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Essay On Literary Devices In Romeo And Juliet

687 Words3 Pages

There are many different literary devices that can be used by authors for their stories or plays. These devices are used by authors to convey meaning for the audience or reader. Specifically, in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, literary devices are used in abundance throughout the play. It was impressive how William Shakespeare was able to efficiently use many literary devices. Specifically, William Shakespeare used the literary device named foil. The foil technique is when the author contrasts the two characters in their character traits or personalities to create conflict or to create comic relief. In the play, there are two main families that are centered, the Capulets and the Montagues. These two families have always been at odds with each other. This causes most of the drama throughout the play. Even the servants of the families hate each other.The use of foil characters, allows them to fully …show more content…

Romeo has a serious attitude towards love and is quick at it. Mercutio is a light-hearted and humourous person when it comes to love. When Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, and other characters are heading to a party of the Capulets, Romeo talks about his love for Rosaline, “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn”(I,iv,25-26). He compares his love for Rosaline to a rose with thorns. This tells the reader or audience, how Romeo is serious about his feelings for love. In response to Romeo’s quote about Rosaline and his love for her, Mercutio states “If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down”(I.iv,27-28). This expresses how Mercutio is mocking and light-hearted when it comes to love hence, making him seem as if he does not take life in a serious matter. To sum up, Mercutio mocks and jokes about Romeo’s serious love that he shares with Rosaline, thus making these two characters foil in the

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Literary devices help readers to better understand writing and help readers get a better understanding of what they are reading. One of the literary devices in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is foil. Foil is two characters who are nothing alike with different qualities. Foil helps bring different types of characters together.

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Mercutios relationship with Romeo is a foil because their beliefs are extremely controversial with each other's. Fates, dreams and love are few of the thoughts where they disagree, and there opinions on each matter were shown a myriad throughout the play , this is shown to be true when Romeo states, "In bed asleep, while they do dreams come true" (1.4, lns 52). This quote supports my answer because Romeo is stating that your dream are prophecies where Mercutio, "...nothing but fantasy" (1.4, lns 98) believes that they mean nothing and are just childish thought. Another quote from the text that supports my answer is between Romeo and Mercutio, "And, to sink in it, should you burden love- too great oppression for a tender thing" (1.4, lns 23-24)

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Romeo is very fixated on love, easily heartbroken, and depressed. These traits are more obvious as Mercutio’s humor and his ability to be reasonable lighten the rather dark shadow Romeo carries. Mercutio’s line, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.” (I, iv, 27-28)

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Mercutio is different from Romeo because he does not believe in love and makes fun of Romeo and falling in love so heavily all the time. When Romeo describes his love for Rosaline using a rose with thorns as a metaphor. Mercutio laughs and says ”If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking and you beat love down”(I.4.27-28). In another scenario of Romeo and Mercutio’s foils is when Romeo tells his friends about a dream he had about the party and is expecting a disastrous outcome of the party. Mercutio makes fun of Romeo because he does not believe that dreams can become visions of impending danger.

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There are many characters in Romeo and Juliet that are interesting in personality and actions, but Romeo and Mercutio have a special bond to each other. They are foils in the play, meaning their two personalities and actions offset each other. When Romeo is sad and heartbroken, Mercutio is there to joke and tease Romeo about his terrible love life. When Romeo is complaining about how love is, “Too rough, too rude, too boist’rous,” (Act 1, IV) Mercutio replies with a joking statement of, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.” (Act 1, IV)This small retort shows that the characters are nearly opposites, but could not be foils if they were not alike in many ways.

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