How Does Shakespeare Use Literary Devices In Romeo And Juliet

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one of the most well known literary pieces of all time. Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed lovers, whose fates are intertwined. Throughout the tragic story, the odds are never in the lovers favor, due to the hatred their parents have for each other. Romeo’s rash decisions and Juliet’s love for him take Shakespeare's story into the lives of young lovers. However, in the end, the lovers demise are caused by each other. To develop Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses both literary and dramatic devices such as: foreshadowing, soliloquy, and puns. In the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare continuously gives the readers hints of what will happen in the future. This literary device, known as foreshadowing,

A soliloquy is a speech given by a single character while alone on stage. After Romeo and Juliet establish their marital plans, Romeo goes to visit Friar Lawrence to see if he will do the ceremony. Before Romeo arrives Friar is talking to himself explaining “The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night… And vice sometime by action dignified” (Act II, Scene iii, Line 1-22). While Lawrence was discussing medicine and herbs by himself the readers learn that he was an herbalist as well as a preacher. The point of a soliloquy is to express a character's’ thoughts. Lawrence is thinking about how different herbs do different things, some good, some bad, and compared them to people. Another example of soliloquy is when Juliet had a plan to run away with Romeo. In this plan Juliet was supposed to drink a potion to make her appear dead, however before drinking she had many skepticisms like “What if it be a poison which the friar… Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee” (Act IV, Scene iii, Lines 24-58). Juliet’s soliloquy explained her fears of drinking the potion and not waking up or waking up too soon. Because she was alone, no one was there to comfort her and she had to talk herself into actually drinking the potion. The long speech has a lot of alternatives to get the readers thinking and to cause the readers to wonder whether the plan will work after

Since Tybalt hates Montagues, and he discovered Romeo with his cousin Juliet, he challenged Romeo to a duel. Mercutio took Romeo’s place, however Mercutio was slain. As Mercutio, the comically relieving character, is dying he proclaims “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man” (Act III, Scene i, Line 94-95). Mercutio’s last lines included a pun, because Shakespeare was trying to lighten the mood. The “grave man” line was a pun, because it could mean a sad man, or a dead man. Mercutio would be both tomorrow making the line a joke. Additionally, soon after the Capulets discover Juliet was “passed away,” Peter and some musicians were talking about how they weren’t going to get to play at a wedding anymore. Peter tells the musicians “I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. Do you note me?” (Act IV, Scene v, Line 113-114). When Peter says these lines he is telling the musicians he will hit them and kill them. However he says this as a joke so he uses “re,” “fa,” and “note” as puns because he is speaking to musicians. The musicians play notes, like re and fa, making the lines