Literary Devices:
Romeo and Juliet
Analysis: Romeo and Juliet
Example of Pun:
Romeo: “Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes.
With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead
So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.”
Example of Foreshawdoing:
"Take thou some new infection to thy eye, / And the rank poison of the old will die" (1.2.49-50).
Example of Metaphor:
"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
Example of Personification:
"For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night / Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back." (III.ii.18-19)
Analysis: Romeo and Juliet
A literary device is a literary technique that produces a specific effect.
Puns are used to create humor and double meanings.
Foreshadowing is used to create suspense and give the audience ideas of what might happen later on.
Metaphors are used to furthur explain or connect one thing to another.
Personification is used to describe motions of nature.
Oxymorans describe words, while Parodoxes explian what happens
Citations:
Language: Using the Five Keys to Unlocking the Bard
- http://literarydevices.net/imagery/
- http://pages.towson.edu/quick/romeoandjuliet/litefate.htm
- http://www.bardweb.net/content/readings/intro.html#pentameter
- http://romeoandjulietclhs.weebly.com/figurative-language.html
- http://www.brittensenglishzone.com/sonnets-in-romeo--juliet.html
Five Keys to Unlocking the Bard:
- Following the Thought: What is the character saying or thinking? Look up any key word that you might not understand.
- Follow the Action: What is the character doing? It gives you information to help interpret the language. The speech correlates with the action he or she is doing .
- Identifying Images: Find metaphors, similes, imagery, allusions which helps us see how the character using the image. Romeo uses the images to sort through what he is feeling and when he goes through this process he receives clarity.
- Decipher the Meter: Helps you if you decipher the language; using the iambic pentameter, for example five feet (sections) in a line which establishes a rhythm which conveys the poetry used to the audience to pay attention. (about ten syllables)
- Gravy: It is all of the other good stuff rhetorical devices, and poetic devices as well. Antithesis is a contrast or opposition between two things which clarifies a thought, for example "To be, or not to be" or "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon" which makes it clear that one is to be gone while the other is to stay.
Language Examples: Romeo and Juliet
"That thou her maid art far more fair than she" shows how Romeo uses the word "maid" to allude that Juliet is unmarried woman and as a servant of the moon (this indicates that Juliet is in the presence or the service of Diana). The whole reason the moon has a emotion of being sad is that Juliet's beauty outshines hers, just like how the sun's light outshines the moon itself. You have to use close examination to understand what it trying to be conveyed.
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
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,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off!
It is my lady. Oh, it is my love."
In this particualr scene Shakespeare uses images and then we can find out how the langauage is describing how Juliet is and her beauty that is shining through. These images are very powerful and give the listener a understnading of what the character is doing or thinking.
Language: Romeo and Juliet
By: Rani, Zoe, Daniel, Caden, Roberto, and Aerin
Shakespeare’s writing in Romeo and Juliet expresses one of the greatest tragedies ever written. In Romeo and Juliet it expresses emotions of death, pain, and loss. Shakespeare’s language seems foreign to many people, but in the course of his language we can find hints and clues to help us understand who the characters are, and what they are doing as well. To help understand the creative language that Shakespeare writes, we can use the Five Keys to Unlocking the Bard.
Sonnets: Romeo and Juliet
Sonnet: it is a poem which consists of fourteen lines and uses a formal rhyme scheme; and in English usually has ten syllables per line
Shakespeare published most of his own sonnets in the year of 1609. The sonnets became more recognized in the 19th and 20th century as well. The most common type of rhyme scheme of a sonnet is stated as ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The sonnets in Romeo and Juliet are his most famous. Specifically, The Prologue and the meeting of Romeo and Juilet in Act 1 Scene 5. Shakespeare put the sonnets secretly in the dialgoue of the play.
Sonnet 18 of Romeo and Juliet:
Imagery
Light imagery is used in Romeo and Juliet. It helps to develop the plot and characters.
Romeo thinks about Juliet in forms of light and vice-versa.
After meeting Juliet, Romeo followed her home and waited outside her bedroom. He states “Juliet is the sun [and he calls her to] Arise… and kill the envious moon.” This is imagery of how Juliet is the light in his life. It can also represent them breaking the feud between the Montagues and Capulets.
Dark imagery is another form that is majorly used in Romeo and Juliet.
Stars represent the fate which is an insurmountable obstacle to the love the two lovers share.
Before his death, Romeo states “O, here/ Will I set up my everlasting rest/ And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/ From this world weary flesh." (5.3.109-112)”. This shows the darkness of fate. It is fate who has won over Romeo as it always wins.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Two households, both alike in dignity, A
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, B
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, A
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. B
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes C
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; D
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows C
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. D
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, E
And the continuance of their parents' rage, F
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove, E
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; F
The which if you with patient ears attend, G
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. G
Imagery
Imagery is figurative language in which shows objects, actions, and ideas that appeal to our senses. It uses similes, metaphors, personification, and onomatopoeia to appeal to senses.
Shakespeare uses imagery of light and darkness often in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This imagery not only creates a vivid image in our minds but also helps support the majors themes of light and darkness.
“A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”
This represents both the light and dark imagery. “Star-crossed lovers” is a great example of light imagery as it represents love. “Take their life” represents the darkness of death. This is from the first few lines of the play, and from this early on the audience experiences both the dark and light imagery.