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Romeo: “O, she is rich in beauty, only poor/ That when she dies, with beauty dies her store”. (Caesura interjects the line, much like how death interrupts her “beauty”. The repetition of the verb “dies”, emphasises the indomitable transience of her “beauty” and “store”, which are semantically linked to the body. Use of adjectives concerning wealth “rich” and “poor” implies that women are commodities measured by their beauty and fertility. Romeo: “Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars./One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun/ Ne’er saw her match since first the world began”. “heretics” were individuals with unorthodox religious beliefs, who were often burned to death in the Elizabethan era. Romeo’s infatuation is analogous to faith and religion: Rosaline is portrayed as the perfect being, like God, and Romeo as a devout follower. If his eyes should stray and become “heretics”, Romeo demands biblical punishment, conveyed by the action of being “burnt”. The “sun” and “light” is a lexically cohesive motif associated with beauty and love. Romeo: “Some consequence yet hanging in Shakespeare continues to form his image of Romeo as someone who is lacking control of his own life. “...the stars”, indicate the heavens, and the idea that life on earth is dictated www.pmt.education the stars…But He hath the steerage of my course.” by that macrocosm. This, additionally, foreshadows fate’s interference in the text. In line 112, Shakespeare allegorically represents Romeo as a ship and God as the captain- “...He hath steerage of [Romeo’s] course”. Thus, signifying lack of self-autonomy and the character’s passivity to higher power. Romeo: “O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!...As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear-” Regular rhyming couplets add energy to the dialogue, reinforcing the excitement and intense emotions of Romeo. In addition, couplets heighten the feeling of love - they are two lines fit together as a singular unit/ anatomy. Juliet is metaphorically portrayed as transcendental in this extract, as she “teaches the torches,” is a “snowy dove” amongst “crows”, and her beauty is “for earth too dear”. Shakespeare establishes the lexically cohesive conflict between light and dark in this extract. This alludes to the “artificial night” in scene 1, which emphasises the weight of Juliet’s presence in the character’s narrative arc. Shakespeare also portrays the objectification of Juliet, with the metaphor “As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear-”. Juliet: “Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake/ Romeo: Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.” First 14 lines of dialogue between the two protagonists form a Shakespearan sonnet - indicates romance and love. The call and response in the sonnet rhyme scheme, finished by a rhyming couplet echoes the characters’ compatibility; it also implies the reciprocation of love. Romance is also expressed as a religious experience, conveyed by the allegory of saints praying. Romeo: “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.” Juliet being described metaphorically as the “fair sun”, illustrates Romeo’s growing obsession and infatuation, as the sun is the source of all life; Juliet vitalises Romeo. Modern interpretation may allude to the helio-centric model of the solar system, thus Juliet becomes the centre of Romeo’s world. Antithesis constructed between the “sun” and “moon”. The “moon” refers to Diana, the patroness of virgins, which Romeo wishes to “kill”, suggesting his carnal desires to have Juliet. Romeo: “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,/ For stony limits cannot hold love out”. Dichotomy between the abstract noun “love” with concrete nouns such as “walls” and “stony limits”. Highlights that love transcends borders, with the allegory of flying over the walls with “love’s light wings”. Use of alliterative sounds “Love” “light” “walls” “limits”, draw attention to the word “love”, which is repeated twice. www.pmt.education Demonstrates a form of enlightenment achieved through love, as Romeo figuratively overcomes physical boundaries. Romeo: “Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee/ Doth much excuse the appertaining rage/ To such a greeting.” Shakespeare contrasts fighting with Romeo’s newfound love for Tybalt. This effectively detaches Romeo emotionally from his contemporary crowd, highlighting his character development; the idea that love transcends societal conventions and expectations. “...O sweet Juliet,/ Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,/ And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel!”. (III.i.109-111) Analogy is with the hardness imparted to steel by the process of tempering; Romeo is presented as a blunt sword, which symbolises his emasculation. Swords are typically associated with violence and bravery. The inability to conform to violent behaviour is considered feminine. The quote shows how Juliet has caused Romeo to change. Alliterative “t” sounds heighten the tension. “Romeo: Away to heaven, respective lenity, / And fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!” (III.i.119-120) Fricatives of “fire-eye’d fury” accentuate the harshness of the dialogue. Shakespeare juxtaposes “heaven” with descriptions of hell, “fire-ey’d fury” to emphasise the conflict between mercy and revenge. “Romeo: O, I am fortune’s fool.” (III.i.132) Simple sentence underline’s Romeo’s subjugation to “fortune”; Romeo’s language prowess have been diminished to an unimpressive syntax. Romeo makes himself the object, “fortune’s fool”, which communicates his passive stance on life and his inability to accept responsibility for his actions. “Fortune”, was perceived as a woman during the Elizabethan era, thus “fortune” may also refer to Juliet in this instance. “For exile hath more terror in his look,/ Much more than death. Do not say ‘banishment’!” Shakespeare personifies “exile” to accentuate Romeo’s fear. Half internal rhymes “more” and “terror” draws attention to these words to signify fear. Imperative “Do not say…” shows Romeo’s violent reaction to his punishment. www.pmt.education “Romeo: There is no world without Verona walls,/ But purgatory, torture, hell itself:”. Shakespeare shows Romeo’s hyperbolic manner of thought and over exaggerated view of the world as he says, “there is no world without Verona walls”. “...purgatory, torture, hell…” is an auxesis, as the words ascend in intensity. The religious semantic field illustrates how Romeo views the external world as biblical damnation. “Purgatory”, quickly escalates into “torture” then “hell” which implies that banishment does not mean atonement but rather eternal punishment. “Friar Lawrence: Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote/ The unreasonable fury of a beast.” “unreasonable fury of a beast”, is a metaphor used to describe Romeo’s irrational nature. “Womanish” conveys the patriarchal society in which the text is set and written, as Friar Lawrence exposes Romeo’s loss of self, by describing him as “womanish”, describing his actions as “wild”, and drawing an analogy to a beast, implying a level of dehumanisation. “I must be gone and live, or stay and die”. Monosyllabic phrasing which is not for Romeo. This shows character development, as it signifies a new maturity and understanding, unlike oxymoronic turmoil. Compound patterning of “gone and live”, and “stay and die”, emphasise the conflict that Romeo is faced with. Internal rhyme between first person pronoun “I” and “die”, foreshadows Romeo’s death. The self represented by “I” is inextricably linked to death. Shown by the verb “die”. Iambic pentameter effectively stresses the key words of the line, “must”, “gone”, “live”, “stay” and “die”. “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!” Caesura “...so? Then I…” indicates an assertion of agency and self-autonomy, in order to defy the will of the heavens, which is symbolised by the “stars”. Therefore, Shakespeare creates the conflict between the individual and fate. Romeo’s belief that he can “defy the stars” suggests a self-assured hubris. In Greek Mythology hubris is followed by www.pmt.education nemesis, fate and destruction. This echoes the structure of the play as Romeo’s defiance against the stars, leads to his destruction. The use of broken syntax in the line elucidates his internal turmoil. “By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,/ And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs./ The time and my intents are savage-wild,”. The “graveyard” iss anthropomorphised, as it is described as “hungry”. “Intents” being “savage-wild”, denotes Romeo’s detachment from his humanity, which results in isolation. Violent images of breaking down the human body, connotes a displacement of Romeo’s psyche. “Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,/ Gorg’d 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.” (V.iii.45-49) Paradoxical image of the “womb of death”, as “womb” is associated with life. Therefore, this image acts as an inversion- there is no life, only death. “I enforce…” is a powerful command, that seems to be violating the body of the tomb. Semantic field of the dismembered body, “maw”, “womb”, “death”, is a subversion of Petrarchan love poetry, which focuses on body parts of the object of desire. “... O here/ will I set up my everlasting rest,/And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/ From this world-wearied flesh…” “...shake the yoke” means to “resist the domination”- Romeo once again attempts to defy fate. The enjambment of this quotation hints at the speed of Romeo’s thought, which is arguably rash and irrational. It suggests the inevitability of ending this soliloquy, which finishes with Romeo’s death.