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Examples Of Allusions In Romeo And Juliet

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“Never affirm, always allude: allusions are made to test the spirit and probe the heart.” Here, Umberto Eco speaks of the power of allusions. One simple reference can stimulate hundreds of ideas, relations, and images in a reader’s head. Allusions guide the reader on the journey to understanding a work as a whole. Shakespeare, inventor of over 1700 commonly used words, and one of the most quoted authors of all time, used allusions to enhance his works. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare frequently alludes to Cupid, the Roman god of love. This sustained allusion occurs in order to show how fate influences Romeo’s love. Since fate was a common belief in the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare used the allusion to Cupid in order to show how Romeo and Juliet were fated to fall in love, and this sustained allusion affects the work in many ways. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare alludes to Cupid, the Roman …show more content…

Mercutio, who continually acts as the comedic relief in the play, conveys his hidden wisdom in the form of jokes. When he learns that Tybalt has challenged Romeo to a duel, he facetiously proclaims, “Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead!...the very pin of his heart/cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is he a/ man to encounter Tybalt?”(II.iiii. 16-18) Mercutio wisely suggests that one so consumed with grief as Romeo cannot possibly duel Tybalt and win. But perhaps even more wisely, Mercutio suggests that Cupid only hit Romeo with the butt-shaft of his arrow, meaning that he had a limited influence on Romeo falling in love with Rosaline. But by this point, unbeknownst to Mercutio, Romeo has already fallen in love with Juliet. However, Mercutio’s words could also demonstrate how Romeo’s love for Juliet occurred without much persuasion on Cupid’s part. All in all, this final allusion in reference to Cupid introduces the fact that Romeo may have more control of his love than he

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522 Words | 3 Pages

As Mercutio and Tybalt fight, Romeo intervenes and in doing so, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm. After the death of Mercutio, Romeo is disheartened by his death and avenges his friend by murdering Tybalt.

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155 Words | 1 Pages

The author, Shakespeare, also uses metaphors to convey the character Romeo. Text evidence to support this is “O,

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553 Words | 3 Pages

Stabbed with a white wenches black eye. Shot through the ear with a love song. The very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boys butt-shaft and is he a man to counter Tybalt. 2.4.4" In this quote Mercutio is talking about the anguish that Romeo is in and is saying that someone needs to fight Tybalt because he is in no position to. In this next quote he is offering Romeo his advice on how to deal with his love problems.

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848 Words | 4 Pages

Mercutio is making light of Romeo’s deep depressing love for Rosaline, he’s mocking love and making it a joke. This creates an emphasis on Romeo’s utter affixation with love. Mercutio’s playfulness and ability to make a serious subject humorous and reasonable bring out the deep, dark, and depressing side of Romeo, who is completely the opposite when it comes to love. Romeo does not see love as a joke and we see him fall into a depression, Mercutio only makes this sadness more apparent as he talks so jokingly of love. Shakespeare uses Mercutio to lighten Romeo’s depression and make it more

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623 Words | 3 Pages

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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383 Words | 2 Pages

This passage reveals that Juliet is impatient, which is demonstrated through the allusions in the text, the textual features, as well as the diction as it relates to the repetition of time. In this passage, Juliet makes allusions that reveal her impatience. The first allusion is, “nimble-pinion’d doves draw love.” This allusion refers to the fact that Venus, or love, rides in a carriage that is pulled by swift-winged doves.

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329 Words | 2 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt is at the most of Mercutio’s death because of his explosive personality and temper, which led to him acting without thinking. In act 3 Scene 1, a tragic and dramatic fight takes place, where Mercutio was struck by Tybalt and as a result, died. This fight came to be because Tybalt came up to Romeo demanding a duel for he was at a Capulet ball. Romeo, being married to Tybalt’s in-law tries to avoid the conflict when Tybalt states “Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford No better term than this: thou art a villain” (3.1.61-62)

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182 Words | 1 Pages

Within literature, authors typically incorporate figurative language, especially allusions, to enhance their writing. Allusions reference a familiar hidden meaning behind the author’s words. In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare embraces his mastery to incorporate allusions relating to Greek and Roman Mythology to further develop a full understanding of the complex plot line. Shakespeare utilizes this literary device throughout this play to polish the reader’s comprehension of the actions and behavior of the characters through his mentions of Cupid, the god of love, and Diana, the goddess of chastity. The gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman mythology allude to the fated to be doomed love of Romeo and Juliet.

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764 Words | 4 Pages

Literary Devices The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet One way Shakespeare uses literary devices in Romeo and Juliet is using various allusions, or references to other works, which makes the play more interesting because it gives spectators a better understanding of the feelings of the characters by comparing them to other popular characters. An example of this is when Romeo was love-sick about Rosaline not loving him back, Mercutio says, “You are a lover. Borrow Cupid’s wings\And soar with them above a common bound” (1.4.17-18). This shows the personality of Romeo by comparing it with Cupid, and that Romeo has a loving personality with extreme emotions.

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Throughout literature and novels we can find authors who will reference history, other authors works and most often the Bible. One may ask themselves the reasoning behind allusions and how it can affect our perspective and the authors meaning when reading the novel. In the late sixties, Julia Kristeve, who studied the elements of literature and other communication systems, introduced the word “Intertextuality”. In Kristave’s essay “Word, Dialogue, and Novel” she went into deep analysis of an authors work and its text, “A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the strucutures of language itself. Any text," she argues, "is constructed of a mosaic of quotations; any text

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316 Words | 2 Pages

In Shakespeare's tragic play, “Romeo and Juliet” the climax had reached its limit in Act III. Before the two lovers thought about a different route to take all because of Romeo’s impulsive decision, the turning point started to take off in Act II when Mercutio and Tybalt had an argument. On page 846, line 64, Tybalt states, “ Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw.” After Romeo tried to plead with Tybalt to stop the foolish argument, Tybalt ignored what he said and still begged for a fight. This childish argument that could've been avoided soon led to Mercutio getting murdered by Tybalt.

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395 Words | 2 Pages

Placing the Blame The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet truly becomes a tragedy once Mercutio, Romeo’s close friend, is killed by the hand of Tybalt. Multiple claims could be made regarding who is responsible for Mercutio’s death, but he himself is ultimately to blame. Once Tybalt approaches him, Mercutio begins to instigate. The heat at the time of this scene was hardly bearable, making matters worse as Mercutio quickly becomes irritable. He made insulting comments and aggravating remarks, pushing Tybalt to the point of fighting.

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717 Words | 3 Pages

Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel and he declines the challenge and insists that he won’t fight Tybalt. Mercutio is angered by Romeo’s “cowardice” and takes on Tybalt himself. Romeo wants Mercutio to stop fighting Tybalt so he decides that it’d be a good idea to block his arm in mid combat and Tybalt stabs Mercutio from under Romeo’s arm and Mercutio falls dead after rambling about plagues and a pun or two. Romeo doesn’t realize that it is his own fault that Mercutio died after Mercutio even blamed his wound on him. Romeo lets his emotions decide his actions and becomes enraged and ignores that Tybalt is now his family and fails to see that he was the reason Mercutio was killed.

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664 Words | 3 Pages

Love is one of the most important themes of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and a distinction can be made between love guided by thought and love led by passion. In classical mythology it is easy to find the second kind of love. The Greek deity Eros is the personification of passionate and physical desire – and he is not the only example. As a result, it is not surprising that Shakespeare portrays this kind of love with classical mythological references. Shakespeare uses classical references not only to refer to love (as was often done in literature), but also to make a statement about love that is guided by passion.

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352 Words | 2 Pages

In this passage, Shakespeare utilizes metaphor and negative diction to characterize Romeo as a person who is conflicted and frustrated by love, which ultimately reveals the theme that love is uncontrollable, conflicting, and short-lived. Towards the end of act 1 scene 1, Romeo still has a big crush on Rosaline, but Rosaline has no feelings for him. Hence, Romeo experienced a sense of depression and is conflicted by love. In this passage, Shakespeare uses numerous metaphors. “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.”

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