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The Use Of Oxymorons In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Despite the families attempts at trying to break two young lovers apart, they still try to reconcile the families together. In the story of “Romeo and Juliet", written by William Shakespeare, 2 families with a long lasting feud ultimately affect “Romeo and Juliet”, which leads to their tragic deaths. In William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare uses oxymorons to further develop the story and better develop the theme. An example of this technique being used is when we see words such as "loving hate” and “cold fire” can help develop the story by further highlighting the intense and conflicting emotions experienced by the characters in this story. "O serpant heart, hid with a flowering face, Did ever dragon keep so far a cave”, “Beautiful Tyrant, Fiend Angelical” The quote above, spoken by Juliet refers to Romeo as “Beautiful Tyrant" and "Fiend Angelical. …show more content…

Another example can be taken in act 3, scene 2 where Juliet wavers between reality when refering to Romeo as “A damned saint, an honourable villain” which then Juliet shows she can’t choose whether she loves Romeo or not. She shows immaturity in her actions because one moment she says she hates him, another she says the opposite. “Shall I speak ill of him who is my husband, ah poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth my name” (Shakespeare III.ii 98-99). This quote is taken from act 3, scene 2 and Juliet doesn’t know if she should speak ill of Romeo because he is her husband, and if she does no one will speak kind of him but her. In this context she is referring to how Romeo brutally ended her cousin, Tybalt’s life. The literary device being used in this context is an oxymoron and it works well because there are contrasting words that normally wouldn’t make

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Romeo recently killed Tybalt who murdered Mercutio. Romeo has been exiled by the prince. In Act 3 scene 2, Juliet and her nurse are informed of this incident and are in Juliet’s bedroom weeping. Juliet is upset because of her cousins death and the nurse informs Juliet that “Tybalt is gone and Romeo banished”((III.ii.75). Juliet then replied with a monologue about Romeo.

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Shakespeare utilizes positively connotated diction in Romeo and Juliet to convey Romeo’s blithe tone about the possibility of seeing Juliet. Before the arrival of Balthasar, Romeo fantasizes about seeing Juliet and says, “Ah me, how sweet is love itself possessed / When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy!” The use of the phrase ‘ah me’ shows Romeo’s current feeling of joy at this moment. ‘Ah me’ in this example has a positive connotation.

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Romeo has committed an evil deed by killing Tybalt but he is also a good and beautiful person who Juliet loves. The oxymorons help the audience to understand Juliet’s confusion. The words also help create tension for the audience. Does Romeo deserve to be despised as a murderer or is he a beautiful person involved in an unfortunate incident?

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How Shakespeare presents Juliet as an emotional girl Intro: One way Shakespeare presents Juliet as a female with strong emotions is by using Oxymorons. This idea shows that she has strong conflicting emotions since she is constantly doubting herself. An example of this is when she said: “Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical.” Here you can see that she uses the words “beautiful” and “tyrant” to refer to Romeo, which are both contradicting themselves; she does this again using the words fiend angelical. This shows that she is confused on how to feel about Romeo since he has just killed her cousin.

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In the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to indirectly characterize the main characters of the play. By doing this, Shakespeare adds depth to his characters as well as foreshadow the tragic events at the conclusion of the play. Shakespeare adds complexity to his characters when he uses juxtaposition to indirectly characterize Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Laurence. Through terms of contrast, Shakespeare adds complexity to Romeo showing how his romanticness hides his destructive actions. After Juliet was informed about the death of Tybalt, she describes Romeo as a “beautiful tyrant”( 3.2.75).

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Everyone says things they don’t mean because of their anger at the moment. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, we learn the story of two lovers who fall for each other fast and later take their lives. This tragedy teaches us how acting rashly can result in terrible consequences. Examples that Shakespeare used in this story consists of the death of Mercutio and the marriage of Romeo and Juliet.

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257 Words | 2 Pages

“...Oh brawling Love, oh loving hate...”, an interesting quote because of it’s contradiction. The oxymoron comes from a monologue said by Romeo in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. His monologue about his feelings after he finds out the girl he loves has sworn to chastity and then of seeing blood on the ground from yet another fight between the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo starts by explaining that even though love may be blind it can make you do whatever it wants and then upon seeing the evidence of a skirmish he talks about how this war between the families is about love as well, love and hate. He goes on about how the war is about everything but what it is.

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970 Words | 4 Pages

Each oxymoron explains a good terrible thing, beauty, doves, but tyrants and fiends. It shows her realization that Romeo is not in fact perfect. It also shows her difficulty to believe that the wholesome, perfect, loving, endearing man she fell in love with and married could be so evil as to kill her cousin. This echoes when Friar Lawrence is in his garden saying, “In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; and where the worser is predominant, full soon the canker death eats up the plant.” (114).

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837 Words | 4 Pages

When the nurse tells Juliet that Tybalt is dead and Romeo is going to be banished, Juliet tries to show loving affection to Romeo by putting wonderful and awful words together: “beautiful tyrant,” “damned saint,” “honorable villain,” “fiend angelical” (3.2.75-79). Shakespeare uses many oxymorons to show that Juliet is in a tragic state where she does not want to pick any sides. Because Juliet can not and has not told her parents about the marriage between Romeo and Juliet, she is careful with what words she says to her family. When her mom, Lady Capulet, talks about sending poison to Romeo to kill him, Juliet suggests to “find out but a man to bear a poison, I would temper it” (3.5.96-97). Juliet takes a massive risk and declares she will make the poison herself for Romeo because she is so desperate to rescue him.

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The use of oxymorons in Act I scene I of Romeo and Juliet are used to expand Romeo’s characterization by highlighting his impassioned awareness and sometimes histrionic tendencies. When Romeo is expressing his ambivalent emotions regarding his unrequited love of Rosaline and the previous brawl between the families to Benvolio, he says “O Brawling love, O Loving hate, O anything of nothing first create” (I.i.181-182). Through these quotes, Romeo expresses his awareness regarding the senseless feud between the families and recognizes that there is no reason to it; they fight for fighting sake. Or perhaps, they fight for love, the love they feel on behalf of their respective families. In the same monologue, he later states, “This love feels

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319 Words | 2 Pages

In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare articulates the typical human behaviour of the conflict between love and hate. Shakespeare represents this with the continuous hatred in the family’s feuding that results in the death of people they love, their children Romeo and Juliet, which causes an ending to the love between the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. In the Prologue it states “Two households, both alike in dignity, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny” this reveals the family’s primordial feuds which are provoked by a strong hatred. When Tybalt is feuding in a brawl with Benvolio “What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.”

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1066 Words | 5 Pages

This literary device

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In this passage, Shakespeare utilizes metaphor and negative diction to characterize Romeo as a person who is conflicted and frustrated by love, which ultimately reveals the theme that love is uncontrollable, conflicting, and short-lived. Towards the end of act 1 scene 1, Romeo still has a big crush on Rosaline, but Rosaline has no feelings for him. Hence, Romeo experienced a sense of depression and is conflicted by love. In this passage, Shakespeare uses numerous metaphors. “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.”

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In ACT 3, scene 2, line 000, Juliet uses oxymoron to express her distress upon learning of Romeo killing Tybalt, “Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical.” This statement uses two conflicting terms together. Oxymoron is used to express Juliet’s internal conflict on Romeo being her husband but him also having killed her cousin

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