In Act 2, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare utilizes personification, juxtaposition, and metaphors during Friar Lawrence's soliloquy in order to emphasize the contrast between life and death, good and bad. He proclaims that all things have the potential to be used for good or evil because nothing is so completely good or bad it has no possibility of being anything else.
Early in Friar Lawrence’s soliloquy, Shakespeare uses metaphors to highlight the comparison between life and death. He states, “The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb. What is her burying, grave that is her womb.” He stresses how Earth gave nature itself both life for it to grow, but also death and a final resting place for when it inevitably meets its end and decomposes back into the earth to repeat the cycle of destroying life to later create it again. Shakespeare uses a metaphor again to express the contrast between poison and medicine and how they can either heal or hurt. He writes, “Within the infant rind of this
…show more content…
He says, “The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.” This is our first time being introduced and Shakespeare uses personification to demonstrate how the sun rises to begin the day as a symbol of the first meeting and the beginning of a relationship between Friar Lawrence and the audience. Shakespeare also uses personification to portray how large amounts of anything, whether inherently good or bad, never does any good. Shakespeare explains, “ In a man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.” This emphasizes that where evil things stay, if ignored, can harm or destroy. This quote personifies death in a way that shows how it lingers and kills like a poison or a