Romeo and Juliett Essay

Both Romeo and Juliet think of each other as forms of light. After meeting Juliet Romeo waits outside her bedroom in the garden and states that, "Juliet is the sun [and he calls her to] Arise . . . and kill the envious moon." (2.2.3-4) To Juliet Romeo is a day in the midst of night just as only in the darkness is their love illuminated. However, the images of light are not the soft light of a warm afternoon. On the contrary, the picture is that of, "an almost blinding flash of light, suddenly ignited, and as suddenly quenched, which was undoubtedly the way Shakespeare saw the story, in its swift and tragic beauty." (Spurgeon 1-2) The images, like the action itself, come out at a fast and furious pace and like a streak of lightening are gone in an instant, leaving only an imprint on the brain. Friar Lawrence remarks on this in Act two scene six with, "These violent delights have violent ends/ And in their triumph die like fire and powder,/ Which as they kiss consume." (9-11) They are trying to alternately speed up, slow down, stop, and reverse time and through that fate, which is and must be impossible. The lovers also see light in an unusual way. They meet and interact in darkness and therefore darkness becomes the friend of "light." It also follows that the rising of the sun, the real sun which is harsh and unforgiving, is their enemy. As Romeo states, "More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes!" (3.5.35-36) In the light of day the families could

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