Romeo And Juliet Hidden Meanings Essay

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Hidden Meanings In Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, there are multiple hidden meanings within the text created from imagery. There are three main images that form subtextual interpretations; stars, light and dark; and the association of sleep and dreams. With these images the play is given depth and significance. Dreams and sleep are an important factor to consider in Romeo and Juliet’s “relationship.” Since they are enemies, and their entire love affair is behind their parents backs, they often see each other in secret. With the secrecy for their love, they are generally together when they are asleep, “Oh blessed night! I am afeard / Being in night, all this is but a dream / Too flattering-sweet to be …show more content…

The term star-crossed means two people who fall in love, but their love ends with a tragedy. For Romeo and Juliet the tragedy they go through is the inevitable death they both suffer. Stars are also used to foreshadow. Juliet makes two comments about death concerning her future with or without Romeo,” If he be marrièd, / My grave is like to be my wedding bed” (I, v, 134-135). She says this not knowing that it will soon be literal. When Romeo finds out that Juliet is “dead” he yells out, “I defy you stars!” (v, iii, 25). At this point, Romeo denies fate. He is detaching himself from the destiny the stars are giving him and going along his own path. He makes another reference to fate is when he kills Tybalt. “O, I am fortunes fool” he cries out (III, i, 56). He describes himself as fortunes fool because from this point forward, his fate was going downhill. A reoccurring image in the play is light and dark. The light and dark portrayed in the play is also displayed as friend and foe, love and desire, and life and death. Traditionally, light is given a positive connotation, and dark is given a negative connotation. But in Romeo and

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