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Background:
Martin Luther King, Jr. led a march through Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. He gave a speech about civil rights that is remarked as one of the best known in American history. Perhaps the reason this speech is so memorable is because of King’s powerful imagery and word choice that matched the strength of his message.
Justification:
Throughout his speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. uses light and dark imagery to symbolize confidence and optimism in a world of injustice and prejudice for African-Americans.
“This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”
“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”
1. H., Tamara K. "What Are Some Examples of Sight and Blindness/ Light and Darkness in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex?" Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2017. <https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-some-examples-sight-blindness-light-darkness-371035>.
2. “A Metaphorical Alanlysis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech.” digitalcommons. Calpoly, n.d. Web Jun. 2010.
Act 4 and 5:
Act 3:
In act 3, Dark Imagery was used.
There is limited imagery in act four and the last. In act 4, the dark imagery of faking her death by drinking the potion to avoid marrying Paris, and this decision led to the death of Romeo and Juliet. In Scene Five, both dark and light imagery connects the audience to the time of day it is.
The use of the dark imagery connects the audience to think of night as the time of romance and freedom. It is the only time they can be together.
A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.’
(Act 5. Scene 3. Line 306)
‘Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out into little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.’
(Act 3. Scene 2. Lines 23-6
Juliet is saying that when she dies, turn Romeo into stars and form a constellation in his image. That his face will make the heavens so beautiful, the world will fall in love with the night and forget about the garish sun.
Romeo is transformed into shimmering immortality and becomes the very definition of light, outshining the sun itself.
'More light and light, more dark and dark our woes'
(Act 3. Scene 5. Line 36).
With Romeo being forced to leave for exile in the morning, and Juliet not wanting him to leave her room, they both try to pretend that it is still night, and that the light is actually darkness.
In the last speech of the play, after Romeo and Juliet’s death is discovered, Prince Escalus says that the morning sky is dark, fitting the mood of occasion.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, light and dark imagery is one of the most used themes used in this play.
- The use of dark and light imagery is used to demonstrate the contrast between positive and negative emotions or thoughts of characters. Romeo and Juliet use light and dark imagery to provide a more intense attraction between the two lovers.
Dark and light imagery is a motif in a work of literature and can be used to contrast good and bad, love and hate, or life and death. In other instances, the literary device is used to accentuate one of the two concepts.
Act 1:
In Act 1, light imagery was used by Romeo to describe the beauty of Juliet.
Upon first sight of her, Romeo exclaims that she teaches "the torches to burn bright" (1.5.43)
Juliet's light shows best against the darkness; she "hangs upon the cheek of night / As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear" (1.5.44-45)
Explanation: She shines in the night like an earring an ear of an Ethiopian.
Explanation: Her beauty is so bright that she teaches something already bright, to burn brighter
Other Literary Works that use Dark and Light Imagery
Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Piggy’s glasses, a symbol of logic and good sense, are also symbols of light.
Simon is compared to Jesus - and light would be symbolic of his purity and his insightful nature.
There is also an element of darkness. Darkness is often unexplored and so there is a wild side, an unexplored and unknown, even hostile side. In the hostile environment, Ralph finds himself being hunted by Jack.