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Lightness And Darkness In Romeo And Juliet By William Shakespeare

Decent Essays

Act 2 Scene 2 Shakespeare uses lightness and darkness to show Romeo and Juliet’s love developing. The metaphor ‘Juliet is the sun’ is illustrating how much she means to Romeo, as without the sun we wouldn’t be able to live which is proposing Romeo needs Juliet to be able to survive. Shakespeare cleverly uses a metaphor to describe Juliet as the sun instead of a simile ‘Juliet is like the sun’, for example, as if she was like it this could mean many other people could be like the sun. However, saying she is the sun is implying that she is the only one, as there is only one sun, and she is the only one to Romeo who could make him feel this way. This shows us how much Romeo feels about Juliet. Romeo goes on to say ‘Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon’. He has always compared Rosaline to the moon and this quote is suggesting he has moved on from Rosaline and now in love with Juliet as the sun would outshine the moon metaphorically meaning Juliet, to Romeo’s eyes, is much more beautiful and fitted than Rosaline. Shakespeare has also used the ‘moon’ to emphasise the brightness of the ‘sun’. Like this scene, Romeo and Juliet’s love predominantly takes place at night, which is promoting the ‘forbiddenness’ of their love, as they do not want to be seen by their families. Romeo actions of going to the Capulet’s Orchard, even at night, are risky and so the audience can see how deeply Juliet has affected him. …show more content…

Using the adjective ‘bright’ is reinforcing what was earlier said about Juliet and the sun. Comparing a girl to an ‘angel’ would imply she is beautiful and their love is pure. This could also be a form of dramatic irony as in the end, from the prologue, the audience knows Romeo and Juliet die and angels are from heaven, which is obviously associated with the

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