In this lesson, there are two soliloquies, one by Romeo and the other by Juliet. The first soliloquy is taken from Act I, Scene V and the second from Act III, Scene II of Romeo and Juliet1, a romantic tragedy by William Shakespeare. The language used by Shakespeare in these soliloquies is exceptionally creative and provides an insight into his use of poetic devices in expressing human feelings.
In Act, I, Scene V, Romeo is attending a dance party in disguise, as it is hosted by Old Lord Capulet. Romeo is seen gazing at some dancers on the dance floor. When Romeo sees Juliet, he is so fascinated by her beauty that he asks a ** who the lady is. When the ** tells him that he does not know who she is, Romeo stands apart and rapturously praises her beauty. In this soliloquy, one witness the ebullient outpourings of a dreamy, young lover who has fallen in love with a beautiful, young lady, at first sight, Shakespeare captures both the excitement and wonder the lovers feel on this occasion, in an extraordinary language which abounds in poetic devices.
Line one is hyperbolic. The use of hyperbole is quite appropriate in this context because it is the voice of a young lover who sees before him a beautiful girl who symbolizes his aesthetic sense of what beauty ought to be like. Inline 2, Juliet is likened to an earring, thus making it a simile. The earring hangs upon the cheek of night. Here ‘night’ is personified as a lady. Thus, we see the use of personification as a device. The meaning is stretched further in the next line, and thus in lines 2 and 3, we see the use of enjambment as a poetic device. (‘Enjambment’ refers to the running over of the sense and grammatical structure from one verse line or couplet to the next without a punctuated pause.) The extended meaning is expected to further highlight the beauty of Juliet using a sharp contrast in the description of the personified night as an **** lady’* ear-ring.
We find another instance of enjambment in lines 5 and 6. Dove is a symbol of love and a snowy dove is a symbol of peace. This highlights the pristine love of the two young lovers. The snowy dove is trooping with ‘crows’ is again a sharp contrast between the other ladies in the hall and the brightness of Juliet. This contrast is to present a striking visual spectacle before the audience.
Thus, the whole stretch of this soliloquy is an extended metaphor expressing the emotional intensity of a lover who has fallen in love at first sight. In the next two lines, in the phrases ‘my rude hand’ and ‘my heart we find the use of ‘synecdoche’. The word ‘rude’ is tactile imagery. In the last line, the word ‘Beauty’, is a metaphor for Juliet. Finally, in the sentence ‘Did my heart love till now?’ we find Romeo’* realization that his love for Rosaline was only infatuation – sensual feeling for a lady and devoid of all emotions, whereas now he is in the throes of real love.
The next soliloquy is by Juliet (Act III Scene II). In this scene, Juliet is now waiting for Romeo. In this beautiful speech, we begin to understand the fullness of Juliet’* love.
In the first line, Juliet is addressing ‘night’ as an entity; night is personified. Thus there are two poetic devices used here – an apostrophe and personification. The poet wants to highlight Romeo’* brightness as seen by Juliet when he comes to visit her in the night.
Inline 1, ‘come, night; come, thou day in the night there is a form of parallelism called ‘asyndeton’. (It is a form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting words between clauses.) Next, Juliet calls Romeo ‘day-in-night’ which is a metaphor.
In the second line ‘night’ is personified as a bird. In the next line, the bird is mentioned as a ‘raven’ and Romeo’ brightness or white complexion is compared with new snow on the raven’ back. Here, there is a simile. In the fourth line also ‘night is personified. Juliet describes the night as having **** eyebrows, like a human being. Finally, in line 7, we see personification in the phrase ‘face of heaven’. Inline 8, we see the use of ‘metonymy’ in the phrase ‘all the world will be in love with the night’. It means to say that all the people in the world will be in love with night
Thus Shakespeare uses emotive language to associate it with the theme of love to demonstrate Romeo’* love/feelings for Juliet and to create drama. Thus one can undoubtedly say that ‘Romeo and Juliet’ provides an insight into the use of poetic devices.
