Use Of Irony In Romeo And Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses irony often in his writing. When he uses irony in his writing he is leaving clues and is foreshadowing events that will happen later in the book. Some irony is not so much in the lines that are said but just in the events that take place. Many lines are said only by Romeo and Juliet because they are the main characters in the book. This is also because they are the ones keeping secrets about their love so they use irony to subtly leave hints about the love they have for one another. Sometimes the irony is so keenly used the readers won't pick up on the hints to the events that will later happen in the story.
In act one scene five Juliet finds out Romeo is a Montague she says “My only love sprung from my only hate…” When Romeo finds out she is a Capulet he says “Oh dear account! My life in foe's debt.” Romeo and Juliet are in love and their families are enemies. This is irony because what are the chances that their love is brought out by hate. The foreshadowing in these lines is that their love will have to be a secret because of the feud between their families. Shakespeare put this in the text because it shows the beginning of all the problems that will unravel because of Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other.

That is showing how he is obviously over playing his emotions. It also shows that Romeo might not fully understand the meaning of love. This is an example of irony because he is moving from one girl to the next in a matter of a day. This shows foreshadowing in the text because it is one of the many examples when Romeo is overreacting. Shakespeare wrote this because it is giving hint that Romeo is destine to over exaggerate his feelings to the point where he looks insane so we would later expect him to do something drastic like he has