Light And Dark Imagery In Romeo And Juliet Analysis

Light and dark imagery is often used in writing to portray the foiling of two characters, usually good versus evil. However, William Shakespeare demonstrated the love between Romeo and Juliet as well as the importance of the setting of night using light and dark imagery. This became an important part in displaying the development of the play, Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare, author of Romeo and Juliet, effectively demonstrates the literary device of light and dark imagery, which is indicated as a result of the use of language and setting throughout the play.

Light and dark imagery can be identified through the use of the language spoken between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet. In act two scene two, popularly known as “the balcony scene”, Romeo arrives under Juliet’s balcony to profess his love to her. He finds her speaking to herself about him, which results in him silently listening to her thoughts and feelings towards him. He then reveals himself and confesses his love for Juliet and they arrange to be married. During Romeo’s monologue, he uses a metaphor to compliment Juliet on her beauty as well as acknowledge his love for her by saying she brightens his world much like a sun does when he states “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun” (2. 2 . 3). Throughout his monologue, Romeo makes an effort to stress to Juliet that she is immensely important to him as well as advising her that he will do anything she most desperately desires. Similarly to line three, Romeo is taken by Juliet’s beauty and compares her eyes to stars by stating, “Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,/ Having some business, do entreat her eyes/ To twinkle in their spheres till they return” (2 . 2 . 15 – 17). Shakespeare specifically uses these ...

... middle of paper ...

...icial according to the Elizabethan traditions. Once more, the night becomes a place to continue with their relationship timeline. Nighttime plays an important role throughout Romeo and Juliet for reason that the night is the place where all major events occurred for Romeo and Juliet; where they met, where they admit their love, where they wed and where they eventually die.

To conclude, with Shakespeare’s use of light and dark imagery, the reader is able to better understand the abundant love between Romeo and Juliet as well as being able to identify the importance of the nighttime. Through using this type of imagery, Romeo was able to express his love for Juliet’s beauty as well as his affection towards her by comparing her to the sun; she is his light in the darkness. Ironically, the light that brightens the world, the sun, is symbolic for their tragic ending.