Romeo And Juliet Language Analysis

Romeo and Juliet is a play about two young lovers, whose love was destined for destruction from the beginning because of the hatred between the two families, Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare juxtaposes the themes of love and hatred. He continuously puts them side by side, and even though they are opposites, when seen together you realise that they are driven from the same thing; passion. Shakespeare uses many different language and dramatic techniques to convey this idea.

Shakespeare starts the play off with the prologue, a fourteen-line sonnet spoken by the Chorus. The prologue is an introduction to the play, and it describes “two households …in fair Verona”. The houses hold an “ancient grudge” against each other that remains a source

Shakespeare sets the fight on a very hot day. This gives us passion and tiredness. Benvolio says that he and Mercutio should “retire” because “the Capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not ‘scape a brawl” because “these hot days is the mad blood stirring”. The technique used here is dramatic irony, as the audience know that there will be a fight. There are more examples of dramatic irony in this scene. Mercutio says “we should have none shortly or one would kill the other”. The audience know that this is actually the case, that death will soon happen in the play. We also know that Romeo is now married to Juliet, and that is why he is not returning Tybalt’s banter. Romeo says “I do protest I never injured thee, but love thee better than thou canst devise till thou shalt know the reason of my love”, telling Tybalt that he loves him, but that all will become clear later. Unfortunately, there is no later for

Montague accepts Capulet’s offer of peace, and says he will build a statue of Juliet from “pure gold”. This is a warning so that people will never act like this again, the statue will be a constant reminder of what hatred can cause. The two men are thinking the same thing at this point, and Capulet voices these thoughts by stating “as rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie, poor sacrifices of our enmity”, meaning that Romeo and Juliet were both sacrifices of this timeless grudge. The play ends with Prince Escales saying “for never was a story of more woe, than that of Juliet and her Romeo”, showing that their true love was the cause of so much pain.

The play veers between love and hatred. The acts get more and more powerful until the death of the two protagonists. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are redemptive. Shakespeare is very good at using different techniques to tell their story, all while centring the theme around love and