light is seen as pure, good, and godly which was very important to people in the times when the play was written as religion was a huge factor in their lives. He describes her as, the sun and a Bright angel. Also her eyes in heaven / would through the airy region stream so bright. These images portray some unworldly being which comes only in dreams and it is no wonder why Romeo has fallen head over heels in love with her. All of these powerful images that he has conjured up show us that Romeo is a true romantic at heart with a very poetic attitude towards life and love itself. It also shows the way Romeo has been brought up and that he must have come from a stable and loving background for him to have such confidence in himself and to be making these gestures to Juliet.
Shakespeare describes the natural quality of their love by juxtaposing the balcony scene with Mercutio’s crude sexual jokes in the previous scene. Romeo goes back to the religious imagery used between the lovers in their sonnets at the feast when he describes Juliet as, a bright angel and dear saint. Romeo and Juliet’s love which seems to the audience untainted and fresh, due to the recurring use of religious imagery which emphasizes the purity and naivety of their love, as distinguished from the Nurse and Mercutio’s understanding of love that is constituted in the physical and sexual aspects.
In the play, Romeo’s descriptions display also a lot of cosmic imagery, which being frequent in this scene all relates back to the fact that they are meant to be star-crossed lovers with a destiny to be together – and to be doomed with a terrible fate!
Some consequences yet hanging in the stars
Romeo’s use of language and the way he delivers what he is saying is very poetic and, by describing and comparing her with cosmic images, introduces a very mystical, classically romantic idea of love being as beautiful as the stars and comets.
Juliet is the sun / arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon
By yonder blessed moon I vow.
It gives a very mythological dimension for their love which the audience are easily able to empathise with due to Shakespeare’s wonderful descriptive techniques, would smell as sweet, like this alliteration, throughout the play.
When his romantic verses do not seem to impress her he begins to think of other ways for her to be shown the extent of his love. He begins to try to impress her by being impetuous and telling her how reckless he is being in the name of love.
Let them find me here / my life were better ended by their hate / than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
In this line also, Romeo is saying that it would be better for him to die that moment on the swords of the Capulets than to live longer without the love of Juliet as she is so important to him, although this is very much a hyperbole.
Juliet in this scene acts in a completely different way from Romeo. Even though she speaks of Romeo with the same love-struck passion as he does of her, it is full of practicality and we see some of the logic that she is trying to apply to the situation.
At first, when Juliet thinks she is alone on the balcony she utters one of the most remembered quotes from the whole play,
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
In which she is asking him why he has been christened with the name Romeo, a Montague, and why he is the son of her father’s most sworn enemies. She asks him to deny his name and his family for her sake,
Deny thy father, and refuse thy name.
Juliet then asks herself what is in a name and what it represents, or whether it is just a name. She says that his name is the only trouble and not Romeo himself: the word, not the person, by using a beautiful metaphor,
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
This shows her young artistic talent and how fresh she is to the world with nothing but love and excitement on her mind.
Juliet speaks aloud about how she refuses to believe that Romeo is defined as a Montague and that they can still love each other without the social repercussions, here Juliet portrays her maturity level also as she is able to think level-headedly and is able to conclude eloquently an answer, that of which many girls her age cannot.
When Romeo finally reveals himself to her, she is filled with worry as to how he got himself into the garden,
How cam’st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb.
She is also worried about what will happen to Romeo if he is caught by a member of her family here at this hour, and this is when her sensibility begins to shine through the face of a teenage girl.
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.
She says that she knows that they will kill him and she cannot bear the thought, and this compares Juliet to any woman who fears for their loved one, panic and a sense of dread.
If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
I would not for the world they saw thee here.
All this reasoning portrays Juliet’s underlying sense of logic which she applies to many situations. This shows that she has been brought up to think in an unemotional way, probably by her mother whom we see earlier in the play to have acted very coldly towards Juliet and not the way a stereotypical mother would.
After her initial shock of finding Romeo below her balcony, Juliet feels embarrassed at him having overheard her confess her love for him and admits this,
Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
This imagery paints a very vivid picture for the audience and can make them empathise deeply with Juliet as a young and embarrassed girl, blushing with uncertainty.
For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight.
She then wonders whether she has been won-over too easily and if she should now play hard to get,
Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won,
I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world.
When Romeo swears his love on the moon, Juliet’s practicality again shines through and reminds him how inconsistent the moon is and the fact that swearing means nothing, again it is just words.
O swear not by the moon, th’inconstant moon.
Juliet then goes on to say that she knows that she is behaving as if she has no morals,
Thou mayst think my behaviour light
But she knows what she is doing and pledges her loyalty by always being faithful and true to him,
But trust me, gentleman, I’ll prove more true
Than those who have more coying to be strange.
This is very authorative of her but also strangely sentimental as when Juliet talks of marriage, she envisions them as equal, which was very unusual during Shakespearean times and would have probably caused disapproval in the theatre. This goes against all ideas of marriage being a social and economical transaction with little regard towards the feelings between the two involved.
As Romeo starts to leave he asks her how she will leave him so unsatisfied. Having been brought up as a lady and to be educated, Juliet with her quick thinking turns his request around to one of vows of love and how she would give him hers would she have not already done so.
I gave thee mine before thou didst request it;
And yet I would it if I were to give again.
Even though she freely expresses her love for Romeo in this scene, she has her doubts about how quickly they have ‘fallen in love’ and whether it was the right thing to do.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden
Too like lightening, which doth cease to be
Her doubts show again the anxious and cautious side of her nature present within herself. Although being very mature in some aspects of herself, Juliet sometimes, like here, lets down her defensive barricade of confidence and her child-like wanting of assurance shines through.
The lightening quote is very powerful and reminds the audience of the fact that the lovers are being controlled by something that is out of their hands, just like Zeus controlling a bolt of lightening.
At the end of the scene, when Juliet’s nurse interrupts the two of them, they decide to marry and run away together as they can see no other option for their happiness. Juliet decides to send a messenger to Romeo the following day to plan their joyous wedding day,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I’ll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite.
Juliet’s character is expressed greatly throughout this scene with her struggle between her cautious nature and her crushing desire to be with Romeo. The reason, however, she continues with the relationship is because she believes that this is the real thing, the type of love she has read about and she is excited to feel the way she does. The feelings she has now surpasses all her other ones of logic and reason and conveys to the audience a rush of overwhelming passion and longing to be with Romeo.
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars.
A beautiful metaphor to describe the pain Juliet imagines that she will feel when Romeo dies. It is sad because it is full of tragic irony as the audience all know the ending of the tale of the two star-crossed lovers. The extract is deep and really penetrates the heart of Juliet as she opens up to the audience.
Although Romeo matures during play, he remains somewhat immature when compared with Juliet, a pattern that occurs throughout their relationship. Although Juliet is only 13, she considers the world with striking maturity. As later acts reveal, her parents do not provide an emotionally rich and stable environment, possibly forcing Juliet to mature beyond her years.
On the outside, this heartfelt scene is very moving and emotional but as you begin to read in between the lines you pick up on a sinister undertone of tragic irony and destiny. This, combined with the lovers’ words, creates a very intense play and Shakespeare seems to us far ahead of his times.