Light Vs. Dark In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Light Vs. Dark: A Narrative of Romeo And Juliet One of the most renowned playwrights in history, William Shakespeare has written many famous plays, arguably the most popular of which is The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet. My task for this paper was to talk about how the motifs and contrasts in language show a central idea of the play. One of the most prominent examples of motif is light vs dark. The motif of light vs. dark in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is developed by the actions of the characters and impulsivity to convey how light if misued can turn to darkness. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is a play that stars two characters named Romeo and Juliet, their families (The Montagues and Capulets) stuck in a deep ancient feud, meet at a party and instantly fall in love. Their impulsivity caused them to make several bad decisions (getting married, having sex, etc.), these decisions ultimately led to their death. There are plenty instances of contrast in language in the play. A shining example of this is in Act 2 Scene 3, when Friar Lawrence does his famous soliloquy. While speaking about the morning he mentions the “titans fiery …show more content…

When Romeo first noticed Juliet he exclaims, “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear: Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So Shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows (1.5.44-49). This supports the claim because Romeo Compares Juliet’s beauty to darkness and light. How she “teaches the torches to burn” and how she contrasts the darkness as in a bright jewel on the dark skin of an Ethiopian or the darkness of a crow. This is a start to the main idea, Romeo is introduced to his light, not knowing of the darkness to