Literary Elements In Romeo And Juliet

The utilization of literary elements in novels, plays, and stories aid in character development by providing audiences with insight into a character 's emotions and perspectives on certain topics. In the play "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Romeo 's character is developed through the use of characterization, irony, and conflict.

In the play, Romeo is characterized as shallow and shameful through the use of detail and diction when he talks to Juliet in the garden. The detail "bright angel" (Shakespeare, page 838) and "fair maid" (page 839) characterize Romeo as shallow. Romeo is characterized as shallow by explaining that he loves Juliet because of her physical beauty. Romeo is shallow because he loves Juliet due to her

Irony is a technique authors use to clue the audience in to things they may have missed or highlight important character traits in their cast of characters. The use of dramatic and situational irony help to develop Romeo 's character through diction and detail when he sees that Juliet 's body and when he talks to Benvolio about her alleged death. The use of the words "death" (Shakespeare, page 922) and "rest" (page 923) display dramatic irony in the sense that Romeo believes that Juliet has died when she in fact is merely pretending to be dead. This is dramatic irony because Romeo kills himself because though the audience knows Juliet isn 't really dead, he does not. The use of dramatic irony aids in the character development of Romeo by showing his impatient and impulsive nature that will eventually lead to tragedy. Also, the detail "no letters...from the friar" (page 917) and "lie with thee tonight" (page 917) show situational irony. Situational irony is shown through the letter, which explained all of the details of Friar Lawrence 's plan, failing to be delivered to Romeo. This is situational irony because Romeo was not aware that Juliet had taken a sleeping potion from the Friar to fake her death so that she would not be forced to marry Paris. The use of situational irony helps with the development of Romeo 's character by demonstrating Romeo 's melodramatic disposition along with his harmful tendency to overreact. While irony assisted notably in character development, conflict helped to develop Romeo 's character to an even