Romeo And Juliet Figurative Language Essay

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” discusses how people have both a monstrous and honorable side. Shakespeare demonstrates this by using syntax and figurative language in the soliloquy, “Romeo and Juliet”. In the soliloquy, a monk by the name Friar Laurence, talks about how everybody has a guilty and innocent side. In the story, the Montague and Capulet family are fierce rivals. The rivalry shows the dark side while the love of Romeo and Juliet shows light side of both families. Friar Laurence uses many literary techniques to show that people can be both kind and cruel. In the Soliloquy, Shakespeare uses figurative language and syntax to show how a moral side exists in everyone. An example of this would be when Friar Laurence

One case would be when Friar said, “Full soon the canker death eats up that plant” (31). Canker means infection and death means die. The reference means an infection kills the plant, which hints towards evil intentions. This saying is personification which is an example of figurative language. A second example of evil would be “Revolts from true birth stumbling on abuse” (21). This quote has malicious meaning because revolt means violently disagreeing and “abuse” means improper treatment of a living thing and objects. The message of this quote is that not caring about somebody causes them to break free of your neglect, which shows that not caring can be a hateful act. This is an example of classical allusion because in the story “Romeo and Juliet” Juliet’s parents abuse her in a sense where they don’t care if she likes who she marries which causes her to further love Romeo. My third and final example of villainous mentions is when Friar Laurence says “And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels” (4). This has maleficent meaning because it talks about how night falls like a drunk, which most likely means somebody drank a lot because they were depressed about something or wanted to forgot something bad. This example is a simile because night and drunk are two different things and the word like is used in the