Photo Credits (Left to right):
1)"Romeo & Juliet Scrapbook." Romeo Juliet Scrapbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. , 2)Picture of Romeo and Juliet. Digital image. Listal RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. ,
3Romeo & Juliet Scrapbook. Digital image. Romeo Juliet Scrapbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
1)"Romeo & Juliet Scrapbook." Romeo Juliet Scrapbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. , 2)Picture of Romeo and Juliet. Digital image. Listal RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. ,
3Romeo & Juliet Scrapbook. Digital image. Romeo Juliet Scrapbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
examples of figurative language
For each type of figurative language listed below, we found 3 examples in the full text of Romeo and Juliet, there is also an explanation as to why this particular quote represents the type of figuative language.
Metaphor1. "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears" -Romeo 2. "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." -Romeo 3. "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head?" -Romeo |
Explanation1. Romeo compares love to a smoke from a fire, he is despairing because Rosaline does not love him, and finds love to be a tragic thing.
2. Romeo describes the beautiful Juliet as the sun rising in the east. 3. Romeo compared Juliet's beautiful eyes to stars. |
Simile1. "No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a
church-door; but 'tis enough,'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man." -Mercutio 2. "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite." -Juliet 3. "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear" -Romeo |
Explanation1. Mercutio describes his wound as if it is as wide as a church door, making point that he will die, people go into church doors for funerals, and when he is a "grave man" he will be dead.
2. Juliet is saying that her love and affection for Romeo is deep and unlimited like the sea. 3. Romeo is saying that Juliet is brighter than torches, and stands out like a jewel on an African's ear. He compares her to bright things to portray her beauty. |
Personification |
Explanation1. Juliet is afraid that her family will see Romeo in the orchard, but he explains that it is very dark out, and they will not see him. He personifies the night as if it has a cloak.
2. Friar Lawrence describes the potion that Juliet will drink. He describes death as a being who can shut life. 3. Paris knows that someone is coming to the tomb, and he talks to the night as if it is a person, and can hide him. |
Irony1. "My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy." -Juliet 2. "Go ask his name: if he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed." -Juliet 3. "Ha! let me see her: out, alas! she's cold: Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field." -Capulet |
Explanation1. (Situational)Juliet mourns that the one person she loves, is a family enemy. This is ironic because we do not expect enemies to fall in love.
2. (Verbal) Juliet tells her nurse that if Romeo is already married, she would die. This is ironic, because we know that Juliet will actually die on her wedding bed. 3. (Dramatic) The audience knows that Juliet is not really dead, but her family mourns her death. She actually only took a potion that made her appear dead. |
Allusion1. "Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner As Phaethon would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately." -Juliet 2. "Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nick-name for her purblind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid!" -Mercutio 3. "Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose." -Mercutio |
Explanation1. Shakespeare assumes the reader has prior knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology. Phoebus, also known as Apollo, he is said to pull the sun across the sky on his chariot every day. Phaethon is the son of Apollo, and when he tried to drive the chariot, it crashed. Juliet hopes that the chariot will crash like it did for Phaethon, and the sun will not rise. Then she will be able to be with Romeo for longer.
2. Again, Shakespeare assumes prior knowledge of Roman mythology. Venus is the godess of love, and Cupid is her child. King Cophetua is said to have fallen in love with a beggar, and married her. Mercutio uses these myths to joke about Romeo's love. 3. Mercutio makes fun of Romeo's love, and in doing so Shakespeare forshadows the tradegy of Romeo and Juliet. He again infers that the audience has knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology. All of the people Mercutio lists supposedly commited suicide out of some misunderstanding over a lover. Just like what will happen to Romeo and Juliet. |
Oxymoron1. "Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!" -Romeo 2. "O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!" -Juliet 3. "Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow." -Juliet |
Explanation1. Romeo uses these dramatic phrases to emphasize his sorrow that the woman he loves does not love him. He has also just realized that there has been another family fray, and he becomes even more downcast.
2. Juliet mourns that Romeo has killed Tybalt. She uses these opposites to emphasize her despair that her lover has just killed her cousin, and someone so sweet could do something so awful. 3. Juliet says that parting is "sweet sorrow" when saying goodbye to Romeo. She will miss him, but marry him in the future. |
Apostrophe1. "Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!" -Romeo 2. "O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!" -Juliet 3. "Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let's see for means: O mischief, thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!" -Romeo |
Explanation1. Romeo imagines that the tomb that Juliet lays in is like a mouth being stuffed with more food, he talks to the tomb, as if he is about to feed it, and it has already eaten Juliet.
2. When Juliet is thinking about all of the horrors she might encounter in the tomb, she imagines her dead cousin, Tybalt, and tells him to stay, as if he can understand her. 3. Romeo imagines talking to Juliet even though she is already believed to be dead. He also talks to "mischief" as if it is a being to that acts, and comprehends his words. |
Paradox1. "Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast."
-Friar Lawrence 2."When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend in moral paradise of such sweet flesh?" -Juliet 3. "Was ever book containing such vile matter so fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!" -Juliet |
Explanation1. Friar Lawrence contradicts his own saying by agreeing to marry Romeo and Juliet promptly, but his statement has a lasting truth when Romeo and Juliet eventually "stumble" into tragedy from their sudden actions.
2. Juliet finds out that Romeo killed Tybalt, her cousin, and is wondering how a soul of a criminal was put in the perfect body of a man. 3. Juliet is feeling mixed emotions about Romeo appearing as a beautiful man, yet killing her cousin. |