Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare in which many characters are faced with tragedy. Shakespeare presents Juliet as the character who suffers the most, arguably making readers sympathise with her more. Shakespeare does this by his showing how the situation affects Juliet the most and how other characters affect Juliet’s struggle. Shakespeare also invokes our solicitude by depicting the scale of her hardship through the impact it has on her own personality and actions. Shakespeare uses a range of devices including wordplay, juxtaposition and the strength of certain word to present Juliet as a figure of isolation. Shakespeare shows Juliet’s struggle through a dilemma of loyalties between Romeo and her family. She is shown to be in a situation from which it is impossible for her to escape. Grieving for Romeo and not marrying Paris will be …show more content…
Furthermore, Shakespeare presents Juliet’s internal conflict of feeling towards Romeo and compares it to her feeling towards Tybalt. By calling Romeo a “dove-feathered raven”, we get an image of two birds with whose symbolism is juxtaposed. A raven often represents ill omens and hard-heartedness, while a dove implies peace and elegance. In this metaphor, Shakespeare shows Juliet’s realisation that Romeo has two sides - one murderous and responsible for tearing her life apart, and the one who she loves and adores. This oxymoron also reflects on a grander scale, how her greatest love is in fact her family's (and maybe her own) biggest enemy. Shakespeare also uses a comparative over a superlative when Juliet refers to Tybalt and Romeo as ‘my dearest cousin and dearer lord.’ This is unusual, but is powerful in