Verbal Irony In Romeo And Juliet Analysis

In William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters are people from enemy families, who fall deeply in love. Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. Shakespeare uses many stylistic devices to create this tragedy but most importantly he uses irony to develop this tragedy. Verbal irony is used to create humor and relief the audience, while dramatic and situational irony are used for tragic effects.

Firstly, Shakespeare uses verbal irony to add humor to the story. For instance, Juliet was already married to Romeo, and her father fixed her marriage with County Paris. She met Paris in Friar Lawrence's cell, and she can't tell him that she is already married. She instead has to hide that fact,

Lord Capulet arranges Juliet’s wedding with county Paris, but Juliet just got married with Romeo couple of days ago. He doesn’t know that and excitedly arranges their wedding “Monday! Ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,/O' Thursday let it be: o' Thursday, tell her,/She shall be married to this noble earl.” (3.4.20-22). In this scene, Lord Capulet arranges Juliet's wedding with county Paris on Thursday. The Capulets are unaware of the fact that Juliet is married to Romeo. This is dramatic irony, because the audience knows Romeo and Juliet are married, but the Capulets are completely unaware of this fact. However, the audience knows that Juliet only took a sleeping potion, but Romeo thinks she is dead and he creates a plan to kill himself. “Let me have/A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear/ As will disperse itself through all the veins/That the life-weary taker may fall dead,/And that the trunk may be discharged of breath/As violently as hasty powder fired/Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb” (5.1.63-68). Essentially, this is after Romeo hears Juliet is dead and creates a plan to kill himself. In this scene, he is buying a drug from the apothecary that would instantly kill him. Shakespeare personifies the potion to show its power and show the way Romeo is feeling about Juliet's death. The audience knows that Juliet is still alive, but Romeo doesn't know the death is a part of the plan

Tybalt's challenges but Romeo rejects the challenge, saying, “I do protest I never injured thee,”(3.1.64).Essentially in this scene, Tybalt challenges Romeo, but he rejects the challenge. This causes Mercutio to step up and fight Tybalt. Mercutio gets killed, and Romeo avenges him by killing Tybalt. This is situational irony because Romeo didn’t want to fight, and was calm during the whole situation. This is ironic because by doing this Tybalt ends up killing Mercutio. He takes revenge for Mercutio, and kills Tybalt. This causes Romeo to get banished out of Verona, where he can't be together with Juliet . Later in the play, Juliet wakes up and finds out from Friar Lawrence that Romeo is dead. She decides to kill herself instead of running away. “Yea noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath. They're rust and let me die”(5. 3. 169-171). This scene occurs after Romeo drinks poison and kills himself. When Juliet wakes up and sees this, she decides to kill herself. In the Elizabethan times, women were considered the weaker gender. When Juliet stabs herself with Romeo knife she created situational irony, as stabbing yourself with a dagger is considered a very painful death. While taking poison, which is what Romeo did, is less painful than stabbing yourself. This is situational irony because the reader expected Romeo to die a more painful death but the gender roles were